APRIL 2020

This week, and for the foreseeable future, the Indy will publish community aid funds and other ways you can contribute to coronavirus relief in lieu of our traditional event listings. If you are able, we encourage you to support these efforts to alleviate the financial and health burdens that coronavirus has taken on communities here in Providence.

Para más asistencia en Español, llama el línea de apoyo de AMOR a 401-675-1414

HEALTHCARE RESOURCES

These Community Health Centers accept all insurance, and have a sliding-scale system based on income for patients without insurance. • Blackstone Valley Community Health Center: Pawtucket & Central Falls - 722-0081 • Thundermist: West Warwick & Woonsocket - 615-2800 • Tri-County Health Center: Johnston & N. Providence - 351-2750 • Providence Community Health Center: Providence - 444-0570 • East Bay Community Action Program: Riverside & Newport - 437-1008 Free clinics - free and low-cost health services • Clinica Esperanza, Providence - 347-9093 • Rhode Island Free Clinic, Providence - 274-6347 If you have COVID-19 symptoms, there are several locations in Rhode Island where you can get tested. For more information, please visit health.ri.gov/covid/testing/. Several urgent care and primary care providers in RI have set up respiratory clinics to evaluate patients suspected of having COVID19. For a list of these clinics and more information, visit the link above. Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic is offering multilingual (including Spanish) drive-up testing. For information, call 401-408-0238. Drive-up testing sites are located at URI in South Kingstown, CCRI in Warwick, and Rhode Island College in Providence. These sites require that your doctor orders a test and a testing appointment is made in advance. These testing sites do not accommodate individuals who arrive on foot or via public transportation. CVS Health is operating drive-through Rapid COVID-19 Testing at Twin River Casino in Lincoln. In order to make an appointment,

FOOD AND HOUSING RESOURCES

Free meals for kids are being offered at most public schools; see www.health.ri.gov/diseases/ncov2019/about/foodsites/ for more. Project LETS intake form for people in need of immediate housing: tinyurl.com/requesthousing-ri Call United Way Rhode Island’s 2-1-1 hotline or visit rifoodbank.org/find-food/ to find a food bank or pantry near you.

PETITIONS AND DONATION OPPORTUNITIES

Rhode Island Pride has organized a large food drive, which you can support with a monetary donation. $20 will get food to four people, and $100 will get food to 19 people. More info on their website: prideri.org. The George Wiley Center is fundraising for community members. Donate at this link: tinyurl.com/ybhlh6ky. They are also holding a food drive Monday, April 27, 10 am-2pm. General AMOR COVID-19 Community support fund. Donations go to support sanitation equipment for vulnerable populations, as well as direct financial assistance to families in need. Donate here: bit.ly/2UmYJXr. To get involved as a volunteer, packaging and distributing mutual aid, visit tinyurl.com/amor-covid-volunteer. Prevent Coronavirus in the Criminal Justice System: FANG Collective community bail fund: As jails and prisons become coronavirus hotspots, they present unsafe conditions to inmates, many of whom haven’t been convicted of a crime and are held because they couldn’t afford bail. Help bail people out from the Bristol County House of Correction and the Ash Street Jail through this fundraiser organized by the FANG Collective. gofundme.com/f/fangbailfund

Various local activist groups (AMOR, Never Again Action, Sunrise, DSA, Formerly Incarcerated Union, and many more) have organized a petition “asking Gina Raimondo to use her power during this state of emergency to grant parole to anyone eligible, allow medical furlough for all medically vulnerable incarcerated people, and ensure the ACI will provide adequate information and supplies to those held in detention.” You can sign here: bit.ly/2UzVNWg. ICE detainees at the Bristol County Correctional Center have written a letter to elected officials and activist groups raising concern about the spread of coronavirus in their unit, which includes many detainees with serious underlying medical conditions.

The FANG Collective has mobilized in response. They explain: “The letter speaks of correctional officers who have continued to work their shifts despite having flu like symptoms, overcrowded conditions at the facility, and a medical professional at the facility telling people detained there that “infection of the whole ICE facility population is inevitable and will occur within the next 30 days.” To get involved: CALL and EMAIL the ICE facility in Bristol County and the County's congressional delegation and demand that the people held in ICE detention in Bristol County be released. Contact info: Bristol County ICE Detention Center: 508-995-6400, select option 6, then option 2; Senator Elizabeth Warren: (617) 565-3170; Senator Ed Markey: 508-999-6462; Representative Bill Keating: 508-999-6462

MASKS

If you work in an industry or own a company with medical supplies: Donate them through the RI Department of Health Medical Supply intake form. Help alleviate the nationwide shortage of protective equipment for healthcare workers: bit.ly/2JeIaqf If you want to contribute to mask-making efforts for essential workers, or if you would like to receive handmade masks made by Rhode Islanders, sign up here: www.projectmaskri.com. PLUS: Ocean State Job Lot is giving out fabric for free.