Sandy Recovery Continues: Over $625,000 in New Funding

To help meet crucial needs gaps in health care access, mental health services and housing, AmeriCares has awarded over $625,000 in new funding to support programs for survivors in disaster-stricken communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.One year later, the struggle to recover from Hurricane Sandy is a daily reality for thousands of families across the tri-state area. For thousands of families, access to health care, as well as mental health and social services remain significant unmet needs.To help fill these crucial gaps, AmeriCares has awarded over $625,000 in new funding to support programs for survivors in disaster-stricken communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.“Sandy not only destroyed homes and businesses, but also left a lasting effect on the hearts and minds of those who suffered its devastation,” explained Lindsay O’Brien, AmeriCares Hurricane Sandy project manager. “We are committed to funding programs that directly serve Sandy survivors — from counseling traumatized children in Gerritsen Beach to delivering healthy meals to homebound survivors in the Rockaways.” Photo by Matthew McDermott, All Rights Reserved.To date, AmeriCares has provided more than $6.5 million in aid – enough to reach an estimated 450,000 Sandy survivors – including $3.5 million in medicines and relief supplies, and $3 million in funding to partner organizations. The latest round of funding includes:

$140,000 to Urban Neighborhood Services to fund a community health worker project in Coney Island, NY, linking low-income Sandy survivors to medical care, counseling and health education services. The project will benefit an estimated 520 people.
$75,000 to Jewish Family Services, Atlantic and Cape May Counties, NJ, to fund a nurse manager and project management to identify and help health-compromised, medically underserved individuals enroll in needed health services.
$110, 975 to Children’s Health Fund in Gerritsen Beach, Brooklyn to continue the operation of its mobile mental health clinic over the next 5 months – serving an estimated 530 people. Since February 2013, the mobile unit has been providing clinical care, case management, and mental health education, workshops and outreach to this flooded community.
$37,192 to Providence House Domestic Violence Services of Catholic Charities to fund counseling and case management services helping an estimated 300 Hurricane Sandy survivors who are the victims of domestic abuse in Ocean County, NJ.
$100,000 to Shore Soup Project to fund urban gardening programs that provide nutrition workshops and access to healthy food, including deliveries of meals to homebound and low-income storm survivors and their families. The programs will help an estimated 540 people.
$50,000 to HomeFront, to repair seven Sandy-damaged homes inhabited by low income, health-compromised residents in Connecticut.
$35,000 to Community Health Action of Staten Island to cover staffing expenses that enable its mobile medical unit to operate three days a week in Midland Beach, Oakwood Beach and New Dorp, helping an estimated 250 patients in need of medical care.
$89,707 to Lutheran Family Health Services to fund a licensed clinical social worker over 12 months who will provide direct therapy to storm survivors in Coney Island.