Grassroots nonprofit organizations in the East Bay are facing a significant threat to volunteer membership and in-person programming. Organizations such as Punks With Lunch, whose members provide meals to people experiencing homelessness, and Harm Reduction Coalition, a group that offers safe needle exchange in the Bay Area, depend heavily on in-person services managed by volunteers. With the social distancing measures surrounding COVID-19, it is not yet clear how such organizations will move forward, or whether they will find other ways to administer resources. While some organizations will be able to move their work online, certain materials remain intransferable.
“I think most things are going to come to a halt,” said Kathy Brasil, a paralegal at the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, a group that offers legal aid to low-income refugees and immigrants. To the extent that her work deals in paper — asylum applications, medical records, birth certificates — the prospect of “going remote” isn’t feasible. Non-emergency meetings are canceled, and the org’s volunteer-centered efforts have been “delayed indefinitely.”
