Jewish Family Service of Utah (JFS) has supported 520 Park City families with emergency assistance after receiving a grant from Park City Community Foundation’s Community Response Fund for COVID-19.
“Sonia” is a mom of three and had been visiting Jewish Family Service to address her stress levels and recent financial challenges. She explained to bilingual counselor Roxana Cordova that her partner had been laid off from a small family-owned restaurant at the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, so their income was greatly reduced. Sonia continued to work as a housekeeper at a hotel with reduced hours. She was saddened to find out that they wouldn’t qualify for the government’s stimulus check or any government assistance due to their immigration status – even though they both file taxes and have two children who were born in the United States.
Sonia expressed feeling a sense of desperation due to the uncertainty for her family as well as other families who are undocumented or of mixed-status. Sonia felt disempowered and hopeless, “it’s like I don’t exist, just because of my immigration status.” Sonia said that although she and her partner broke a law, “it’s inhumane to forget about us and not consider our needs and how we are going to survive”.
The question of “what service should we cancel first, phone or internet?” had never been asked by Sonia until recently when she was forced to reduce costs in her household. Whether or not they could afford rent would come next.
After listening to Sonia’s concerns and addressing her level of need, JFS’ clinician recommended immediate financial assistance to help Sonia and her family stabilize and manage stress and anxiety levels. The Emergency Assistance Program assisted Sonia and has helped many others who lost their ability to make a living because of COVID-19.
Sonia cried when she was notified that the program would be able to assist her family with a portion of the rent that month. She wanted her clinician to give a special thank you to Park City Community Foundation “for being considerate of others and providing a safety net for people to feel supported and like they matter and are a part of the Park City community.”
Thanks to 500+ donors to the Community Response Fund, over $2.4 million has been raised thus far to help 28 nonprofit organizations, including Jewish Family Service. These grants provide urgent services to support mothers like Sonia and hundreds of other families in greater Park City.
Posted in: COVID-19