 You're tuned into the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT, 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm your host, Autumn LeBae Renaud, and today is Tuesday, March 31st. We're here to share local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 crisis. My guests today are Jessica Hubbard, Executive Director of the Yolo Community Foundation, and Heidi Kellison of the business blog, Downtown NorCal. We'll be talking about the impact of the crisis on nonprofit and for-profit small businesses, respectively, and we'll have that first interview in just a few minutes. This show airs live at noon on Tuesdays and Fridays, and repeats at 5 p.m. both days. You can also listen online anytime at kdrt.org, and you'll find a compilation of show resources there as well. And this Friday, I'll interview Congressman John Garamendi. I'm going to do something a little bit different at the first part of the show here. Because we're focusing on nonprofits and small businesses today, I'm going to take a couple of minutes here to reflect on running this nonprofit in a time of crisis. Believe it or not, it wasn't actually my plan to produce and host live radio twice a week at this point in my life. If you don't know me, my job is Executive Director for Davis Media Access, the Community Media and Technology Center that operates Davis Community Television, DJUSD Educational Access TV, and this here, Grassroots Radio Station KDRT. I'm working from home most of the time, but twice a week, I come here to host this show. The KDRT studio window in the DMA building at 1623 5th faces westbound traffic on 5th. And as most Davis Knights know, it's a street generally clogged with traffic, both cars and pedestrian. As I look out of it twice a week, the street's pretty empty, the sidewalk's pretty empty too, and it's in those moments that I start to feel the distance and the isolation a little bit. This usually bustling facility normally pushes out a great deal of local content from public affairs and music programming on KDRT to local talk shows, public service announcements, election programming and event coverage on DCTV and school board meetings and school-based productions on DJUSD TV. Fact is, much of what we do in a normal year, we can't do, and I know many of you are faced with that same situation in your work and your organizations. I want to take a minute here to express my pride in my staff and our board and volunteers here at DMA. Right now we're working hard to help KDRT programmers get back on the air remotely, and we're also getting ready to launch Life in the Time of COVID-19, Yolo County Community Diary, which is a collaborative video storytelling project about our shared experiences at this moment in time. On DJUSD Comcast Channel 17, we're providing a wealth of science and foreign language distance learning programming. So I'm here. I do this work because I believe in the importance of local community-based media. We need ways to connect with those around us. We need to know where our local resources are, or we need to find out how we can offer help. I do this show because I know what important role community radio in particular plays in a time of crisis. When cell towers and broadband fail, as they did during widespread wildfires last year, radio can be a lifeline. So I hope KDRT is a lifeline for some of you, and I hope the show is helpful. And I hope everyone out there is doing your part to stay put and help flatten the curve. As we watch the news unfold, it seems increasingly likely we may be social distancing for some time yet. And I wrote on the Davis Media Access webpage last night that we're closed until further noticed. At first it was to the end of March, and now it's we don't know. So with you in the spirit of we don't know and we're doing our lives anyway to the best we can. Let's take a moment for music while I get ready for our first call. A few weeks ago, I was feeling rather concerned about the lack of attention being paid to nonprofits and the overall discussions about economic relief. I'm happy to report that has shifted, at least locally, with county and city governments and community foundations now addressing the potentially devastating impacts of COVID-19 on the nonprofit sector. Here to tell us more is Jessica Hubbard, Executive Director of the Yolo Community Foundation. Thanks for joining us, Jessica. Thank you so much for having me. Good to hear your voice. Let's start. Why don't you let listeners know just a little bit about what Yolo Community Foundation does? Sure, absolutely. So the Yolo Community Foundation works to inspire and support giving and provide philanthropic leadership in Yolo County. More simply what that means is that our goal is to increase the quantity and quality of giving locally. We do that by setting up philanthropic funds, which are like many foundations for local families, as well as endowments for local nonprofits. Great. I've had conversations with other nonprofit leaders in the last couple of weeks, and I'm hearing from some of them they don't, they fear they might not survive this year. What are you hearing out there? And let's take that question first and then let's talk about how the attention on nonprofit needs has shifted in really just the last week. