Collage of grantees carrying out essential services during the pandemic

February 2021 COVID-19 Response Grants

In partnership with our generous donors and supporters, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona is pleased to announce that an additional $45,000 was granted to four organizations in February from our COVID-19 Community Response Fund.

These funds will be used to provide essential services such as providing low-income families with at-home learning spaces, meals for seniors in Santa Cruz County, resources and support for people facing eviction, and health care to underserved communities.

COVID-19 Community Support Fund Grant Recipients:

Grantee Highlights:

The Santa Cruz Council on Aging serves meals to seniors in need throughout the county, and COVID-19 has taken a toll on operations. Instead of seniors coming to SCCA for lunch, the focus is now on providing these meals safely to those in need. Marco Lozoya, Senior Center Manger, shared, “We find a lot of people are in need of these meals during the pandemic.”

Lozoya also shared a quote from on of SCCA’s clients, Janice Ann Newel, who stated, “These meals are really helping out people during hard times in our community. Many people depend on them, so we believe the senior center in Nogales is doing a great job for helping so many people like myself.”

Spaces to Learn provides low-income families with the materials needed to create a learning space at home.

Jessica Dennes, Spaces to Learn Project Founder, shared, “As COVID-19 caused students to switch to remote learning, the need for dedicated learning spaces at home became more urgent and visible – especially for low-income families.”

Suzanne Pfister, President and CEO of Vitalyst Health Foundation, a funder of AZEvictionHelp.org, shared, “The Community Foundation for Southern Arizona contributed to the statewide Rental Assistance Collaborative. This collaborative has 16 funders throughout the state that are working to help provide a single portal for rental assistance services – AzEvictionHelp.org. The Foundation’s contribution will help with digital advertising to rent burdened families in Southern Arizona. We are deeply appreciative of this grant and it will be very helpful to thousands of renters.”

The mission of the UA Mobile Health Program is to empower underserved communities by developing sustainable systems that increase access to health promotion, disease prevention and health care services.