'Scrambling to stretch every dollar': Nonprofits seeing increased demand for services amid pandemic

Jul. 24--NEW BEDFORD -- As the coronavirus pandemic hit Greater New Bedford, leading to a dramatic rise in unemployment and items growing scarce in supermarkets, nonprofit organization PACE saw a sharp increase in demand for its food bank.

The food bank went from serving 800-1,000 households a month to almost that number of households each week.

"The food insecurity issue emerged as one of the most pressing needs immediately when the pandemic hit," said Pam Kuechler, executive director of People Acting in Community Endeavors (PACE), which caused an increase and shift in resources.

The agency responded by serving people outside in the back of its office instead of inside, adding a mobile pop-up component and assigning some staff from other programs to the food bank with appropriate safety protocols. Students from its YouthBuild program have played a big role putting together the weekly packages -- 12 of them have been hired to continue to help over the summer. The agency received COVID-19 relief funding from the SouthCoast Community Foundation to support the cost of additional food and logistics to meet the demand.

As PACE continues to provide services related to food, housing, child care and health care, to those in need, it is playing a game of "wait and see" regarding government funding, particularly from the state. "We're primarily funded through a variety of state and federal programming," Kuechler said. The agency more recently announced that its Head Start program received $232,005 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Nonprofits, which typically work with lean budgets, are in an even more precarious financial position, sparking innovation, creativity and collaboration. While their operations may have turned largely remote, work still continued behind the scenes to ensure the community's needs were met, whether it was related to food, children and mental health or arts and culture.

Local foundations have seen it first hand. "I'm seeing a lot of resiliency on the part of the grantees during this time," said Denise Porché, executive director of the Island Foundation in Marion. Grantees have been able to pivot and create new ways of doing business, she said. Many organizations have had to layoff employees, but as they secured government funding, she suspects most will be able to return, she said.

Mental health and the potential for burnout have been a cause of concern.

The Island Foundation reached out to grantees early on to ask how they were doing and how the foundation could help and continued to provide weekly guidance, gave money to local pooled funds, made sure that vulnerable populations and organizations led by people of color were supported, and paid for a provider to work with nonprofit leaders and staff on their mental health and well-being.

Porché pointed to NorthStar Learning Centers' response to the pandemic as an impressive one, adding "they were still doing the work despite the pandemic and maintaining those important provider-family relationships."

At NorthStar Learning Centers, which sees itself as the community it serves, the majority of staff members are people of color and have been deeply and disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the death of George Floyd and other Black Americans.

The organization was intentional about the kinds of support and care it provided to staff members who lost loved ones due to COVID-19. Zoë Hansen-DiBello, director of innovation, said it was about figuring out how to check in and support each other and allow space for people to let out their emotions and cope with layers of pain and trauma.

"As a human being, it hurt my soul," Executive Director Maria Rosario, who is a woman of color, said about Floyd's death and it caused her to wonder how her staff felt and check in with them.

"Watching a man squeeze the life out of another human being that happened to be, yet again another Black man was... detrimental on many levels," Rosario said.

NorthStar has experienced an increase in demand for its mental health services. The center's mental health clinic has seen an almost 20% increase for new referrals and has increased services for over 50% of its caseload, according to a statement from Jimmy Owens, director of clinical services. Mental health clinicians have provided services during non-traditional hours, such as early mornings, nights and weekends, and in non-traditional ways such as an outdoor physical distance session, to accommodate families' increased and complex needs.

NorthStar Learning Centers reopened July 1 and is working with the challenge of continuing to offer quality early childhood education and care under new restrictions without losing what it means to be a child and be able to play. Teachers have worked really hard to create activities and spaces that acknowledge and respect social distancing, but don't restrict kids from being able to build with each other, Rosario said. Following guidelines, the program has half of its enrollment but still requires the same amount of staff, she said.

To prepare for reopening and to help families, NorthStar delivered care packages including art supplies, therapeutic items, learning materials, and literature on COVID-19 and how to explain it to someone as young as 3, 4 and 5 years old. It's not just about telling children that they're not able to share toys or other items that they're used to sharing, but explaining why that is, Rosario said.

"There's a lot of education that happened before they actually started," Rosario said. In addition to Zoom and phone calls, when staff dropped off care packages, they communicated face to face with families from a distance which served as a way to connect and see kids. Hansen-DiBello said teachers have reported that kids have adapted well to washing their hands and wearing masks, but the long term impact this will have on kids is unknown.

The SouthCoast Community Foundation started a weekly Friday morning virtual coffee hour where between 50 and 80 nonprofit leaders join for "peer learning," said foundation president John Vasconcellos.

"We have such rich talent amongst our own nonprofit leadership," Vasconcellos said, so rather than inviting speakers from outside of the community, local nonprofit heads lead conversation on a variety of topics and share their challenges and how they deliver on their mission in innovative ways.

Part of that conversation has included the role of foundations and nonprofits in combating institutionalized racism, Vasconcellos said. The SouthCoast Community Foundation believes a lot of its work is informed by a desire for increased equity and inclusion, but "We can do a better job of how we talk about that," such as being overt in its strategic plan about its work to counteract systemic racism, he said.

There's a pressing "need to talk about it more overtly so it is always front and center," Vasconcellos said.

The foundation has allocated more than $2.68 million over the past three months through its SouthCoast Emergency Response Fund. The foundation has been working in partnership with the Massachusetts COVID-19 Relief Fund, which focuses support on frontline workers and vulnerable populations.

Beyond basic needs, Vasconcellos pointed to the importance of arts and culture, especially during such an uncertain time. "Art is what is going to help us to get through this and art is also what is going to allow us to make sense of this," he said. He sees Amanda McMullen, president and chief executive officer of the Whaling Museum, as leading the charge on behalf of arts and culture organizations.

Despite a $1.2 million loss during the shutdown, making cuts and still trying to close a gap of $650,000, the Whaling Museum planned to open to the public July 23 without its regular admission price. The museum is inviting visitors to pay what they can to enjoy its galleries, although it is unclear how long it can maintain that model.

As it has struggled financially, so too have many families that walk through the museum's doors. "We wanted to remove that barrier, but that does put more pressure on our fundraising," said McMullen.

"Nonprofits live and die on fundraising and...your ticket prices, membership and support from the community," McMullen said, to make every month and year balance.

"We are absolutely scrambling to stretch every dollar as far as it can possibly go," McMullen said.

Nonprofits are used to operating "with really lean budgets" but this situation has "just been more extreme," she said. The museum cut $726,000 out of its annual operating budget while keeping its staff intact, with help from the federal payroll protection program.

While the museum was closed, its new "Museum from Home" web page received the second highest number of visitors, or over 6,000 unique visitors from all over the world, McMullen said. The most visited page is research of yankee whaling, she said.

"Our social media growth has been meteoric, really," McMullen said.

In its other programs, PACE also had to make adjustments. When Head Start had to close, staff kept in touch with children and families to provide food and educational supplies; the fuel assistance program extended its deadline by over a month; the health access program continues to have open enrollment through the end of July to ensure people have health insurance; and the housing services unit ramped up to address a pending eviction moratorium set to be lifted in August.

Kuechler said it's remarkable how a lot of local nonprofits have come together during this time to talk about what the community needs are and try to solve problems.

"It's been a remarkable coming together," Kuechler said. "That's really important because that's really what gets things done."

Follow Aimee Chiavaroli on Twitter @AimeeC_SCT

___

(c)2020 The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass.

Visit The Standard-Times, New Bedford, Mass. at www.southcoasttoday.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.