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm hearing the same. Well, I would divide local nonprofits into two groups. One is the nonprofits that are directly involved in relief efforts, and they are working harder than they've ever worked before. They still need significant financial resources because the scale of the response is so tremendous, but they also have money coming in. It's just that they need more from all of us so that they're able to meet the need in the community. And then the second group is nonprofits that are not directly involved in relief efforts. They still have a role to play in all of this, a significant role when it comes to mental health and education and recovery, but they're less involved in the immediate disaster response. And those are the organizations that I'm hearing from that their revenue streams have just turned off. A lot of those organizations were funded with earned income, like classes and field trip fees and performance tickets, and that's just stopped. Their fundraising and buzz have been canceled, and their donors are scared. They're financially scared. So I have a significant concern that a lot of the organizations that aren't drug responders might not survive this crisis. A lot of nonprofits do rely on volunteer help for their projects, and they get grants that utilize large numbers of volunteers. Those are off the table too. So it's a conundrum. I've noticed in the past that our retired Yolo County residents really carry the nonprofit sector on their back when it comes to volunteering. And that's the segment of our population that has been most impacted by the stay at home orders. Of course, all of us are home, but they're the ones with the greatest concerns about even relatively safe volunteer opportunities, of course. So I agree that that's just really a tremendous impact. So you and I chatted at an, it was actually a big day of giving event a couple of months ago, and I remember you asking me point blank, what can the community foundation do to help nonprofits more? And you and I batted around a lot of ideas. I didn't think at that time, and I'm sure you didn't either, that we'd be having that conversation in a new context, but here we are. So on March 24th, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors approved a plan and with $250,000 of seed money and plans to bring in large scale donors into a community action fund. I know the cities are going to be in Yolo County are going to be folding in. What's the community foundations role? What can you tell us? Yes, absolutely. So we're collaborating with the county and other partners on a free prom strategy for disaster relief for crisis response. First, we're working to provide technical assistance to nonprofits on issues that this crisis is raising, like access to government funding, cash flow management, the villainess in both issues. Secondly, we're launching a community wide donor education campaign to help local residents understand what needs this is creating in our community, what local nonprofits are doing to address those needs, and how critical it is for each of us to do what we can to support our nonprofits. And we're really encouraging people to give directly to nonprofits. The third part is the fund that you referred to and that's really intended to coordinate and maximize large donations, very large donations, from institutional donors like cities and companies and so on. That's still in progress, but we expect to have an official announcement in the next couple of days. OK, so if I'm not going to use Davis Media Access as an example, but I'm a random nonprofit and I'm struggling and I'd sure like to get in on some of that funding, what should I do? So you should go to our website and follow the link. It's www.yolasdf.org. There's a link on our website where you can sign up. Anyone can sign up to stay updated about our COVID-19 relief efforts. That said, we will also be reaching out to all of our nonprofits in our network, through all of our partner organizations, through the cities, et cetera, to really get the word out once we have the grant making process defined and once we're open for business, which we are working to do as quickly as possible. And are lots of nonprofits already contacting you? I would assume. Yeah, not as many as you might think. I think because people are so flat out immersed in the day-to-day business of their work, but we have been doing a lot of outreach. We hosted a call with about 50 nonprofit representatives pretty early on in all of this and did a survey. We've been following up with a sampling of executive directors to get more detail about what their needs are. And we're hoping to launch both our actually really all three elements of the strategy in the next couple of days. All right, so that's kind of the picture in Yolo County and local efforts. Are you aware of how nonprofits can gain anything under the federal stimulus bill? So that's one of the key areas where we're looking, we're hearing from nonprofits that they need support. So right now we're working to understand exactly what their needs are. Again, through speaking with a sample of executive directors as a representative group and then I'm working with a couple of consultants to scope out who are the experts in these questions and what's the simplest, fastest, easiest way we can provide some training to nonprofits as well as potentially one-on-one support to nonprofits to help them answer these questions. Because right now the quantity of information is varying people and so we need to figure out, so what we're working right now is figure out how do we make this digestible and simple knowing how hard people are working right now and how important this is going to be for them. Okay, I wanna thank you for taking time here today to talk about this. As you said, it is overwhelming. Again, from my perspective here at DMA we've had to learn how to run a highly technical organization remotely. So