Stephanie Sotka, PCF President
We are still living through the COVID-19 pandemic. As the highly transmissible new variants spread, so do continuing impacts on our residents. Participation in social groups is still difficult for some, some social activities are still not safe, or available, and because of this, social isolation may still be on the rise. As the virus morphs, another strain will evolve. These are just some of the issues our community is coping with as we move into year three–it’s not a short term problem.
Have you heard of a “Long-Term Recovery Group”? Long-term recovery groups function in all disaster areas, providing help long after initial relief efforts are done, the officials have left, and after disaster response agencies are gone. That’s easy to imagine following physical disasters, such as flooding or fires, but what happens after a pandemic?
A pandemic is a long-term disaster — a highly social event that exposes our vulnerabilities, as well as our level of (un)preparedness. This COVID-19 pandemic still merits our attention to help our community with long-term recovery.
Yet, COVID-19 is also only one of many hazards that threaten our existence. The nature of risk in our society is changing. We are no longer clearly able to categorize risk into “natural” or “man-made”. Human activity is often the dominant influence, thus the definition of “natural disaster” has significantly changed. It will be some time before we fully understand and assimilate this concept.
In answer to the first question – yes – your help is still needed, because long term recovery is still underway.
Pacific Community Foundation offers several donor options that provide assistance in a variety of areas. Read about these donation options on PCF’s Fund page at https://spccf.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/list
These include: Community Emergency Relief Fund, Community Food Fund, COVID Relief at OBH, Greatest Needs Fund, and Food For Kids Fund.
All of these funds assist our community in one or more key support areas.