City raised $54.4M for COVID relief
Mayor Bill de Blasio holds a media availability at City Hall on Tuesday July 14, 2020.
Michael Appleton/Mayoral Photography Offi ce
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BY ALEJANDRA
O’CONNELL-DOMENECH
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced
on Tuesday that the
Mayor’s Fund to Advance New
York City has raised $54.5 million
for the COVID-19 Emergency
Relief Fund created
to help frontline healthcare
workers and New Yorkers
hardest hit by the novel coronavirus
pandemic.
The bulk of funds were
raised through public-private
partnerships but roughly 9,500
people from across the country
have made individual donations
between $5 and $5,000
since it was fi rst launched in
early March, according to Executive
Director of the Mayor’s
Fund Toya Willaford.
“No relief effort in the history
of this administration has
ever seen this level of grassroots
support,” said Willaford
who sat six feet away from
the mayor during Tuesday’s
press conference. “We’ve come
a long way since March, but
we’ve fi nished yet.”
Funds allotted for frontline
healthcare workers go towards
a city’s initiatives like
NYC Healthcare Heroes and
Food Heros which create care
packages fi lled with household
cleaning products and personal
hygiene products for hospital
workers working back to
back shifts and meal deliveries
for EMS, morgue and sanitation
workers. Some of the
funds have also been given to
the city’s public hospital system
to purchase personal protective
equipment.
Donations to the mayor’s
fund also go towards the city’s
Restaurant Revitalization Program
which provides shortterm
payroll support for a select
100 restaurants that pledge
to pay employees $15 minimum
wage plus tips within 5
years of receiving city help.
Selected restaurants must also
commit to help provide 53,000
meals over the next 8 weeks to
New Yorkers in neighborhoods
hardest hit by the pandemic.
The Immigrant Emergency
Relief Effort, a partnership between
the mayor’s offi ce and
the Open Society Foundation,
and the Immigrant COVID-19
Burial Assistance Program
also receive fi nancial support
from the COVID-19 Relief
Fund.
To help youth and families
through the crisis, the Mayor’s
Fund has raised $6.8 million
in philanthropic support for
the Summer Youth Employment
Program which seeks to
engage 35,000 young people in
summer activities.
First Lady Chirlane Mc-
Cary, also present at the press
conference, revealed that the
city will offer micro-grants to
domestic violence survivors
to help mitigate some of the
“safety, economic and housing
challenges” exacerbated
by the coronavirus pandemic
through the COVID-19 Emergency
Relief Fund.
“If the last six months are
any indication of what’s up
ahead we know that this is not
going to be easy,” McCray told
reporters.
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