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From Berkeley Media Studies Group, March 25, 2020 Advocates across the country have long been working to ensure that everyone has access to healthy, safe, and affordable homes. COVID-19 has brought to the forefront solutions that advocates have called for — tenant protections, stopping the sweeps of people who are unhoused, and more — as advocates push for additional, urgent ways to ensure people are sheltered during this pandemic. For those working at the intersection of housing and health,...

From Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, March 23, 2020 COVID-19 – A Public Health Emergency Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory illness caused by a novel virus that is spreading rapidly across the globe. Currently, there are over 33,000 cases in the United Statesi . Globally, over 12,000 deaths have been attributed to the illness since it emerged three months ago. In the Bay Area, efforts to respond to the virus are increasing rapidly. On March 17, six Bay Area...

By Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2020 California schools will be unable to reopen this year given current safety concerns and ongoing social distancing, the state superintendent told county officials Tuesday. The letter, obtained by The Chronicle, was not a directive, but rather an acknowledgment that the still growing coronvirus crisis will mean schools must stay shuttered. While classrooms will remain closed, education will continue, Superintendent of Public Instruction...

Family Justice Centers, COVID-19 and HOPE on 4/2 Thursday, April 2, 2020 at 8:30-10 AM PST Join us for a webinar hosted by Alliance President Casey Gwinn and CEO Gael Strack to provide valuable information about COVID-19 and the work of Family Justice Centers and other collaboratives across the country and around the world. Victims of domestic and sexual violence need hope now more than ever. They need services to be available and accessible even if some of those services must be impacted by...

Caring for Each Other: How to Use Sesame Street in Communities Resources for Health Emergencies with Families Now Wednesday, April 1, 2020 @ 3 PM ET We're all in this together, and that's why we're all coming together. Sesame Workshop and the Brazelton Touchpoints Center are partnering on a webinar series, beginning April 1st, to share online resources that can help us handle the sudden changes in our lives when we face health emergencies like the one that confronts us today. As a result of...

By Jami Lopez, Business Wire, March 30, 2020 California’s first Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, is partnering with First 5 California to help promote its landmark Talk. Read. Sing.® campaign in a new television and radio campaign. Talk. Read. Sing. is a scientifically based, nationally recognized campaign that has reached millions of families across California with information on the importance of talking, reading, and singing to babies and young children, and the positive impact...

By Xenia Shih Bion, California Health Care Foundation, March 30, 2020 The spread of the novel coronavirus has upended life across the Golden State. On March 19, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an order that all individuals living in California were to stay at home except for essential activities like buying groceries or getting necessary health care. Public schools, nonessential businesses like gyms and entertainment venues, and parking lots at many state parks and beaches, are closed. The...

TOP NEWS, National Conference of State Legislature March 26, 2020 Overview The U.S. Senate approved an estimated $2 trillion stimulus package to battle the harmful effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, though concerns with the unemployment provisions remain. A few highlights of what's included in the package: Creates a $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund for state, local and tribal governments. See estimated state allocations courtesy of Federal Funds Information for States. Provides $30...

A California restaurant has found a compassionate way of keeping their business open while simultaneously caring for hospital staffers fighting the novel coronavirus outbreaks. In addition to continuing their takeout and delivery services, the Tootsie’s restaurant at the Stanford Mall in Palo Alto has been using their catering services to feed doctors and nurses at their local hospitals. Since Tootsie’s owner Rocco Scordella launched his ingenious “Adopt a Doctor or Nurse” program earlier...

How can health care providers take care of themselves, their colleagues and their patients during this COVID-19 pandemic? First and foremost is recognizing how the pandemic can stir up trauma from the past, said Dr. Alicia Lieberman, a psychologist specializing in trauma. “COVID19 is reawakening traumatic reminders in many of us and in the families we work with. And that often makes it difficult for parents to protect themselves and their children,” she noted. Lieberman, the director of the...

Responding to Families’ Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Conversation with Representative Rosa DeLauro, sponsored by Zero to Three Join ZERO TO THREE, Think Babies™, and partners this Friday, March 27 at 11 am EDT for a web broadcast with U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) about how Congress is responding to families’ needs in the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. She will share what is in the bill on issues such as child care, Early Head Start, and paid family and medical leave, and...

By Jill Cowan, The New York Times, March 26, 2020 On Wednesday afternoon, Gov. Gavin Newsom took his now-usual spot behind a podium in Sacramento for a live-streamed news conference and rattled off a dizzying list of statistics. Some 66,800 tests had been conducted, he said, once again emphasizing that the state is working with commercial labs, hospitals and universities to ramp up testing even more. California had distributed more than 24 million N95 masks and more are on the way, he said.