While we can all write about how we are bored at home at how much we miss our friends, I have been finding that I am desperate to try and help others during this time. I know how we are feeling is important, and how all of you being bored, tired, or however your feeling is so important to Covid TV, but we felt like we can use this platform to make even more of a difference.
We have received so many blog posts, and we have loved all of them. So of course, continue to submit those, and let us all know how you have been dealing with quarantine. But if you are feeling like you want to make a bigger impact on communities during this time, Covid TV has just the right thing! Introducing Covid TV's four Community Projects: Make-A-Mask, Food for All, Support the Unemployed, and Speak Up. Each of these work to help other communities who have been directly impacted by the Coronavirus on a more extreme level.
In Make-A-Mask, you and a team of your peers/friends/family etc. would work together to sew masks for medical and essential workers. We would provide instructions for how to make these masks, and you would partner with a local hospital or organization to donate these masks to.
The second project, Food for All, helps raise money for kids who are not getting meals because schools have been shut down. Since so many families get their meals through schools, the citywide closing of schools has made it extremely hard for less fortunate families to get access to food. You would start a fundraiser and reach out to peers, friends, family etc. to try and raise money to support a local organization that is helping kids get access to food. One example of an organization you can donate the proceeds to is Food for All, but you can find your own local organization to donate to!
The third project you can become an ambassador for is similar to Food for All. It is called Support the Unemployed, and it raises money to support people who have been fired because of this pandemic. The money you raise can again go to a local organization, or one that we are recommending for ambassadors is the Chicago Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund.
The final project is called Speak Up, which is where you and a team of people write letters to state legislators asking for emergency changes to be made to address the Coronavirus outbreak. You can ask for bills to be passed to support communities during this time, or even go away from the Coronavirus and write about other important issues, like the environment.
If you are interested in running one of these projects, then you can become an ambassador for a project at your school! Your role as an ambassador would be to head one of these projects for your school. You would reach out to people you know and ask them to either help you sew masks, write letters to legislators, or donate to your fundraiser. You could set your own goals and work on your own time, so you would have a lot of freedom with these projects. As an ambassador, we would put you on the website (covid-tv.com), and would ask for progress updates every few weeks so we know how much you have done with the projects!
If you want to make a more direct impact on communities during this time, become an ambassador for one of Covid TV's Community Projects! These all work to help vulnerable families at this time. As much as we may be hurting, it is also important to consider others and how we can help them get through this pandemic.
You can learn more about these four projects on our Community Projects page, and apply to become an ambassador there too!
Lauren :)