ASU/Luce COVID-19 Rapid Relief

About

Read more about the project via ASU News:

"ASU center aids vulnerable populations affected by pandemic"

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"Rapid relief grants aid Arizona's vulnerable populations"

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Learn more about those most impacted via A Journal of a Plague Year:

Browse the full Southwest Stories archive to read how communities are responding to the pandemic

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Providing relief to vulnerable communities in Arizona.

Arizona has been one of the epicenters of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As the number of infections and the number of deaths go up and down, marginalized populations remain disproportionately impacted by this public health crisis and are in need of urgent relief.

Addressing this need, the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict has partnered with the the Henry Luce Foundation to advance the ASU/Luce COVID-19 Rapid Relief project, providing over $100,000 in COVID-19 relief to Arizona’s vulnerable populations. Under the direction of John Carlson and Tracy Fessenden, the project is awarding grants to nonprofit organizations that provide direct COVID-19 relief to vulnerable individuals, families, and communities in Arizona.

Grant funding is designed to complement and expand the capacity of regional nonprofit organizations that are focused on providing direct support to marginalized communities, including:

  • Native American communities
  • Migrant, DACA-, mixed-status families
  • Refugees and asylum-seekers
  • Immigrant communities

The project also chronicles “Southwest Stories” to raise public awareness about the challenges faced by marginalized groups and the relief organizations that serve them. These stories will report on the impact the pandemic has had on Native Americans, migrants, agricultural workers, and others whose stories aren’t often told in the press.

The project is a partnership with the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications and A Journal of the Plague Year (hosted by the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies) to help tell and archive these stories. Through these partnerships, the project will also employ students who have lost jobs and internships and journalists who have lost employment due to the pandemic.

>> Learn more about the organizations and their projects

People

Project Team:

Project Staff:

Organization & Projects

Organizations & projects:

By working through a network of organizations embedded within their communities, the ASU/Luce COVID-19 Rapid Relief fund provides support to help meet the basic needs of individuals and families affected by the pandemic, including assistance with rent, utilities, food, PPE, hygiene, baby formula, diapers, technology access, and refrigeration equipment. Organizations were selected through a competitive application process and have established track records of ensuring that help goes towards those how need it. Learn more below.

Southwest Stories

The Southwest Stories initiative

The Southwest Stories initiative:

  • is a partnership between the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and The Journal of the Plague Year (hosted by the School of Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies)
  • employs students and journalists who lost their employment due to the pandemic in documenting and preserving stories about life under the pandemic for vulnerable individuals and communities who have, in many ways, been most impacted by the virus

Read their articles below, and visit The Journal of the Plague Year to learn more about—and perhaps contribute your story—to this online archive about what how people around the U.S. and the world are experiencing life under the pandemic.

Browse full southwest stories archive

Native American communities:

Migrants and I.C.E. detainees

Incarcerated persons

Agricultural workers