This month, Center for Family Life in Sunset Park took another important step to directly combat the financial hardships experienced by so many community families throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Through cash relief distribution, we were able to distribute $100,000 to 100 of the most vulnerable local families in need. This is in addition to the more than $1,000,000 in cash relief distributed to families in 2020. The emergency relief funds, provided by the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, RFCUNY, and Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), were made possible with the help of our friends at TD Bank, who acted quickly to produce 200 cash cards that CFLSP distributed to qualifying families.
Due to the strain of pandemic-related illness and the loss of jobs and income, many Sunset Park community members have struggled to maintain their supply of food, clothing, and school materials.
“This community has been hit hard by the pandemic. They lost family members and jobs, continue to experience economic hardship, have limited access to benefits, and fear accessing services due to their immigration status,” explained Jean Bae from MOIA. “The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs is proud to partner with CFLSP on the NYC COVID-19 Immigrant Emergency Relief Program to provide emergency monetary relief to immigrant workers and their families who were…excluded from most federal and state relief programs. We thank CFLSP for their work with the Relief Program and for all the work they do for immigrant communities in NYC.”
Given the urgent need in the community, CFLSP co-directors Julia Jean-Francois and Julie Brockway turned to a local community institution, TD Bank, to get resources into the hands of neighborhood families. CFLSP also relied on TD Bank for similar help last year during the cash distribution to 800 neighborhood families. We are thrilled to have the consistent support of our local TD Bank in distributing funds to the most disadvantaged members of our community. Vice President and Store Manager of TD Bank in Sunset Park, William Xie, noted,
“TD has been part of the fabric of the Brooklyn community for years. We are honored to again work with the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park to help distribute critical emergency relief funding to local families battling economic hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
CFLSP would like to thank the folks at TD Bank for going great distances to help us create this wonderful opportunity in Sunset Park, and acknowledge the vision, critical funding, and partnership from Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity, RFCUNY, and MOIA. We are deeply grateful for the opportunity to come together to support local families in our community!
