Are going live? Okay, Good afternoon everyone. This is State Representative Adam Hadley from House District 59, welcome to another one of our tele-town halls today we are joined by Jessica Ralf, who is the CEO of United Way Suncoast. it's another great Organization. It's a non-governmental Organization. That's helping people who always help people, but especially during this time with with the pandemic and and the quarantine and locked down last week we talk. About unemployment insurance with an employment lawyer, so this is a different topic with a non governmental Organization. So first off welcome Jessica Thank you I just wanna give us a quick run down in the 40000 foot level. What United Way is and what they do and you can you talk a little bit about the resources of the United Way's offers and in general and the ones that you have you've ramped up in response to the code of 19 pandemic. Sure thank you for having. It's great to see you I thank you for your support. always and you're tremendous partner with us. so thank you for that. also just United Way Suncoast that we we cover five counties here in West Central Florida and we really do focus on supporting our communities in three important ways. one is with financial stability. two is early literacy and early learning and third is use success and so a lot of our partnerships and programs are focused in those areas and supporting individuals and families throughout the region of course. When this crisis hit us you know this year we quickly you know quickly add on to that place to respond to that so that we could be here for our community and so we launched our Coven 19 Response and relief fund in the Middle of March and we also stood up our community resource page our Corona virus assistant page so that we can comply put all of the access to resources on that on that page of our website, we keep that updated daily we. in the last eight weeks of one point, Five million dollars 100 percent of the donations to that fund are being almost as immediately as we possibly can distribute it back out to the community to support and. Here at one point. 33000 fans. Across the area and you know giving them. In stability and support, mental health issues and support essential essential worker childcare so a lot of things that we're doing to really support our community through this time right can you talk quickly about the 21 crisis line that you United Way runs? Yes, So we have some great community partnerships. we because we cover five counties have partners with three to one on the phone number is the same but three different entities and so anyone in our communities who. Supports for anything can call 21 to get access to you know some incredible staff trained and acting a trained experts who can help you navigate the support and services that you might need during this time. So you know any anything from you know you need you know assistance and paying for rent or your mortgage to you know financial assistance to you know help with you know anything that that you might be facing medically that you need some support and resources on. Health supports and services you know a whole, you know wide range of things just call you one. They're there to support you and help you you know, especially in times of need like this, okay great. now we know that the United Way offers a lot of resources to help people apply for benefits and file their taxes. Complete Fafsa, You know, etcetera etcetera how you can continue to help people with these types of services still practicing social distance. Absolutely so. Another thing that we quickly addressed to is is you know in this in this time of social distance and protecting our health? How do we continue to provide services to those who need it and so really looking at how we can do things online to support our families and individuals. So thankfully, you know the tax deadline was pushed back to July fifteenth, so that gives us more time to support families through our our volunteer income Tax assistance program, but we did convert a lot of that support. Be online so that way if people call in or if they ask questions through the email, we had a whole system for being able to address those very quickly so we still supported a lot of individuals during this time virtually and we also use this time to train even more volunteers to help us with this. so when we do get back to as we're starting to see, we're gonna emerging from this and being able to still abide by social distance and recommendations but supporting perhaps our families. That we have even more volunteers to help us do so right now changing gears just a little bit as a legislator, one of the most important documents that we receive every year is the Alice Report. Yes. can you talk about what the Al's report is and how that community is being particularly affected by the Panam. Sure. thank you so our Alice report was released last Monday or the week last week and it is you know it was it was so the most important thing about. O reported an acronym that stands for asset limited income constrained employed so these are working families working individuals who don't make enough money and their jobs to to afford a bare essentials household budget and what is included in those very essential costs are housing food transportation health care and a basic smartphone, a child care and a basic smart. Plan so truly the minimum things that we would need to to be able to to live our lives and what the study showed, and this is data from 2018. I'm gonna I want to put a pin in X- one circle back to that. so cuz this date is really comprehensive. It takes us some time to to be able to pull the research together so the data from 2018 and it showed that 46 percent of the population in the state of Florida are within the definitions of Alice or. Below the federal poverty line and if we look at the data over the last 10 years, so if you look at the data from 2008 to 2018, about 13 percent of Florida's population is below the federal poverty line our Alice population now is 30 - three percent of the state of Florida that adds up to about 46. so, but the but the so that the numbers for those below the federal poverty line have remained fairly consistent over the last 10 years, What has grown. By 66 percent in the last 10 years is our Alice families and so so covid- 19 this crisis hit when in the state of Florida when and even in our region, I think Hillsborough County's 48 percent our Alice