Community donations to Lincoln’s COVID-19 emergency response fund eclipsed $850,000 as the third-round of grants was released.
Of the more than $500,000 released, Lincoln Literacy’s $10,000 grant helped provide immediate economic relief.
“This pandemic changed everything and we needed to change with it,” Clayton F. Naff, executive director, tells KLIN News.
The grant, he said, helped pay their employees to keep their systems running.
Naff said they cut their online course in half to 38 since the pandemic started. He said their goal is to provide online courses to help prepare students for the workforce.
“We serve some of the most vulnerable in this community, people who don’t have English as a first language, those who are not as literate as the general population. We needed to reach out immediately to help them understand what was going on and get them critical, reliable information about the pandemic.”
Last week Lincoln Literacy took some enormous strides:
- Restoring educational services with 38 online classes
- Restarting GED prep classes
- Reviving classes on becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant
- Re-starting online English language classes
- Creating multi-lingual videos in key languages
- Adding virtual field trips
“I’ve never been prouder to live in Lincoln than now,” Naff said. “We have really demonstrated that we are a community and that we care about one another. Despite our individual worries, we are willing to pitch in and help one another. And that’s beautiful.”