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Wednesday AM Daily | July 15, 2020
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From doorstep paperwork to school translation, EMBARC adjusts to new post-COVID roles
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Keeping up with the changes in public health guidance, employment safety and underemployment benefits and mental health guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic is nearly a full-time job for most English-speaking residents of Iowa. For residents without English skills, the nonprofit EMBARC (Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resource Center) is stepping in to fill the information gap.
EMBARC is stretching its resources to meet the needs of everyone who contacts staff and advocates, despite the sudden changes affecting EMBARC’s face-to-face engagement model, said Erin Kim-Cho, director of communications and development for EMBARC.
"We were doing a lot of work in the community helping them directly. They would come in for translation help, reading the mail, basic needs like calling the doctor, and we would do that directly. We would do it face-to-face because that’s the easiest way to do it," Kim-Cho said.
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A RISE AmeriCorp volunteer assists in packing food for delivery to EMBARC community members. EMBARC, RISE AmeriCorp and the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs launched crisis help lines in 11 languages to offer accurate COVID-19 crisis information to non-English-speaking Iowans. Photo provided by EMBARC
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When COVID-19 arrived in Iowa, EMBARC had to shut down face-to-face services just as community members were struggling to receive updated information in their own language. Out of the more than 8,000 individuals in the state that EMBARC serves, 95% of them are considered essential workers, according to the organization.
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"We were hearing from the communities that they’re unable to get information about anything about COVID. … When a crisis comes in, information becomes extremely important, and everything was changing each day about COVID, how the state of Iowa was going to respond to it and how the country was responding to it. So we were finding that critical and correct information was not getting to the
communities because of that language barrier," Kim-Cho said.
Beginning in mid-March, EMBARC shifted quickly. Through a new crisis response website, the organization launched a daily
newsletter four days a week in 11 languages, three newscasts and in-depth video resources to push information out to Iowans. EMBARC and RISE AmeriCorps launched the Crisis Helpline and Virtual Access Center in 10 language lines to connect non-English-speaking Iowans with community members who speak more than 25 languages and dialects who assist with unemployment, health and social services and other critical needs. The help line received 2,504 calls between March 25 and July 7, including at least 10 clients who needed translation assistance before calling 911. In June, EMBARC and the Iowa Commission of Latino Affairs partnered to add a Spanish help line to the lineup.
"We got a call from someone in New York City … saying, ‘I can’t contact my mom in Waterloo. There’s
not other family in Waterloo around her, can you help me locate her?’ And we found out Mom was in the hospital nonresponsive, literally in a coma due to COVID. It happened so fast that there was no way for her to contact her son," Kim-Cho said. "EMBARC got in the middle of that, did all the translation for the family. Everything’s fine now, but at the time, it was so critical. EMBARC was able to do that for the family and work with the hospital."
Work that can't be done online or over the phone prompts staff or volunteers to show up at community members’ homes. In many of the 936 unemployment cases EMBARC worked with, individuals attempting to claim unemployment didn’t understand the requirements or instructions and could be left waiting for weeks on support that
wasn’t processed. EMBARC staff and volunteers began asking residents to leave their documentation at the front door, and advocates would call them on the phone while filling out paperwork on the doorstep. Families isolating after showing symptoms or testing positive for COVID-19 call EMBARC to request food delivery.
"We’re the only organization in Iowa that does this for the refugee community, directly connecting them with all of these things," Kim-Cho said. "There’s a lot of food pantries out there, there is a lot of help out there, but [community members] can’t call the food pantry to ask questions about the food. They can’t go to the pantry to pick up the food. So there is that gap that we fill."
Student registration for the 2020-2021 school year has been a challenge as school districts are still finalizing attendance or online class plans. Families that don’t have access to devices or internet service no longer have the option to complete registration at district offices. By the end of the 2020 spring semester, community members had been translating emails over the phone sent by school districts to family members, and EMBARC anticipates those families will struggle in districts with full or partial online-learning models, Kim-Cho said.
"Many of them don’t know how to do it. Many of them don’t have a computer and internet access,
and a lot of the schools are now requiring you upload proof of residence and things like that online," Kim-Cho said. "I’m trying to connect with the Department of Education and a lot of the school districts so that we can be that bridge for them in disseminating information. … It’s become a very big challenge for us."
EMBARC is preparing to reopen its location to community members as the state continues to reopen doors. Yet as protective screens are installed, the organization is also planning for what happens if a second wave of COVID-19 begins affecting community members.
Kim-Cho has been collecting stories from parents, caregivers and survivors to highlight through EMBARC’s website.
"We still see a lot of people getting sick, but now we’re
seeing people just not being able to support themselves financially," Kim-Cho said.
"We’re very desperate for outside help so that we can actually do this work for these essential workers in Iowa," she said. "We’re trying to find good supporters within our communities who are our allies, who would be our advocates."
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NEWS BRIEFS
Melissa Vine named executive director of Beacon of Life
Beacon of Life’s board of directors has named Melissa Vine as the new executive director, succeeding Keshia Meissner, who served as executive director for almost nine years. Vine will lead strategic planning and operations for Beacon of Life, which serves
women experiencing homelessness due to trauma, substance abuse, domestic violence and incarceration. Vine has 12 years of experience in business ownership and five years of experience in social work and counseling. She was previously a mental health counselor with an emphasis on trauma-informed care at Integrative Counseling Solutions in West Des Moines. Vine also owns Vine Chromatic, which books music and speaking engagements.
Grants awarded to 21 communities for rural development, collaboration
The state has awarded $400,000 in Rural Innovation and Rural Housing Assessment grants to 21 Iowa
cities to support creative, nontraditional ideas that focus on challenges faced by rural communities, and for the communities to use publicly available data to help implement changes to development codes and ordinances, and housing incentives. The grants, part of the Governor’s Empower Rural Iowa Initiative, were announced Tuesday by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. According to a news release, examples of grants and how they will be used include the Bellevue Community School District, which will develop the "Innovating Bellevue" program to connect local entrepreneurs and business owners with students within a new Innovation Lab to foster creativity and collaboration. Another example, according to the release, is La Luz Hispana in Hampton, which will develop the new La Luz Centro Cultural building into a welcoming space for the Latino community and offer classes in English, nutrition,finances and cooking, as well as being a space for support groups for
victims of crime, and other programming. A full list of communities that received grants can be found here.
Clive Police Department invites public comment via Zoom during accreditation process
The Clive Police Department is inviting the public to make comments as part of a public call-in session on July 21 as part of the department’s accreditation assessment, conducted by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies on July 20-21. Comments may be offered by calling 515-822-5654 from 8 to 11 a.m., or by speaking via Zoom (linked here) at the public session at 11:30 a.m. Zoom comments are limited to 10 minutes and must address the agency’s ability to comply with CALEA standards, which are available for viewing by contacting Jeff Miller at the Clive Police Department, 515-867-5003.
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IOWA STOPS HUNGER
Food Bank of Iowa to host drive-up mobile pantry with meat, perishable items
The Food Bank of Iowa is hosting a free drive-up mobile food pantry with prepackaged meat and perishable food items this Friday, July 17, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., the organization announced this week. The event will be held at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. Visitors to the distribution site will be asked to remain in their cars; staff and volunteers will direct traffic and load the food into cars. The mobile pantry is open to anyone who needs assistance, and there are no requirements to attend.
Iowa Stops Hunger is a year long Business Publications Corporation initiative to bring awareness and action to food insecurity in Iowa.
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MEMBERSHIP EXCLUSIVE CONTENT
‘Business as usual’ no more
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At the start of March, MakuSafe of West Des Moines was prepared to see four years of work launch its wearable employee safety devices into a global market. Around 8,000 of the two-piece armbands were earmarked for initial U.S. manufacturing clients, who would use the armbands to collect environmental data surrounding industrial employees — using indicators such as location and speed to identify workplace risk factors on a busy warehouse or factory floor.
Then the week that MakuSafe received its first large-scale shipment of armbands, the entire nation shut down to cripple the COVID-19 pandemic, CEO Gabriel Glynn said. Travel to promote the company and raise funds shut down indefinitely; manufacturing clients banned vendors from their premises to protect their own employees. Read more
MORE INSIDER CONTENT: See all Business Record Insider content and become an Insider.
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NEWS BRIEFS
Des Moines' Crazy Horse restaurant renamed days before opening
Des Moines Register: Just days before opening, Full Court Press has renamed its newest restaurant in the Drake neighborhood. Crazy Horse Beer & Burgers will now be called Lucky Horse Beer & Burgers, according to a post on its Facebook page. The music-themed restaurant's original name paid homage to Crazyhorse Guitars, which operated in the same location from 1996 to 2018, and Neil Young's backup band, Crazy Horse. "It was not our intention to draw any comparison to the Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, nor to show disrespect to his family. We look forward to opening on July 16 under the name Lucky Horse," the Facebook post says.
Des Moines airport to move entrance driveway
Des Moines Register: By this time next year, there will be a new entrance on Fleur Drive to the Des Moines International Airport. Construction is expected to start in August on moving the entrance south on Fleur, adjacent to where drivers now exit the airport. While about $20 million has been
spent behind the scenes, the new road is the first public-facing project for the airport's new $500 million terminal, planned to accommodate a rapid increase in passenger traffic.
Trump administration rescinds visa ban on foreign students studying online
Wall Street Journal: The Trump administration has agreed to rescind rules it issued last week barring international students from being in the U.S. if they were taking classes only online, a rare reversal by the government on immigration policy. The action resolves for now a lawsuit filed by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston federal court.
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ONE GOOD READ
Banks stockpile billions as they prepare for things to get worseNew York Times: Three of America’s six biggest banks released second-quarter earnings yesterday. The others report today and tomorrow. Based on the first batch of results, there’s trouble ahead. Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo set aside $28 billion for loan-loss provisions, on top of $19 billion earlier this year. That pummeled second-quarter profits, which were collectively down more than 80% versus the same time last year. It was Wells Fargo’s first quarterly loss since 2008. There could be some "kitchen sinking" — that is, dumping all the bad news into one quarter so future periods look better by comparison. Even so, there was little to be hopeful about.
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KCCI TOP STORIES
Mandate requires Iowans traveling to Chicago to complete 14-day quarantine
Iowans planning trips to Chicago will soon be required to quarantine for two weeks. The Chicago Department of Public Health’s updated Emergency Travel Order mandates that people traveling from states with surging COVID-19 cases quarantine for 14 days. Starting Friday, residents from Iowa and Oklahoma will have to abide by the travel quarantine. Read more
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Today:
Thunderstorms likely, especially this morning. High 76. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.
Tonight:
A few clouds. Low 63. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Get the latest KCCI weather.
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BUSINESS RECORD IOWA INDEXThe Iowa Index is an unweighted average of all Iowa-based public companies. Below is a live look at those Iowa companies, plus additional companies with large operations in Iowa.
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