We encourage members of our community to call 211 or visit their WEBSITE if they need help. Pennsylvania 211 East is a free, confidential, non-emergency, 24-hour information and referral service that connects Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon County residents with the health and human services they need.

• PA 211 is counting on you to help them stay up-to-date with any changes to your operations. You can provide updates directly to 211 by emailing hourser@uwlanc.org.

Utilities will not be turned off in Pennsylvania during the COVID-19 outbreak. For more information, please click HERE.

PPL has stated that it will not cut off service to any customer for unpaid bills until further notice and will reconnect service for any customers who were disconnected recently.

Guidance for homeless shelters can be found HERE.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Greater Valley YMCA - Allentown Warming Station and Bethlehem Housing Program have been temporarily suspended.

Service Electric made a commitment to join the ''Keep America Connected'' pledge to:

• Not terminate service to any residential or small business due to the inability to pay their bill.
• Waive late fees that residential or small business customers incur because of their economic circumstance related to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Open its Wi-Fi hotspots to everyone.

Additionally, SECTV will offer free 10x5 Internet service for 90 days for new customers during this ongoing national emergency. For more information on modem access and the 60-day financial grace period, please contact a SECTV Customer Service representative:

• Toll Free in PA (800) 232-9100
• Toll Free in NJ (800) 225-9102

or visit the WEBSITE.
 
RCN’s Lifeline program has provided a discount on phone service for qualifying low-income consumers to ensure that all Americans have the opportunities and security that phone service brings. Requests may take up to 14 business days in order to be processed, For more information and to apply, visit their WEBSITE.

The national nutrition lunch programs will continue, under the Seamless Summer or the Summer Food Service Program. Lehigh Valley Food Policy Council is working on this.
 
Second Harvest Food Bank serves 60,000 people each month in Carbon, Lehigh, Monroe, Northampton, Pike and Wayne counties and will continue to deliver to their 200 nonprofit agencies. To find your local food pantry, visit the 'Find Food' tab on the Second Harvest Food Bank website.

School districts and nonprofit agencies are coordinating efforts to continue to provide meals to our children, despite schools being closed. The Morning Call has compiled a list of these sites and continues to update it as more districts post their locations. Many of our local students and families are dependent on the meals that schools provide. For an updated listing of meals click HERE.

Greater Valley YMCA will continue to serve youth meals from 4-5 p.m. Monday through Friday:
·       Allentown (425 S. 15^th Street, Allentown)
·       Bethlehem (430 E. Broad Street, Bethlehem)

SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loans offer up to $2 million in assistance and can provide vital economic support to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing. These loans may be used to pay fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that can’t be paid because of the disaster’s impact.

The interest rate is 3.75% for small businesses without credit available elsewhere; businesses with credit available elsewhere are not eligible. The interest rate for non-profits is 2.75%. SBA offers loans with long-term repayments in order to keep payments affordable, up to a maximum of 30 years.

Terms are determined on a case-by-case basis, based upon each borrower’s ability to repay.
Businesses may obtain information and loan applications by calling the SBA’s Customer Service Center at 1-800-659-2955 (1-800-877-8339 for the hearing impaired), or by e-mailing disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.
Loan applications can also be downloaded at www.sba.gov/disaster. Applicants may apply online using the Electronic Loan Application (ELA) via the SBA’s secure website at https://disasterloan.sba.gov/ela.

Tech Soup is a company dedicated to helping nonprofits worldwide. They provide a litany of services including tech training resources. They just made their “Working Remotely” training track free for everyone right now. This is normally a $100 track of courses and includes training on the apps and services we have available through O365. If you have any staff members that are struggling to grasp these apps, this is where they should start. The training track includes the following courses:
·       Coronavirus Mitigation Resources
·       Cybersecurity 101 and 201
·       OneDrive 101
·       Planner 101
·       SharePoint 101
·       Teams 101
·       Teams 102
 
Any staff member can sign up for these courses by creating a free account with Tech Soup. These are class type courses, so they range from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on which ones you decided to take. Here is the link to the courses.
 
·       Need help with insurance and/or COBRA? Capital BlueCross will continue to be available to assist people with options. Those who lose their insurance can contact Capital BlueCross at 855-505-2683 or rosann.humphrey@capblucross.com.
·       Several nonprofits are accepting "COVID-19" time as outside of any sick or vacation time.

Volunteer Center of the Lehigh Valley is posting and sharing volunteer needs in the community. If you need assistance, especially tasks that can be done virtually, visit: https://www.volunteerlv.org/partnership and for updates on the Volunteer Center's COVID-19 action plan, visit: https://www.volunteerlv.org/covid-19.
 
ESSENTIAL VS. NON-ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES (PENNSYLVANIA)

• For a list of COVID-19 business resources, click HERE.

PANO (Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofits) sent an email last evening asking all members of the PA Congressional delegation to support the following stimulus package for nonprofit charitable organizations:
·       $60 Billion in emergency stimulus aimed to help adversely affected charitable organizations.
·       Universal charitable tax deductions.
·       Extends payroll tax credits to all charities, regardless of size, that provide paid family leave, and sick time pay.

This is consistent with the National Council of Nonprofits advocacy letter HERE. If you have the opportunity to engage in advocacy, you may want to echo these points to present a consistent "ask".