News Archives for March of 2020

Community Action Partnership of Providence program updates during COVID-19

updated as of 12/2/2020

Food Pantry

Residents in the 02905 and 02907 zip codes are able to receive food from the pantry at 807 Broad Street on Wednesdays from 10 am to 2 pm. Seniors and disabled residents can arrive earlier at 9:30 am.

Contact: Kymara (Pantry Coordinator) ext 302, Rosairis (Pantry Assistant) ext 313

Senior Program

Senior activities suspended until further notice. We know our seniors depend on CAPP to provide them with meals during the week so staff has decided to start delivering meals, food pantry items and wellness checks to the homes of program participants. Circumstances are changing rapidly so these accommodations for residents will last for as long as is feasible.

Contact: Norma ext 186

VITA

VITA services are suspended until further notice. The VITA Coordinator will be answering call and emails on Thursdays. Contact Wendy Ext 143 Email: vita@cappri.org

Rhode Island Works Program

RIW enrolled participants' office/home visits suspended until further notice.

RIW Case Managers will work enrolled residents remotely. They will provide residents with work or activities they can complete from home. If a parent is/was scheduled for a training that has been canceled or suspended due to COVID-19. Case managers will work with participants on completing remote work/activities while waiting for a new training or the training to resume.

Contact: Rebecca 

LIHEAP (Heating Assistance ) and Good Neighbor Energy Fund (GNEF)

The heating assistance program will be taking applications by phone and only seeing residents in crisis in person at 518 Hartford. If a resident is exhibiting symptoms of sickness, they will be asked to leave and only return after being symptom-free for 24 hours. If you need to renew your application, you can send us your paperwork by mail (CAPP 518 Hartford Avenue Providence, RI 02909) OR drop off your paperwork in the one of the two drop boxes at our office.

Smart Optional Solutions (SOS)

SOS coaches will continue to conduct phone interviews and mailing information to residents already enrolled in the program.

Center for Justice

Housing legal assistance Clinic is suspended until further notice

Project Undercover

Diapers distribution suspended at 518 Hartford . Diapers will be available at the Food Pantry.

SNAP Case Manager

Services suspended until further notice

National Grid Advocate

Services suspended until further notice

Rental Assistance

The Resident Navigator– Lizayda will be pre-screening residents requesting rental assistance over the phone and schedule office appointments after April 17, 2020. In the meantime, the governor put a hold on evictions until further notice.

LEAD Program

Program suspended until further notice. 

Weatherization

Weatherization audits/home visits are suspended until further notice. We are ONLY addressing no heating emergency situations.

Contact: Dayanarah Ext 161

Education and Training

Bookkeeping class will continue as scheduled remotely with online access using ZOOM.

Contact: Brittany Ext 131

PLTI Alumni

Scheduled monthly meetings thru ZOOM.

Contact: Bruce Ext 127

Effective immediately, we will not meet with residents face-to-face unless they are submitting a new application, have oil heat or if their National Grid services have been turned off. All other Residents are being asked to file their application over the phone by calling 401.273.2000. You can mail in the required documents or use the 24/7 drop box outside our office at 518 Hartford Avenue, Providence.

CAPP is doing everything we can to continue offering services to Providence residents. Like everyone else, we are deeply concerned about the effects of COVID-19 and we are taking the following precautions:

• We are committed to keeping our workspaces clean, sanitizing surfaces as best we can in between residents.
• We are not coming to work if we are sick or if someone at home is sick.

If you are sick, or have had contact with someone who is sick PLEASE do not come to CAPP until you are fever-free for at least 24 hours. If you come into the office and we suspect that you are sick, you will be asked to go home. We will schedule a phone appointment for you or you can come back when you are feeling better.

Taking applications over the phone will cause delays in service but we are reassigning some staff members to cover the phone lines to help as many residents as possible.

We thank you in advance for your patience. If the line is busy when you call, please wait a few minutes and call back.

We are here for you as we always have been.

Janette Perez earned her Master’s in Social Work in 2018. The hard-working and determined mother of three received the heartrending news that her youngest child had little to no vision in one eye due to a congenital condition and it threw her for a loop. So focused on her children and continuing her education for so many years, she found herself unable to utilize her Master’s degree because the sheer number of doctor’s appointments made her unavailable for full-time employment.

“I felt overwhelmed, inadequate,” she said.

Until a Family and Community Engagement Officer through the Providence Public School system told her about the Parent Leadership Training Institute program run by CAPP.

It sounded like a great opportunity to flex her academic muscles and learn about community engagement. Moreover, PLTI was more than learning civic skills; “it was the beginning of the journey to find myself,” Janette said.

Over the course of the program, Janette gained the confidence to use her voice. She felt she wasn’t just doing something for the community, she was also doing something for herself.

Part of the PLTI program entails participants completing a community project. The work is totally up to the individual, emphasizing their own interests, skills and passion. Janette’s unique experience navigating the deeply complex waters of Medicaid due to her son’s special medical needs inspired her to start a community group for families having difficulty or needing help with accessing Medicaid. She used the skills she’d acquired in school and with PLTI to learn everything she could about the program in order to advocate for families. She wanted them to know what questions to ask, what they might qualify for and how to make the application process successful.

As part of this work, she attended meetings of the Children and Family Consumer Advocacy Committee (CAC) and also found a great deal of help from the Medicaid Advisory Committee, which she found through the RI Parent Information Network. Even still, she recognized that others would experience difficulties. She was no novice and it was still deeply distressing and aggravating. Her goal became to do all of the hard stuff herself in order to have the experience and be able to decrease the frustration for others who faced roadblocks.

“If I didn’t have the background I have, I would have given up.”

She became one of forty-five accepted to the RI Department of Education’s Community Design Team and gives her PLTI experience part of the credit for inspiring her to nominate herself for the post. In the wake of the Providence school system takeover by the state, the Community Design Team will create a report with recommendations on how to best serve students and mend the broken school system.

Janette is thankful for CAPP and PLTI for encouraging her to use her voice to advocate for others and to persevere in spite of adversaries.

“PLTI really showed me that I am somebody. My Master’s gave me the skills. PLTI gave me the push.”