Today the Campaign for Southern Equality will reopen applications for the sixth round of their COVID-19 Rapid Response Grant Program‘s Emergency Assistance Grants. People who received Emergency Assistance Grants in previous rounds are eligible to apply again for this round.
The program is open to any LGBTQ person in a Southern state experiencing the health and financial impacts of the pandemic and provides a grant of $100 to assist with needs such as food, rent, prescriptions. Those who have received an Emergency Assistance Grant in previous rounds are eligible to apply in the second round.
The Campaign created at the rapid response grant round earlier this year to quickly route funds to individuals, families, and community organizations across the LGBTQ South. The grant round are distributed through CSE’s Southern Equality Fund. Since March they have opened up $270,000 in rapid response funding.
“We know how urgent the need is for folks, especially with the expiration of unemployment benefits this month,” said Wynston Sanders, Southern Equality Fund Organizer in a press release. “Here’s one comment we received from April, a North Carolinian who received a grant: ‘It isn’t just a matter of dire financial need.There being groups like Campaign for Southern Equality who are doing non-government supplemental aid funds remind me that my life does matter. I’m going to survive these years – and it will be with help from others.”
The Campaign has prioritized the order in which applicants receive funding:
- Individuals that are disproportionately vulnerable to the health risks of COVID-19, including senior citizens, people with immune conditions, and people with chronic disease.
- Applicants who are first responders, health care providers, and employees in the industries that have already been impacted by the economic downturn resulting from COVID-19.
- People of color, trans and nonbinary people, people with low incomes, and people living in rural areas.
TYou can apply on the Campaign’s web site.
