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Executive Director Henry Fernandez: LEAP is a family.
Around 40 percent of LEAP high schoolers have a family member who has lost a job due to Covid-19. While some of these families can access federal benefits to help their situations, undocumented families cannot.
The youth tutoring and recreation agency is acting to change these numbers in New Haven’s low-income neighborhoods, from ensuring LEAP youth counselors keep their jobs to sending families to food pantries and other resources.
The nonprofit explained the situation during a Zoom call with donors and supporters on Wednesday.
“We’re standing in the position of being in contact with the most vulnerable and able to provide assistance as we see it,” said LEAP Director of Development Rachel Kline Brown.
Virtual Mentors
LEAP Junior Counselor Khalid Washington.
In normal times, Khalid Washington is a LEAP junior counselor and an 11th grader at Eli Whitney Technical High School in Hamden. Now, he starts his schoolwork from home in the morning. After taking a break for himself, he clocks into his job by videochatting with the younger students he mentors through LEAP.
Counselors like Washington are now important income-earners in their families, a survey of LEAP’s 100 youth counselors revealed.
The nonprofit found 42 percent of those counselors have families who have lost jobs or hours with the onset of the novel coronavirus in the state. All of the counselors’ families own working smartphones. However, one-fifth do not have a computer that will work for distance learning and videoconferencing.
Results from the LEAP counselor survey.
The youth counselors then helped LEAP survey the families of 7 to 15 year-olds that participate in the nonprofit’s afterschool and leadership training programs. This survey found roughly one-quarter of the 155 families that responded had lost or were close to losing their job. One-fifth of all the families had no access to technology or the internet at home at all.
“It’s very clear that there’s a gap in technology and that raises real civil rights concerns,” said Executive Director Henry Fernandez.
LEAP Counselor Development Manager Abdul-Razak Zachariah presents results from the family survey.
Fernandez said that LEAP has begun adjusting to the new normal under the public health emergency, knowing that staff members will have to tweak their programming as they go along.
Counselors check in virtually with their mentees three times a week. They work on homework together, do educational activities and hold group read-alouds.
The children have been grateful for the contact outside of their homes. Fernandez showed a video of two kids jumping, dancing and making silly faces when they called their mentor for the first time.
Two young LEAPers calling their counselor.
“Every time I have a videochat with the kids, they not only ask me about myself and the other counselors but the other kids as well. They love interacting with the other kids,” Washington said.
Another junior counselor on the call, Serenity Hickman, described asking one of her mentees to read a chapter of a book and consider what she would have done differently in the plot. Her mentee then drew a comic strip about the chapter.
“There are a lot of parents that are concerned about housing and availability of food,” Hickman said. “I believe that if we all pull together, it will all work out.”
In addition to its youth programming, LEAP has turned its website into a resource with read-aloud and athletic videos for all area families. They are also calling with other youth agencies every week to determine gaps and advocate together — for example, to ensure all students have access to technology.
Key gaps remain for LEAP families in access to technology, food and a steady source of income.
New Haven Public Schools has loaned around 7,000 Chromebooks and other technology to students during the shutdown. However, the city has advised the schools not to continue operating out of their buildings, so around 5,000 families still do not have what they need to start distance learning, Fernandez said.
Undocumented families are hit particularly hard. Fernandez said that many parents and guardians are continuing to work in dangerous conditions and without access to childcare.
How To Help
Over 50 people joined LEAP’s call on Wednesday.
The primary purpose of the call was to answer a question Fernandez said the nonprofit has been fielding frequently: how can LEAP supporters help?
Fernandez asked people who want to volunteer to tutor the youth counselors or make reading and art videos for the site.
The nonprofit has also launched a fundraiser with a goal amount of $100,000. The dollars would go towards Covid emergency services like distance learning technology for students.
One caller wanted to help out immediately. Melanie Mayer said that education-focused Mfund, Inc. would match $5,000 of other donations to the fundraiser. Fernandez thanked her and asked others on the call to help share the challenge grant. (Click here to view LEAP’s donate page.)
“LEAP is a big family. It’s really important at this time when so many of us are pulled apart from our families and our loved ones and our sense of larger community,” Fernandez said.
