Dear Friend,
While it’s wonderful to witness so many people receiving the COVID vaccine on social media, the pandemic is far from over. As the joke my wife shared with me goes, “Things will be back to normal when Costco starts offering samples again.”
The end of the pandemic can’t come soon enough for vulnerable children in our community. COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on their lives, leading to increased food and housing insecurity, school absenteeism, and anxiety and mental illness among children. These circumstances are complicated even further by increased domestic violence, child abuse and substance abuse within distressed families.
To respond to this ongoing humanitarian crisis, CMEE has joined six other nonprofit organization to form the East End Fund for Children. Our initiative includes Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center, the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center, i-Tri, Project MOST, the Retreat and the Southampton Youth Association. Together, we serve over 3,500 local children, parents and caregivers each week. They represent a range of age groups from infants through teenagers from across the five East End Townships.
Because of the pandemic, our seven organization have needed to expand our missions and initiate a variety of COVID response efforts, including providing essential food, mental health support, counseling and educational and recreational programming. The East End Fund for Children is a unique and groundbreaking initiative that is helping us coordinate these efforts and build our collective capacity. After all, we are stronger together.
If you’re interested in learning more about the East End Fund for Children, please email or call me at 631.537.8250.
Sincerely,
Steve