Since March 2020, ECOSS has been helping frontline communities and businesses respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Below is a list of many of the projects that ECOSS staff have undertaken:

  • Launched an ECOSS COVID-19 response webpage: https://ecoss.org/covid-19/
  • Distributed ECOSS COVID-19 response newsletters and social media posts
  • Produced and delivered a live webinar with a Q&A section that was directed to Vietnamese community in King County; 
  • Partnered with University of Washington Interdisciplinary Center for Exposures, Diseases, Genomic and Environment to create Myth Busters – Novel Coronavirus Video recordings in Korean, Mandarin, Amharic and Cantonese.
  • Delivered simultaneous interpretation of Seattle & King County Public Health information in Vietnamese (on March 20, 2020 under contract with Seattle and King County Public Health Guidance for Essential Businesses Translation)
  • Provided translation and quality assurance and control of multiple Seattle & King County Public Health materials into Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Korean (under contract with Public Health: Guidance for Essential Businesses Translation)
  • Provided translation into Vietnamese and Chinese for “Covid19 Mutual Aid Survival Fund for the People” GoFundMe questionnaire (Seattle area)
  • Provided COVID-19 resources to 21 Vietnamese community members in King County through wellness check-in phone calls; 
  • Hosted two COVID-19 information sessions in Nepali on Unemployment Benefits and Census 2020;  Creating audio recording in Korean to increase literacy and awareness on COVID-19 health awareness, Federal Assistance Funds and other official resources extracted from https://coronavirus.wa.gov; 
  • Reached out to 20 local restaurants owned by people who primarily speak Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Swahili, Hindi or other languages to help them promote their business on various social media sites dedicated to restaurants such as Yelp, food delivery such as Chowbus, Grubhub, and Catch22, which showed diners that business is open and what specialties their restaurant serves; conducting training to community leaders from Vietnamese community to amplify the voice within King County; 
  • Supported and connected five community-based and faith-based organization serving Vietnamese and Latinx communities in King County; 
  • Engaged five East African families living in South King County via phone call, texts, and WhatsApp by connecting them to food access and food banks in Rainier Valley, Kent, and Auburn, shared information related to unemployment benefits, DSHS food stamp application, and Food Life Line; 
  • Developed and implemented educational curriculum to support 15-25 children from vulnerable families of the Bhutanese and Nepali Communities by hosting one-on-one sessions with families to provide digital literacy coaching to support children during virtual schooling;
  • Developed in-language messaging and materials to help businesses understand resources and requirements as they reopen businesses and also maintain guidance provided by State and local health department as the Stay Home Stay Healthy order was lifted;
  • Joined Recreate Responsible Coalition, a coalition of stakeholders to develop some best practices for recreating responsibly during COVID-19 pandemic; 
  • Reached out to local community-based organizations to understand what community response projects different organizations are doing and to seek collaboration opportunities on COVID-19 projects and beyond. The list of community groups includes most of the King County COVID-19 Community Response awardees.
  • Secured codes provided by The Plate Fund for restaurant workers impacted by COVID-19 and assisted participants with the application process.
  • Engaged more than 170 small businesses via phone calls and follow up communication via email, text messages or phone calls. The service provided covered information about local government orders, healthy practices and connected business with several resources and application process
    • Resources and application support included:
      • COVID19 testing
      • Anti-hate and bias information
      • Inform and update businesses (restaurant, food services, nail salon) with new Phase 2 guidelines as they are released by State and County
      • Food supply
      • City of Seattle Stabilization Fund
      • Several small-business grants
      • The Plate Fund emergency relief fund for food service/restaurant workers: ECOSS secured codes provided by funders to access the fund and assisted participants with application.
      • PPP loan
      • Unemployment benefits
      • Business tax deferment
      • Utilities discount programs or deferred payment plan
    • Geographic area served: Seattle, Edmond, Federal Way, Kent, Renton, Lynwood, Shoreline, Tukwila and White Center.
    • Outreach was conducted in different languages including Amharic, Tigrinya, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin, Somali, Swahili, Spanish and Vietnamese
    • As a result of the outreach, eleven businesses awarded with the City of Seattle Stabilization Fund and six businesses were awarded with small-business grants
    • As a result of The Plate fund, 70 workers were connected and assisted with online application. A total of $35,000 distributed among 70 workers in King County
    • Under Seattle Public Utility contract, staff provided technical assistance to 80 restaurants to reduce, change or suspend solid waste services due to current public health crises and impact on restaurants operations
  • Built ECOSS staff capacity: Provided train-the-trainer opportunities for staff to learn about digital communications, equitable facilitations, storytelling, and audio and videography skills to continue serving and supporting communities while direct outreach is not feasible