New fund aims to give $200 payments to families impacted by coronavirus
Several valley organizations are partnering to provide cash payments to families struggling during the pandemic.
The fund they’ve created will provide qualifying families with $200 in immediate relief.
The Greater Palm Springs Tourism Foundation has been collecting donations to support families who specifically work in the tourism and hospitality industry. “Everybody has been losing their jobs. We wanted to help in a certain way. We wanted to use the foundation to raise money to give specifically to the hospitality workers,” said Scott White, President & CEO, Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The foundation says one in four jobs in the valley is supported by tourism. Many have been out of a job for weeks now due to the coronavirus closures.
To make a tax-deductible donation to help provide financial relief to those in the hospitality industry, click here.
“The challenge was we had the mechanism to collect the money, we didn’t have the mechanism to distribute the money and how do we take the applications and qualify them...so that’s when we partnered up with Life to Rise,” said White.
Lift to Rise is a local non-profit. They are the group processing applications and actually distributing the $200 payments to families that qualify. Lift to Rise says you don’t have to work in hospitality to be eligible, but they are prioritizing those who have lost work.
“Those who aren’t able to qualify for other forms of public assistance...that’s a priority for us and we’re also prioritizing folks that are undocumented,” said Heather Vaikona, CEO, Lift to Rise.
Lift to Rise says they’ve raised over $1 million dollars so far -- and more 1,200 households have already applied and received money.
“We’re getting a lot of texts back saying thank you so much I was able to get to a food distribution site or I was able to pay my utility bill,” said Vaikona.
Vaikona says they are aiming to raise enough money to impact at least 10,000 households here in the valley.
To apply for $200 in financial assistance, click here.
To make a tax-deductible donation to Lift to Rise and their effort to provide for families in need, click here.
