DC Appleseed Teams Up With D.C. Mayor, Amazon Web Services, and Others to Provide COVID-19 Resource Website for Front-Line and Essential Workers

WASHINGTON, October 30, 2020 (Newswire.com) - ​The COVID-19 pandemic has taken an unprecedented toll on the District of Columbia, as it has in many cities across the U.S. In order to serve those who put their lives on the line daily, the DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice is collaborating with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's Office and Amazon Web Services (AWS), among others, to develop a dedicated website that will serve as a centralized clearinghouse of resources available to the city's front-line and essential workers who have worked tirelessly throughout COVID-19. These workers include:

• Hospital and healthcare workers, including all hospital staff, and healthcare workers outside hospital settings.
• Workers in the childcare, grocery, transportation, sanitation, and postal delivery sectors without whom hospital and healthcare workers wouldn't be able to meet the needs of the community.

The website will provide an up-to-date, one-stop-shop of resources available to support the workers, including child care, transportation, food, mental health services, housing, and others. It will also provide a donation feature that will connect potential individual and organizational donors to the Frontline D.C. Fund. Community-based organizations will distribute cash support from the Fund to essential workers during the fight against COVID-19.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is lending her support to the new website. "I also want to congratulate you [DC Appleseed] on your new partnership with Amazon to provide a clearinghouse of resources and donations to front-line and essential workers which will connect them with critical resources like transportation, childcare, mental health and food assistance," Mayor Bowser said in her keynote address at the DC Appleseed Annual Gala Thursday night, October 29.

Amazon Web Services provided development support for the website build-out, with plans to launch in mid-November. The project is supported by the Greater Washington Community Foundation.

DC Appleseed is grateful for its pro bono partners at Hogan Lovells, Covington & Burling, Weil, Gotshal & Manges and DLA Piper who provided extensive research support to compile the myriad of services and resources which are available for front-line and essential workers.  "As a research organization, and based on our many stakeholder interviews, we think we're well-suited to help meet changing worker needs on a timely basis through a clearinghouse website that details up-to-date resources," DC Appleseed's Executive Director Walter Smith said. "We also want to make it easy for individuals, corporations, philanthropic organizations and others to make donations to help meet those needs. While there are so many needs during this pandemic, we're grateful to be able to play a modest role in supporting our community."

DC Appleseed shares its profound appreciation for all front-line and essential workers. These heroes are often our neighbors who do unglamorous but literally life-saving work. All of us owe them our thanks and support.

Katelyn Petroka
[email protected]

Source: DC Appleseed Center for Law & Justice