that's been one challenge. We've had to distribute workloads, put grants on hold. We're afraid of what's gonna happen to our donations this spring, et cetera. So I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you and also the fact that you're out there and you're addressing this head-on. Thank you, I appreciate that. All right. So it's not us, we're doing in support of our local nonprofits and they're the ones on the front lines. And like I said, it's the nonprofits working in healthcare and social safety not and it's also all of the nonprofits that are important to each one of us for various reasons. All are critical and it's important that we really all do what we can no matter how big or how small that is right now. All right, well thanks again for your time. Thank you. Bye. That was Jessica Hubbard, Executive Director of the YOLO Community Foundation. She's someone I have cross-passed with a number of times this year and it's always a pleasure and it's really nice to hear from her about the efforts going on. Again, their website is YOLO-CF as in catfrog.org A little bit of music and we'll be back in just a minute. All right, we're gonna take another call in a few minutes and as is my practice I'm gonna squeeze in as many announcements as I can. I do wanna say there's a on the catart.org there's a separate blog where we're categorized where we're putting all the resources that have been mentioned on this show since the beginning with links. And so, you know, if you're listening something goes by a website, a phone number goes by pretty quickly but you can actually find that information catart.org. All right, I learned yesterday that the California Department of Public Health is doing a daily press release on the COVID-19 situation. This is in addition to, you know, what you can get from the county's fine resources but it's a daily update and before warned it has all the numbers and all the statistics so if you don't like that kind of thing don't visit this website but it is cdph.ca.gov California Department of Public Health. And abc10.com broke a story yesterday that free coronavirus testing is actually now available in Sacramento County. Their questions are, who is eligible? How do you get an appointment? What is the testing process? Turns out you must be 18 years or older live within 50 miles of Sacramento County which actually applies to all of us here in Yolo County and you have to go through an online screening process so you can learn more about that at abc10.com. And if you've lost income due to COVID-19 or shelter in place, you may be eligible for paid sick leave, family leave or unemployment insurance. Find out more from the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency's website labor.ca.gov And the city of Davis also directs us to these resources. City of Davis on Facebook, just go to Facebook and plug in cityofdavis and cityofdavis.org forward slash coronavirus. And you can sign up to receive emergency notifications at yolo-alert.org. And I think that's tied into both city and county. Moving on to food. Food not bombs delivers free vegan meals in Davis to anyone who is interested. You don't have to explain yourself in any way. If you'd like to request meal delivery, contact them on Facebook at Davis food not bombs or email davisfnb at gmail.com. Please include your name, address, food allergies and any other notes. All meals will be vegan and they're taking safety precautions while cooking and delivering to homes. The Minetti Shrimp Museum at UC Davis shares new content on its social media every Friday. These include long reads about their artist as well as fun ideas to keep your creative juices flowing. By the way, I'm seeing this come forward from a lot of the arts nonprofits. So go to your favorite's website, find out what they're offering at home. I know the Pence is doing this, I know the Davis Art Center is doing this, et cetera. But you can connect with them at Minetti Shrimp Museum at ucdavis.edu or on Facebook or Instagram. And that's M-A-N-E-T-I-S-C-H-R-E-M. And I talked last week about Sutter Davis Hospital's PPE donation line, personal protective equipment. They're still accepting donations but they ask that you please call. Don't drop things off without calling and talking to someone. 530-759-7477. And as school is working hard to get teachers back online and connected with students, you can find out all about that at djuust.net. And there's links there for it's learning at home portal which went live last week. And also information about Chromebooks and internet access. The school district right now is doing a really bang up job of trying to get everyone who's not connected connected so that they can continue learning during this time. And finally from our friends at the Yolo Public Library, Ms. Maria hosted interactive storytelling time every Thursday at one on Yolo County Library's Instagram feed go to Instagram and plug in Yolo County Library and that'll get you there. All right, we're gonna do just a little bit more music as we get set up to talk with Heidi Kellison. Davis resident Heidi Kellison launched a blog last year called Downtown NorCal which at the time was devoted to her love of shopping small and supporting small businesses. During the COVID-19 crisis, she's retooled her work to focus on interviews with local business owners, getting straight to the heart of their struggles and how we as a community can help them. Here to tell us more, Heidi Kellison, welcome. Thank you, Autumn. It's so great to be with you today. Good to hear your voice. So a lot's changed since you launched last year. And I