Dear Friends,
I hope this message finds you healthy and safe. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives dramatically. We’re all adjusting our habits and finding new ways to work while observing mandated social distancing protocols. I’m proud of the GOSO and SAVE staff for how nimbly they moved the core of our services to a remote model. From our homes, GOSO and SAVE continue to deliver the same robust service our participants received at our East Harlem office.
I cannot say emphatically enough how active and engaged GOSO is right this minute:
- Career Managers and participants connect regularly through phone, text, email, and in many cases maintaining their important relationships via video conferencing.
- GOSO is actively in touch with and tracking our reentry participants on Rikers, communicating with families in some cases, attorneys in others. Our advocacy efforts contributed to the release of 32 participants from our city’s jails.
- Intake continues with our social work staff conducting virtual sessions using HIPAA-Compliant ZOOM for Healthcare.
- Our Two-Week Job Readiness Curriculum is now fully virtual, and therapeutic groups like meditation and yoga are on their normal schedule through virtual platforms.
- Our GOSOWorks team is actively connecting participants to new job opportunities. We’re also continuing to subsidize wages of our interns whose internships were disrupted or who are currently ill.
- Our SAVE East Harlem team continues to interrupt violence in our community. They are still engaging with participants and our community, especially through social media events like the virtual comedy show that we hosted and weekly game nights.
It’s incredible to be part of this phenomenal team right now, and we cannot thank you enough for standing by us and supporting our work and participants during this challenging time. GOSO needs you now more than ever. Please consider a contribution today (no amount is too small).
Warmly,
Jocelynne Rainey