HANDY COVID 19 Response

COVID – 19 continues to impact our community and this remains to be a challenging time for everyone.

We do not know when our lives will return to normal, but HANDY remains dedicated to the at-risk youth in our care who have been removed from their homes for a variety of reasons, including domestic violence, substance or physical and/or sexual abuse, abandonment and homeless children who have been placed in foster care or relative/nonrelative care to avoid them from entering the dependency system.

Youth like James who was removed from his mother’s home after experiencing domestic abuse, neglect, and exposure to substance abuse. Youth like Ethan who was forced to leave college.  Ethan does not have a home to go to, so now he is homeless. Youth like Tracy who fought against so many challenges, worked diligently to graduate high school and climb out of generations of poverty who will now struggle to find a job.

In the last 30 days, HANDY has given emergency assistance and support to more than 25 HANDY youth and their families by providing:

• Rental assistance to 6 families
• Grocery assistance to 20 families via Instacart deliveries, frozen meals to 60 families, 50 Publix gift cards from a partnership with Goodman JFS, and with 250 meal vouchers to various restaurants 
• 300 meals from Fix Fixins for HANDY youth and their families in partnership with the Albert Wilson Foundation, and we gave fresh produce from FreshPoint South Florida who donated 600 cases of fruits and vegetables for HANDY families.
• 50  laptops for HANDY youth to make it possible for them to continue their schoolwork and GED classes, thanks to a partnership with BrandSmart.

COVID-19 has interrupted all our lives, but we still need to provide critical care assistance to the youth we serve for food assistance, emergency financial assistance, housing and case management services. Children in our community need you now more than ever. We can’t do our work without your support and we will get through this together with your help.

HANDY would like to acknowledge and thank the following organizations for their support of our COVID – 19 Sustainability Campaign: