In late February of 2020, many Bronxites, along with The Bronx Community Foundation came together to discuss the potential impact of COVID-19 on The Bronx and how it could be devastating to our community. Together, through community conversations we put together a plan for The Bronx Community Relief Effort and immediately secured and deployed essential resources to The Bronx.
During the height of the pandemic and well into 2021, The Bronx experienced some of the highest per-case fatality rates as a result of COVID-19 throughout New York City and across the country. People in The Bronx have died of COVID-19 at twice the rate of every other borough in New York City.
We quickly pivoted our work to create the Community Relief Effort. The Effort has garnered over $10 million in grants and resources to support effective, on-the-ground operations focused on meeting the most essential needs of The Bronx’s communities.
Continuing our community-driven model, we asked our partners to identify eight areas of rapid need:
To learn more on our impact in our eight focus areas during the pandemic, visit our Impact page.
At the beginning of the pandemic, The Bronx community stated there were too many disparate resources and Bronxites were getting inundated with daily communications on where to go for certain resources. The Bronx Community Relief Effort created helpforthebronx.org, a COVID-19 resource website that would be a one-stop shop for resources available to not only Bronx residents, but residents across New York City.
We want a resilient future for our borough where we can weather all types of crises safely and protect those most affected by them.
