$320,000 in Poise grants will help black-led churches, other groups provide COVID-19 aid
Eric Ewell, pastor of Divine Restoration Church of God in Christ in Duquesne, informed his board of directors a few months ago he expected to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis with little money left in the church coffers.
“If we come out and we are broke, then we did what we were supposed to do,” he recalled telling them.
As Mr. Ewell predicted, the tiny church in the Mon Valley has exceeded its normal spending budget by distributing hot dinners to seniors, snacks and meals to struggling families, and at least one cash stipend to a laid-off taxi driver who is volunteering her time to help provide food to others in need.
But a recent $15,000 grant from the Poise Foundation will help Divine Restoration stabilize its funding and continue its outreach.
The church is one of 31 organizations that will benefit from a new fund established by Poise to assist the black community, which has been hit hard by health and economic issues during the global pandemic.
In an April survey by the Pew Research Center, 73% of black adults said they did not have emergency funds to cover three months of expenses, compared with 70% of Hispanics and 47% of white adults surveyed.
Black people also have experienced higher rates of coronavirus cases, studies show.
A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on hospitalizations for the month of March across parts of 14 states found 33% of those patients were black, while only 18% of the population of those geographical areas were black.
While 45% of the hospitalized patients were white, 59% of the population covered was white “suggesting that the black populations might be disproportionately affected by COVID-19,” the CDC said.
Downtown-based Poise launched its Critical Community Needs Fund in April specifically to address those disparities.
Its grants range from $5,000 to $25,000 and target small and medium-sized black-led nonprofits in Allegheny and Beaver counties that primarily serve members of vulnerable neighborhoods.
The first round of grants announced Wednesday totals $320,000.
The fund was seeded by contributions from two of Pittsburgh’s largest foundations: the Heinz Endowments contributed $250,000 and the Richard King Mellon Foundation provided $100,000.
Poise is raising money with an aim to bring the fund to $750,000 and distribute several more rounds of grants.
It expects to close applications on Friday.
Its grantees “are on the front lines every day providing individuals and families with the critical resources needed to survive during this unprecedented time,” said Karris Jackson, chief operating officer of Poise.
“Often unseen and unheard, these organizations are ensuring that seniors get their medicine, providing transportation for single moms to pick up supplies from local food banks, offering essential mental health services, and spreading messages of hope throughout the community.”
Divine Restoration is one of about a dozen faith-based groups to receive a grant.
Other recipients include social services providers and community organizations like the Homewood Brushton Business Association.
The association, a volunteer organization that promotes retailers and small firms in that urban neighborhood, will use its $10,000 grant to help business owners prepare for a full reopening, said Demi Kolke, association board member.
“We were super excited to get it,” she said.
Throughout the pandemic, the organization has been assessing members’ needs and using its website to publicize whether businesses are open, closed or offering limited services, said Ms. Kolke.
The grant money will help it assemble “welcome back” boxes containing supplies such as hand sanitizer, cleaning products, gloves and 6-foot markers for social distancing.
The association also hopes to add gift cards for local retailers so its members can “circulate money through the community,” she said.
In addition to providing the boxes to its 27 members, the association will distribute them to non-member businesses in the neighborhood and give them free membership privileges for the rest of 2020.
A significant need among enterprises in HomewoodBrushton, where the majority of residents and business owners are black, has been obtaining information about financial aid programs such as the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program loans, said Ms. Kolke.
“A lot of these programs are super difficult to navigate” especially when assistance is only available through virtual channels, she said.
“In disenfranchised communities where people were left out of the equation for so long, we need another level of outreach.”
At Divine Restoration, Mr. Ewell said part of the Poise grant will help purchase laptops for several students in Duquesne who are graduating from high school.
With universities implementing more online courses for the fall semester, “This will be a huge issue for them,” he said.
Nearly 100% of students in the former mill town qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, he said.
Mr. Ewell, director of continuing education at Penn State Greater Allegheny, and his wife, who teaches sixth grade in the Duquesne City School District, founded Divine Restoration seven years ago and have grown it to 70 to 100 members.
“Ironically, none of the outreach we have done is for our church families,” Mr. Ewell said.
“Some of our members could be on the list but typically they are so sacrificial they want the help to go to someone else. We do a good job taking care of each other.”