County of Sonoma expands role of On the Move in providing COVID-19 community assistance, financial support

The County of Sonoma has allocated additional funding to local nonprofit On the Move for dissemination of financial support to more local residents. The support will go to eligible Sonoma County community members to ease the burden of lost time at work, unemployment, health care and costs associated with isolation or quarantining related to COVID-19 exposure. Eligible residents must test positive for COVID-19 or be a close contact, not have access to paid leave and have an income that is less than 80 percent of the annual median income in the Count.

The County has allocated the funding to On the Move due to the non-profit’s successful program COVID-19 Urgent Response and Aid - commonly referred to as the CURA Project - which brings together Sonoma County leaders, partner organizations and community members to provide direct support to individuals that are most impacted by COVID-19 in Sonoma County.

“The importance of partners like On the Move and the CURA Project cannot be understated,” said Susan Gorin, Chair of the Board of Supervisors. “Our Department of Health Services knows that it is critical to have partners with strong relationships and a trusted history of supporting our community.

The original contract with On the Move began on Sept. 29 and prioritized farmworkers, local laborers and other Latinx and indigenous language-speaking communities. On the Move distributed the $600,000 earmarked for emergency financial assistance in the first weeks of the program to about 400 families. The County recently infused this program with additional funding from the CARES Act. The wide success of the program, which was originally funded through the Community Foundation, demonstrated the greater need for assistance throughout Sonoma County.

In response to the demonstrated need for financial assistance throughout the county, the County developed a new program that will open financial assistance to more members of our community.The County will offer emergency financial assistance to residents during contact tracing in the amount of $1,216 per person. The financial support, which came from CARES Act funding, was designated for up to 1,368 confirmed adult COVID-19 cases or close contacts. Contact tracers offer this support to residents who meet criteria including those who earn less than 80 percent of the annual median income in Sonoma County and do not have access to financial support that compensates for lost wages. On the Move will distribute the financial assistance to residents according to contact tracer’s recommendations, using a $1.8 million agreement with the County signed on Nov. 18.

Through data analysis of the County’s contact tracing program, the County has determined that essential workers are often contracting the disease in the workplace and then spreading it to those in their households. The emergency financial assistance seeks to break this cycle by providing essential workers a stipend that allows them to miss work for two weeks while they recover from COVID-19 without spreading it to those in their households or workplace. In addition to the emergency financial assistance, the CURA Project connects residents with additional programs designed to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Partner agencies that work with La Plaza, a program of On the Move include Leap Solutions, Child Parent Institute, Humanidad, Botanical Bus, Lideres Campesinas, Nuestra Comunidad, Charla Project, Latino Service Providers, Undocufund, IsoCare, River to Coast Children’s Services, McDowell Family Resource Center, La Luz, Corazon Healdsburg, and Via Esperanza.