Page 14 - 2019-2020 Annual Report v3
P. 14

Our Co unity Leadership










       COVID-19 Relief                                               Fire Recovery
       The strength of our partnerships is what make us              Coordinating a collaborative recovery effort has
       effective community leaders. When the pandemic                been the greatest success of Mendocino-Rebuilding
       struck, our donors called to ask if we could establish a      Our Community (M-ROC), the long-term fire recovery
       COVID-19 Relief Fund. We knew building the program            team for the 2017 Redwood Complex and 2018
       went far beyond accepting donations. Informed by our          Mendocino Complex Fires. M-ROC began with
       fire recovery efforts, we contacted our community             community partners envisioning how to get fire
       partners to create a program that would make an               survivors back home. Now three years later, we are
       impact in the recovery of our communities from the            pleased to share this goal is nearly complete. With
       pandemic. The County of Mendocino joined us with              support from our funding partners, including United
       CalFresh and FEMA grants to support hunger-relief             Way of the Wine Country and Red Cross, and our
       efforts. North Coast Opportunities (NCO), the Coast           volunteer construction partners, Mennonite Disaster
       Children’s Fund, and Mendonoma Health Alliance joined         Services (MDS), Hope City, and Rebuilding
       to provide individual relief to families in need. West        Now/Rebuild Northbay Foundation we have rebuilt
       Business Development Center joined to support small           12 homes and contributed to the construction costs
       businesses struggling during the pandemic. With these         of an additional 124. Collaboratively we have moved
       partners, our donors, and a network of non-profits            our community from relief, to recovery, to rebuilding.
       doing critical “boots on the ground” work, we have            With financial support from the California Fire
       created the COVID-19 Relief Program and are actively          Foundation and our Community Resiliency and
       engaged in providing multi-sector support. We are             Disaster Preparedness Fund, we are now focusing
       holding a long-term vision for COVID-19 relief and hope       on a more prepared and resilient community in the
       to continue to provide critical funding and innovative        face of future disasters.                           photo: AlessandraRC
       support throughout the recovery.
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