or our families are below the federal poverty line when our families are already struggling and so these families are as you can imagine disproportionately impacted by crisis. just like this. So it's it's now the al's report cannot. More important than ever to shine a light on how many families don't have enough to make you know truly ends meet and don't and that the most important thing was they're living paycheck to paycheck and not able to save and so when emergencies like this crisis' hit they can't weather the storm and and it really sets them off course I didn't know we've also spoken with a lot of constituents or you know, sadly are unable to afford critical prescription medication right now Ways that United Way can assist them in accessing any essential prescriptions during the time of financial strength. So again, I would I would say, call our 21 partners we fund them to provide you know financial assistance for the things the most essential things that families need at this time. so again I would I would say, please call 21 so that you can get the support that you need cuz that is absolutely it's critically important and when you know when we're facing a crisis like this, you know some of these things that we we. Should be able to afford the cans we we we're there to help you to help families during that time, shifting gears a little bit again our office here in District 50 - nine. We've spoken to literally hundreds of constituents who have applied for unemployment benefits in March, and it's still not received a dime of those benefits. What what resources might the United Way have for people in this situation that are really desperate for money just to get by right now so I don't need to go back to this again, but truly 21, if they call 21, we provide that financial assistance so that families and individuals who need that assistance during this time can easily get it through those but just by calling that number and and speaking to their representatives to help them get the supports that they need. I have you seen an uptick in those requests in the past eight weeks. Yes. yes. yes. for sure, I mean that's you know that's here in our region and this in this County as well as across the entire nation, a significant increase and you know. In fact, if you look at the 211 calls, there's the more there's more calls for the financial implications of this crisis and there are for you know concerned about you know covid-, 19 and of itself so it's really you know the the overall impacts that this crisis is having for so many losing their jobs. we're not being able to work and and and that financial impact that's where the biggest increase is coming for 11 and helping families and individuals providing you know providing them with support just out of curiosity. Do you expect that to continue as the as the State opens up more and people get back to work or or do you see that ratio of calls changing here in the next couple of months, you know, I think that's you know and and there has been you know some increases to and you know and other services you know, especially around mental health. so I think that this is not gonna be a flip of this. so this is going to be yes, we're opening back up and yes, some people are some people are getting back to work but the longer term impacts of this are going to be seen for quite some time and so I do think that the the high need for assistance right now is going to continue for some months to come. I've always you know, I think we've spoken about this before I've I've always been impressed by the United Programs available for vets. what kind of services are you providing for veterans during this time? So so specifically in response to to to is again the supports through our 21 partners specifically for our veterans, is they have a peer support network so when the veteran calls in and they and they get they're actually offered if they want to speak to a veteran about what they're with their needs are and how they can be supported so that they have that level of comfort that they're speaking to somebody who truly knows where they're coming. and so there's that system that's available through all of our two ones and so it's it's really a system of care. That's helps connect them to the resources that they need. so you know with that. specifically, I think it's truly the just the ability to talk to somebody who knows you know what you need where you've been and where you're coming from and to give you the support and resources that you need and so we provide funding again to help you know our veterans especially when they're you know. You know struggling in a time of crisis. Yeah, just as a quick personal note, you know I'm a veteran, we had the opportunity to tour the Tampa Bay Crisis Center, where the it feels a lot of 211 calls with a lot of the veterans who are volunteers. I highly trained volunteers, but there's always a veteran there. if somebody calls you on one meeting needing to speak to a peer meeting to speak to a veteran yes, but just to get back to Mission United. you know, there's the the the support that we also provide is in career transition right. There's Mcgill Air Force bases is a huge. Being a presence in our in our community and helping our veterans make a successful transition into the workforce. it's something that we also provide you know a support network for and partnering with Mcgill on career fairs and things like that. so it's truly you know, constant dialogue and communication and partnership to make sure that we're supporting our veterans and you know we'd like to thank you also because you've also helped us with some of our advocacy work to for veterans and providing You know a system of care and a network for that as well as you know advocating for educational supports too. Of course, Thank you for that and okay now switching gears a little bit again. I know at the beginning you mentioned this briefly, but if you're going on a little bit more details, so we know that the United Way also does a lot of work to help with with early learning what advice and resources are available for parents who are now homeschooling their kids for the first time. so we have. Entire educational resource page on our website again that we keep updated on a regular basis. that's that includes a whole host of resources whether it be online educational tools virtual tours of really exciting things and interesting things for our children to where they can get