The Pennywise Urgent Response fund is supporting:

ShiftMeals
ShiftMeals, a program being conducted by Skinny Pancake, provides nourishing meals for those in need in Vermont. They serve anyone and everyone who needs a meal: laid-off restaurant workers, musicians, artists, gig workers, farmers, anyone affected by this crisis. They also share meals through food shelves and community meal sites.  

Steps to End Domestic Violence
The COVID-19 crisis and Stay Home Stay Safe orders present enormous challenges to survivors of domestic violence.  Beyond the heightened need for emotional support services, isolate-in-place safety planning and crisis intervention,  people impacted by violence and abuse are likely to experience additional stressors with lost work, closed schools and social isolation. Steps is working hard to help its service users navigate these unprecedented challenges. 

Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform
VCJR and its partners are working to improve the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) response to the current crisis and to hold DOC accountable to prisoners’ rights. Among other critical issues VCJR is demanding testing of all incarcerated people in Vermont, affordable access to video and telephone visitation and removing barriers to the release of non-violent offenders.  

SOIL
COVID-19 is devastating health systems far more prepared and resilient than those in Haiti, which are under-resourced and already overwhelmed. As the country braces for the worst of the crisis to hit, SOIL recognizes that it is more critical than ever to safeguard the provision of SOIL’s lifesaving sanitation service. To prepare they are cross-training staff, hiring additional team members and working to rapidly acquire additional Wi-Fi hot-spots, personal protective equipment, and other necessary materials to see them through this challenging time.  

Amazon Hope
Pennywise has been partnering with the William Talbott Hillman Foundation and leading Amazonian scientists to make sure that immediate needs of the Kuikuro, an indigenous community of the Upper XIngu region of  the southern Amazon are being addressed as they face the coronavirus. Efforts have included support for traveling Kuikuro returning to the village; securing supplies including food, gas, soap, and cloth for masks; and adapting village structures for quarantine. 

We couldn't do it without you. Thank you for your support!