Update from Kate
MARIN CITY TAKES ON COVID-19
AND THE 2020 CENSUS
Please Share Widely:
Like me, if you're searching around for good, uplifting news amidst the waves of disturbing headlines, we don't need to look far to find it. In fact, the good news is blossoming all over Marin City. A number of wonderful organizations working in Marin City have stepped up to meet the multiplicity of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, including the pastors and churches, the Freedom School, Bridge the Gap College Prep, Play Marin, the Marin City Community Services District, the Marin City Community Development Corporation, Women Helping All People, the Sausalito-Marin City School District, the Marin City Health & Wellness Center , MC Arts and Culture and the Marin City Library, to name a few.
While we applaud and appreciate the work of so many, in this newsletter, we are focusing on the work of Felecia Gaston and the staff and volunteers of Performing Stars, a Marin City nonprofit organization. Performing Stars is a beehive of activity that has taken on the challenge of meeting the COVID-19 response and the Marin Census 2020 with enthusiasm, creativity and a can-do spirit.
If you like what you read, there's always an open door for you to join Performing Stars in this homegrown, grassroots, community-building effort. Felecia will put you to work and welcome your generous donations of time, talent and treasure to continue these many and varied programs of community support. Reach out to Felicia at performingstars@sbcglobal.net or call Performing Stars at (415)332-8316. This work is a call, as Congressman John Lewis reminded us, to "meet the moment." We thank the many members of the Marin City community who are doing just that and showing what a community that cares about each other can do.
Diaper Drive
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When the pandemic hit in March, Performing Stars looked for ways to address discrete community needs that other, larger organizations, busy with food distribution and other wider efforts, might not be thinking to serve. One such need was helping provide diapers to families with babies and toddlers.
Initially serving 60 families for a month, Performing Stars secured a donation of 21,000 diapers from a diaper bank in Oakland. That gave all 60 families a good supply of diapers, making for happier babies and fewer trips to the market for supplies.
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Mask Drive
Early on in Marin City, it was apparent that many people didn't have masks and, if they did, it wasn't "cool" to wear them. Partnering with the Sausalito-Marin City School District, Performing Stars secured a donation of 2,000 handmade masks. Going door to door, Performing Stars distributed the masks with informational flyers about why masks matter and how COVID-19 doesn't discriminate.
Mask distribution, along with a robust social media campaign featuring Marin City community members wearing masks, helped encourage adoption of a new social norm. Pictures of beautiful masked faces of people of all ages made all the difference.
Channel 7 news even featured this Marin City masking initiative in its local good news coverage: https://abc7news.com/masks-coronavirus-marin-city-sausalito-where-can-i-get-a-mask/6124934/
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These three gentlemen helped contribute to the success of the Marin City masking campaign by showing how with a mask on you can protect others in the community. Plus, let's face it, even with one's mouth and nose covered properly, you can still see a smile by looking carefully at someone's eyes.
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Self Care Packages
At the outset of the pandemic, Performing Stars recognized the stress experienced by families. To help relieve that stress, Performing Stars put together self-care packages for the parents and caregivers of students from Bayside MLK, Jr. Academy. The self-care packages were part of the Prevention and Early Intervention program supported by the County of Marin.
Self-care packages are a small but much appreciated gesture that says we're thinking about you and you deserve a lift.
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Arts Enrichment Packages for Kids
Children need more than screen time to keep themselves amused and engaged. Seeing this need, Performing Stars delivered art enrichment packages to 200 Marin City students.
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Packages included art supplies, drawing paper, crayons, puzzles, activity books and pens. The smiles on the faces of these boys and girls confirm that arts and crafts activities are fun, especially when you've got a brother, sister or friend to join you.
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Financial Assistance for the Most Needy
As community members' financial pressures increased during the pandemic, Performing Stars began receiving donations from individual donors, foundations and local Black clergy and their church members. Performing Stars established a system to screen requests and verify needs as COVID-19 related. Once established, applicants could receive up to $500 in expenses through direct third-party payments.
This program, underwritten by the San Francisco, Tupac Amaru Shakur and Marin Community Foundations, distributed $100,000 and assisted approximately 250 people. Given this record of success, Marin County approached Performing Stars with an additional $200,000 in Family Independence Initiative (FII) funds for distribution to help even more families meet their pressing needs.
Testing Outreach
For outreach to be successful in encouraging people to get COVID-19 testing, messages need to be culturally relevant and are best made by the people who live in the community. With the goal of improving the numbers of people who show up for the County of Marin's weekly testing on Thursdays at First Missionary Baptist Church, Performing Stars designed flyers and staff went door-to-door to encourage residents to get tested.
While slow going, the numbers of residents getting tested is increasing. Often, slow and steady is what, over time, gets the job done. We hope even more people will take advantage of the free testing available in the Marin City community.
Victory Gardens Revival
While COVID-19 protocols and practices require us to stay apart, Performing Stars saw the importance of encouraging safe and physically distant outdoor activity. With the creation of a Victory Garden in Marin City, families can feel personally invested in growing fruits and vegetables in their own community. Taking a page from George Washington Carver who promoted the idea of Victory Gardens during WWII, growing your own food is both practical and morale boosting.
With fruit harvested off the trees in the orchard, Performing Stars is launching "Marin City Jam," featuring plums picked fresh and tree-ripened. We all look forward to seeing this program grow and maybe even purchasing a glass jar of fresh fruit jam.
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Because every person counts, Performing Stars, through its Social Justice Youth Initiative, has a legion of young people in Marin City actively involved in census awareness and voter registration efforts. The Marin City Counts campaign features local children's artwork, in brilliant, eye-catching colors on huge banners festooned on light poles along the streets and in key locations in Golden Gate Village.
A post card campaign for mailing and door-to-door outreach depicts community leaders of the past, present and future to help remind everyone that the "power of one" is what the census count is all about, bringing funding and accurately apportioned political representation to Marin County and its many vibrant communities like Marin City.
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We have so much to celebrate in Marin City: good work, creative and engaged residents, and neighbors helping neighbors. A caring and vibrant community. Thanks to the work of Performing Stars and so many other local organizations, Marin City is stronger and pulling through the challenges of COVID-19 with optimism and a can-do attitude that is making lives better and more connected.
I encourage you to reach out to any of the organizations mentioned in the first paragraph of this newsletter and ask what you can do to support their work and help meet the Marin City community's needs and aspirations.
Stay in touch by writing me at ksears@marincounty.org and let me know how you are getting engaged and what you are learning about Marin City.
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