food through our school district partners but it's a really it's another comprehensive page on our website to that all these educational tools to help parents through this time. We are also you know, similarly to how we how we adjusted our service model for our services. We're also piloting the same with our mentoring services and it's gonna be doing some virtual tutoring as well. and so and and so I think it's just really important that we continue to innovate and support and serve even in this changing environment right now so that we can we can provide resources to our families. Bye. Okay, we actually have a question in the comments from Leslie she was asking Miss Mirra speak about the good and bad sides of forbearance. Is there a best practices guide to this, especially given special special directives during the current virus's so I don't I don't specifically have guidance on that. We definitely have experts that we can connect her to cuz with our. so I you know again, I would I would call 21 so that you can get directly connected to the experts that can help with that. I just don't have that particular expertise to give her some guidance on that and I'm sorry no worries. We always wanna do you know answers as best as we can and sometimes you know, it's called Colin and speak to the right of the right resources. so again that's 211. they can help you out with with a lot of these questions what's specific resources? Do you have for seniors or for families of of seniors? so a lot of. Many of I should say many of the agencies and funds that we distributed to our covid- 19 Response Recovery Fund. We're supporting initiatives and programs for our senior population. a lot of that's really focused around making sure that they were receiving the food that they needed during this time and you know delivering that and providing to that to them in safe ways throughout our five County region so we also partner with seniors and service. Again for you know for food as well as a great and this is still you know offered and available a it's telepath program so recruiting volunteers to to call and check in on our seniors throughout our community and to be a kind and supportive voice when they might feel alone and isolated at this time, another just important. you know small thing that we can do to help others in our community. now even in in the Middle of all this hardship and uncertainty that we have right now, we actually still have people calling our office and friends asking how can how can they help what can people do to help support United Way's mission lots of things so it's all and it's all virtual so that you if you go to our website, United Way Suncoast dot Org. you'll see the first banner on there is about our Coven 19 response and Recovery fund, so if anybody would like to donate. And we still have we have I think over 30 applications left to review in over one point five million dollars in requests and we don't have that much. We don't have that many funds available left in the fund. so, of course, the need outweighs what we have to give so we're continuing to fund raise to the funds to support our community during this time but what I would also say too is are on the same page you'll find links to volunteer opportunities, so there are still tremendous ways. Safeways that individuals in our community can support one another through volunteer initiatives. There's a lot there's a lot of virtual volunteer opportunities as well as safe in person volunteer opportunities, so if somebody does wanna give back their time that can be done and all the links are there and how to sign up and get the information is is all on our website as well and then finally in kind donations there are we've been keeping a catalog of in-kind donations from our agency. And our nonprofit partners so that we can provide access to what those needs are for individuals in our community to give back to them as well. So all of those things are listed on our website for anybody who wants to give back in any way. We have another question from the comments this one. it's kinda sad. Matthew says. I have some friends who are struggling and lost their jobs. They've pets that they can no longer afford to care for he's wondering what help does the Organization what they what might they be able to do to offer Some of those folks are some of those cuts so again the 211 experts will are are able to help get the resources that those individuals might need as well as our humane societies. you know, I do know that those organizations also help individuals who might be. And to make sure that their pets also get the supports that they need. It's not just our fur babies are also important parts of our family too. so those are the two places that I would suggest that they reach out to to get the support and resources that they need for their pets during this time. Well, this is relatively short and sweet compared to like the unemployment one last week, which is a marathon, but I think that's all the questions I had was that we've had in the comments so I wanna say thank you again to miss Jessica Miro, the CEO of the United Way Suncoast. Thank you so much for joining us on the last comments you'd like to make before we sign off. No, you know the only other thing too is you know just going back to the forbearance question. you know we do have we do have great partners with Bay Area Legal Services and and so again like if you call in the 21 or any of our. Centers that supports certain communities Sulphur Springs this one but if you call us to we can definitely get you pointed in the right direction to get to the experts that can answer those questions and really tailor it to what your specific individual needs are, which I think is the most important thing. Absolutely and thank you again so much for joining us at United Way. We're doing a lot of great work helping people all over the community. so again, that number is easy to remember 21. you have any of these questions. They can do a great job at helping you out and again they're great Non-governmental Organization that's been helping not just during Cron virus, but they always have been there and they're all over the world. so thank you again. so much for joining us and check us out next week when we'll be announcing what our next Elle Town Hall will be you can always reach our office. Adam Dot Howard play at my Florida House dot Gov. Thanks again everyone and we'll talk to you next week. Thank you be well.