NON-PROFIT NEW EARTH CONTINUES TO PROVIDE ESSENTIAL SERVICES TO LOS ANGELES COUNTY’S MOST VULNERABLE YOUTH AMIDST COVID-19 PANDEMIC
New Earth’s doors remain open as a crucial resource to young people with either very little or no support during our current shifting social and global landscape.
Despite a great deal of the organization’s funding being placed on hold during this pandemic, the non-profit continues to operate in these unprecedented times. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Governor Gavin Newsom have exempted social services organizations like New Earth from the list of mandatory closures and as a community-based organization that provides food, counseling, and mental health services for the economically disadvantaged, they are allowed to remain open to serve, as long as they adhere to the proper health and safety precautions.
New Earth is currently serving two meals a day at their Culver City Arts & Leadership Center (by doing so, they are also supporting a local catering service) and providing meal and grocery deliveries, medicine, and baby supplies to individual members and their families who are not able to leave their homes – or who have lost their income due to lay-offs during this time. Transportation services to and from the Center or to obtain essential products and services are being arranged, high-speed internet access is made accessible to all students and families in need of communicating to others not staying with them in their homes, and staff is connecting parents and family members with EDD and other financial support services. The Center is also a place of refuge during the day for young people who are housing insecure.
Youth Diversion and Development clients are receiving daily check-ins by phone and New Earth clinical and program staff are providing tele-case management and virtual classes. Any students in their charter high school diploma program, offered in partnership with SIATech, are receiving help with their educational packets and distance learning. Since many of the students have been failed by the traditional school system multiple times, New Earth is doing everything they can to ensure that their students’ dreams of graduating with their high school diploma this year become reality.
As one of the only youth centers for the community that is currently open in LA County, New Earth is seeing how great the need is, as young people and families continue to come through their doors each day. New Earth is committed to fulfilling its mission, in spite of the distinct challenges currently being experienced.
“It’s more important than ever to surround our community in love and support – to provide essentials such as groceries, mental health counseling, outlets for creative expression, and information on financial resources available to them. The impacts can’t be underestimated,” says Harry Grammer, Founder and President of New Earth. “New Earth remains resilient during this time, yet we need the assistance of our community at large. We are raising funds to continue providing the essential services our most vulnerable communities need at this critical time. We’re doing all we can with what we have.”
