San Diego City Wire

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, area organizations are still hard at work to make sure that community service doesn't cease. 

For people in the San Diego area struggling with homelessness, the winter months bring a lot of stress and uncertainty. That's why United Way of San Diego (UWSD), Father Joe's Villages and Team Mulvaney have partnered to help the area's homeless population make the cold and wet months a little easier with the annual "Warm Your Heart" blanket and towel drive. 

Father Joe's Villages is a San Diego-based organization that fights to end and prevent homelessness, and Team Mulvaney is a group of longtime Father Joe's Villages donors; the partnership between UWSD and Father Joe's Villages has stood for over a decade, according to UWSD President and CEO Nancy L. Sasaki.

"Helping individuals ease the stress of winter months, Team Mulvaney (Brian, David, and Jim [Mulvaney] Jr.), Father Joe's Villages, and United Way of San Diego County are leveraging their resources to collect warm blankets and clean towels to those experiencing homelessness," Sasaki said. Jim Mulvaney Sr. passed away in 2010. "The Mulvaney family has been a longtime supporter of United Way of San Diego County, dating back long before the early 2000s with the creation of the James F. Mulvaney Community Leadership Award for exceptional service to the San Diego community."

UWSD works in the community in multiple other ways, and has strived to make the same impacts despite the COVID-19 pandemic; from programs such as Readers in the Heights to Every Student, Every Family to the Worker Assistance Initiative, UWSD has felt the challenges posed by the virus across the board. 

The Readers in the Heights program is a collaborative effort with community partners to bring summer reading opportunities to third, fourth and fifth graders in their families. The COVID-19 pandemic, Sasaki said, has threatened the educational success of those children. 

"COVID-19 has disproportionately affected families experiencing economic hardship," Sasaki said. "[...] When schools and after-school learning programs moved online, the Readers in the Heights team realized a need to shift its model to keep students excited about reading."

Before the pandemic, almost half of San Diego County's third graders could not read at their grade level. 

"And that was before school closures and virtual learning exacerbated inequitable access to high-quality learning opportunities," Sasaki explained. Students could be up to a year behind in their reading levels by this summer. "While studies show that enhancing a child's access to books at home has a significant impact on their long-term learning, many students in our community do not have books in their homes."

Other programs affected by the pandemic include the Every Student, Every Family program, Sasaki explained. The Every Student, Every Family program combats chronic absenteeism in San Diego County's schools by identifying students at risk and offering supportive intervention methods. 

The Worker Assistance Initiative (WAI) was introduced by UWSD as a way to support workers who have been laid off or had their hours reduced as a result of the COVID pandemic. 

"The aim of the WAI complements the work of public health officials to prevent the need to enter the social services system of care and prevent homelessness," Sasaki said. "[...] To date, United Way of San Diego has raised close to $2 million to support those in need."