Why colored paper in a doorway is a key part of Maine tribes' coronavirus response

As social distancing and isolation become increasingly important in stopping the spread of the coronavirus, volunteers and neighborhood groups are helping seniors and Immunocompromised people access necessessities. In New York, volunteering to help neighbors in times of crisis is not new – many local community groups emerged after Hurricane Sandy – but recent health restrictions have created cause for new protocols such as contactless support.

A group of health professionals known as Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19, or LATIN-19, is helping to bring coronavirus-specific health care access to North Carolina's Latino community. Because the group operates across county lines, they have become well-known amongst the local communities, helping to not only provide much-needed health care services, but also increase awareness around the dangers of the virus.

The quarantines and shelter-in-place orders that many cities in the United States are enacting today to combat the coronavirus pandemic can be compared to similar tactics taken in 1918 to stop the spread of influenza pandemic. However, with modern-day technology, churches in particular are finding that they are better able to safely reach their members through the use of video conferencing rather than door-to-door visits. For a Los Angeles church, this is part of a comprehensive approach that aims to abide by social distancing requirements while still helping those in need.

Indigenous people across the United States—like the Oglala Sioux on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation—are relying on survival tactics that their ancestors used to get through the COVID-19 pandemic, like seed saving, canning, and dehydrating food. Social distancing isn't as much of an issue as food shortages are in reservations. To pitch in individuals are doing things to help others, like growing crops, preparing seedlings of different crops for people to plant in their yards or donating from their own food reserves to others who might need it. This article highlights responses in reservations across the US.

Many people are motivated to help out during the pandemic, but without proper hygiene tactics, helping could just be harmful. A group started by medical students in the Netherlands called StudentsAgainstCorona rallies volunteers to contribute in a way that focuses on hygienic above all else. Different "hubs" of the organization have popped up all over the world, and the ratio of volunteers to those requesting help is about 10:1. Students are performing duties like picking up groceries or delivering medicine, and all of them practice strict hygiene rules to prevent the spread.

The Loon Lake Food Bank & Resource Center is a rural food bank that has pivoted its model in response to the novel coronavirus. They are now operating a drive-through system that gives away hundreds of boxes of free food to those who need it, and they also get supplies through a “food recovery” system with local grocery stores. The operation is continuing to expand but still desperately needs more volunteers.

Foster families in Oregon are facing unique challenges during the stay at home order of COVID-19, so a new program called My Neighbor aims to alleviate some of their burdens by utilizing their local networks. The Department of Human Services partnered with nonprofit Every Child to create a program that connects Oregonians willing to help out in any way they can to foster families who are looking for support for things like getting groceries or cleaning supplies. They have already received requests from 260 families and foster children and filled 189 of them.

Because they have the appropriate ingredients and facilities, Deep Ellum Distillery is making hand santizer and offering it for free to anyone who needs it. They are also endorsing people to order food to-go in order to support other local restaurants during the pandemic. Distilleries across the country are doing the same thing to help out their neighbors.

Spurred by the high concentration of COVID-19 deaths in Black and Latinx neighborhoods on Chicago's South and West sides, city government teamed with multiple community groups to form a Racial Equity Rapid Response Team to distribute protective gear, food, financial aid, and other help in the hard-hit neighborhoods. The help included more than 1 million masks, 6,000 boxes of food, 250,000 information flyers, laptops and free internet access, and $380,000 to help pay rent and utilities. The deaths and desperate need for help stem directly from decades of racial disparities in food and health care access.

Ignoring the pleas of victim-aid groups and the examples set by other countries, the British government and courts failed to protect domestic violence victims during the pandemic. Italy, Spain, Germany, and New Zealand provided for emergency shelter for victims trapped at home with their abusers or made other preparations a formal part of their lockdown plans. But in England, where at least 26 deaths and multiple cases of abuse are blamed on the government’s failures, shelters overflowed and orders of protection went unenforced because of a lack of funding and effective planning.