The Nextdoor app, which connects people with others in their neighborhoods, is full of people offering to help higher-risk individuals with whatever they need as they self isolate. Whether it's picking up food, groceries, or medicine, there's a lot of kindness to be found on the app. What Americans Are Doing Now Is Beautiful. The public’s response to the coronavirus will stand as a remarkable moment of national mobilization.
"Caremongering" in the fight to stop COVID-19
How These Disabled Activists Are Taking Matters Into Their Own (Sanitized) Hands If you’re interested in donating to a food bank, Feeding America has a national database of centers you can support, and it has established the COVID-19 Response Fund to provide additional aid to their member food banks. If you’re interested in giving money to a food pantry in your community, check out FoodPantries.org for donation and contact information.
Not only alone together, but by showing compassion we stand together
Now, more than at any time in our history, we will be judged by our capacity for compassion. When this is over, and it will eventually be over, we want to remember the many acts of kindness done by us and for us. We want to remember how we first thought of the needs of others and acted with decency. In the face of this generation-defining moment we want to stand together while heeding the social-distancing rules. This collective crisis helps us see how our fates are linked. It helps us to reconsider who we are as a community and what we value, and, in the long run, we may rediscover a better version of ourselves.
Communities of Courage - How Our Humanity is Showing
Former President Barack Obama is urging Americans to stay hopeful amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak: "While we all face a long road ahead, and must continue to do our part to flatten the curve of COVID-19 transmission, I hope this collection of stories inspires you as it did me . I am never surprised by the power of our community to come together.”
Communities of Courage
Grassroots groups are springing up where people can offer and ask for help from their neighbors. This list includes groups by state in the U.S., as well as several in Canada, Britain, and Germany. Some call it “care-mongering” and people are giving away food, offering to foster animals, and picking up medication for others. Meanwhile, in the U.K., a woman designed a postcard that you can drop off with neighbors who are self-isolating, offering your help with shopping or a friendly phone call.
The State Department of Education is reimagining the student experience during the COVIS-19 pandemic
From creating virtual student communities to leveraging text reminders and video chat, digital engagement is top of mind as educators blaze a new trail in driving student success today.
Meanwhile, the Connecticut State Department of Education is seeking a waiver from the U.S. Department of Education for the standardized testing requirements each school is required to complete annually.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted classroom learning, the agency is continuing to develop resources that best meet the needs of school districts in their efforts to support student learning while schools are closed and home schooling gets underway.
The department is also engaging providers of content to obtain materials, utilizing RESC partners as repositories for resources, exemplars, and material that will be available to all districts.
Home schooling in the time of COVID-19
The mass exodus across the country from one of our most vivid and essential gathering places has resulted in a nation of home schoolers.
Here is an effective 11-second animation video to help explain to our young people the need for social distancing and consequently school closings.
School offers stability and predictability. This crisis will shine a new light on the many roles schools and after school programs provide beyond academics.
Love and Courage in the Face of COVID-19
While we correctly seek to achieve maximum social distancing and hygiene best practices, doctors and nurses and many other frontline workers are running into the fire to help treat an outbreak of an illness that none of them have seen before. People who work in clinics, hospitals, and care facilities are the courageous heroes of this historic moment in our nation’s life, knowingly putting themselves at risk to save lives.
Carver COVID-19 Updates
The Carver Community Center is closed, and Carver’s after school programs are suspended until the school districts reopen their schools.
We are responding to the respiratory disease caused by a novel (new) coronavirus. The virus is named “SARS-CoV-2” and the disease it causes is named “coronavirus disease 2019” (“COVID-19”). WHO characterized COVID-19 as a pandemic. The United States declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency.
We believe that Carver young people and their families will meet this new challenge with strength and a new sense of purpose.
We will be posting often on the Carver blog with information that may be helpful to our community (such as this blog post that offers breaking news about government benefits, free food distribution to students and families, and free internet services), as we seek to successfully manage our lives during these trying times.
Please click here to register for one of our 2020 summer programs.
Other Carver contact information is here.
The Connecticut Government website here and the CDC’s website here are good places to see updates on the health crisis. The City of Norwalk website has additional information for the community on measures that are being taken to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Watch your email, the school district website and social media pages (Facebook and Twitter), as well as the City of Norwalk website for official local updates.
Connecticut residents can also call 2-1-1 for general inquiries about the virus.
Assistance to families during this new reality
Today begins a new reality for our Carver families.
Schools are closed, as the city tries to stem the coronavirus pandemic, and distance learning begins.
Your Health & Well Being
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a relief bill late Friday night aimed at containing the widening effects of the coronavirus. It's 110 pages long, so here are the key elements that may directly affect Carver families. The bill would: Guarantee sick leave for workers and their families affected by the coronavirus; Bolster food aid for needy families and seniors; Inject funds into state unemployment resources; and Guarantee free testing for people suspected of being infected. The bill still needs to still pass the Senate.
Connecticut State regulators announced that utilities will not be able to shut off the water, electricity or natural gas of residential customers if they don’t pay their bills. The order followed Gov. Ned Lamont declaring a public health emergency in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Food Assistance
Beginning Monday, March 16, Norwalk Public Schools and Chartwells will provide free daily breakfast and lunch to all students age 18 and under. To help limit exposure and promote social distancing, meals will be delivered to a majority of students via school bus at bus stops. A bus driver and a food service worker will stop at each regularly scheduled bus stop to deliver meals to students. Buses will operate on a two-hour delayed schedule. Meals will be delivered directly to special education students who receive door-to-door transportation.
You can also pick up meals outside of the schools you attend. Pickup time will be anytime between 12:30pm to 1:30pm daily. There will be no food drop-off at Side By Side Charter School. Side By Side students are welcome to pick up meals at Columbus Magnet School.
Students and their families are reminded to practice social distancing as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control, standing 6-feet apart from others when possible.
Local community organizations including Open Door and Person to Person offer families in need additional support.
Free Internet Access for Our Students & Families
Comcast is offering new families 60 days of Internet service for free. Here are other offerings as well in the face of this pandemic.
Altice USA is also offering access to high-speed broadband connectivity free of charge. For households with K-12 and/or college students who do not currently have home internet access, they can can access Altice Advantage 30 Mbps broadband services free of charge for 60 days.
In addition, service providers are joining the Keep Americans Connected Pledge recently announced by Federal Communications Commission. As part of the pledge, companies are committed for the next 60 days to not terminate broadband and voice service to any residential or small business customers because of their inability to pay their bills due to the disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic; to waive any late fees that any residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstances related to the coronavirus pandemic; and to open our WiFi hotspots to any American who needs them.
Going Forward
These are all commendable first steps. We expect and will continue to report on new ways that will be created to ease the hardships many of our children and their families may be experiencing. These hardships underscore the need for us all to be mindful of the needs of the most vulnerable among us.