COVID-19 Pandemic and Pivots to Remote Service Delivery On March 19, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statewide “Stay at Home” order in response to the rapidly escalating spread of the COVID-19 virus across California. The order, as well as ensuing economic and community concerns, necessitated adjustments to many of the services delivered by R2R grantees. COVID-19 related restrictions went into effect nine months into Cohort 1’s grant period (75% complete) and three months into Cohort 2’s grant period (17% complete). Grantees were given an opportunity to make modifications to their R2R budgets (within the existing scope of work) to meet new and emerging needs of youth and their families as schools, businesses, and many workplaces temporarily or permanently closed their doors. Effects of COVID-19 on Service Delivery When the pandemic started, Cohort 1 grantees had significantly less funding and less time remaining in their grant period to adjust their service delivery than Cohort 2. The 20 grantees in Cohort 1 were steadily increasing the number of youth served and program touchpoints, but as the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic became more pronounced in Los Angeles, the counts of youth served dropped in both March and April of 2020. Grantees successfully began to pivot to remote services in May 2020 and rebounded to achieve pre-pandemic numbers in June 2020, demonstrating their resiliency. Despite the pandemic, grantees increased their average number of program touchpoints per youth as the extent of disruption to normal social functioning became more apparent. Grantee Insights: Serving Youth in a Pandemic While youth enrolled in school have been to continue to pursue their studies online, many of our youth have suffered losses or reduced employment due to COVID-19. Also, due to COVID-19 the court may be closed and/or court dates have been postponed/delayed, which has hindered our youths’ ability to complete their probation or parole successfully. - Coalition for Engaged Education
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Ready to Rise Annual Report - 2020