noticed in getting ready for this, you were formally directing people to your blog on your website, downtownnorcal.com. And now you're all Facebook and Instagram and you're getting a lot of videos out there. So tell us about what that transition's been like for you. Well, I mean, we're all learning new technologies to be remote. And so that has been, I'm technologically challenged already, so not to have an IT person with me has been complicated, but it's the least we can all do. And I really felt like, especially when we needed to be remote, and I did get some in-person interviews before we were sheltered in place. But in order to be remote, I really needed to get a, I needed to put the voices to these stories because we know there are community members, there are the people we love, there are the people we go to for speaking to your last segment, non-profit support. They're the ones who make sure that nonprofits can have good events and raise money. Absolutely. So I knew I had to adjust and do what was needed to help. Well, this is what we do here on Community Media too. It's about the power of storytelling. So I would love if you'd share with us a few stories from the field. Who have you been interviewing and tell us what you're hearing from them? Well, I'm interviewing all segments of small business economy. And I have had some very special stories. To me, they're all, it's like choosing a child. They're all special. They all have something that's unique to share. I think the thing I'm hearing most, and these are really tough people. And that's why I have always volunteered my advocacy efforts on their behalf because I admire the guts it takes to hang your own shingle and make payroll and all of those things. But despite their tenacity, there is real fear. I've never heard before. And I think a lot of that stems from the unknown, but especially for them, I think it's one of those sectors where aside from the SBA loans at this point, there's not a lot of attention to what they can do. And for them, an SBA loan may be incurring more debt. So the lack of guidance and support around that is very complicated. Also locally, but every city has adopted an ordinance to delay rent. And so we've got April 1st tomorrow. And that is a concern for some businesses. How are they gonna make their home mortgage payment or rent and the same for their business? And they just don't know. And they're zero income, or some are operating remotely by a thread. But that certainly does not make the rent that they are accustomed to having to pay. And we have a situation at least here in Davis anyway, where downtown business rents are beyond exorbitant. They're really up there in the stratosphere. And I personally know local business owners who have had to downsize their quarters or before this crisis or had to move out of the downtown. So we could be looking at a very different business landscape when this is all done, right? Well, I agree. And I think that that is the hard question. And I almost hate to ask it, but I do get a lot of offline comments about that. People want to put their most optimistic self forward in my interviews, but behind the scenes, they are sharing with me that fear that they may not reopen. And of course, I'm not out and about, we're all sheltering in place. But when I emerge back into the world, I want to see a thriving commerce out there. I want to see a downtown that's active. I want to see people having places to go. And so that's the most essential thing that I feel I can do right now is to make sure that our community can remain intact. Yeah. You shared a post on the COVID-19 yellow community response group on Facebook yesterday that had, you broke it down into basically, businesses have two options at this time. Can you kind of backtrack a little bit and go over those? One of them was a, you mentioned SBA, that small business administration. And then there was another part to that post you did. Well, it's essentially the guidance and there's very little information. I was listening to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors meeting today and there was lamenting about the lack of information coming out to support small, but really that folks need to work with their own financial institution. And if they don't have one that they're working with, there are free services and that was listed in the post so people can view that at downtownNorCal.com or they can go directly to Facebook and find the post. But yeah, you can also work with your account. So I've heard from some businesses that they go through the, they're working hard to stay afloat and do what they can do behind the scenes. Was talking with a restaurant owner last week and he said that he was getting through the SBA application which is quite lengthy and by page 20 each time for the three days it would crash. And so really that's very frustrating when you're trying to keep everything going. And I really would encourage small businesses to work with their lending institutions. Okay. Well, it's a daunting process and I'm really glad to have you here to share a few note firsthand notes from the field and I wanna encourage people to, they can find out more about what you're doing and see interviews on both Facebook and Instagram at downtownNorCal. Heidi Kelsen, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks again. Take care. It is, I try to stay somewhat upbeat while delivering a lot of bad news here these days but I'm really trying to include the resources and to hammer home the feeling that though we may be socially distanced we are in this together. So at this point I'm gonna say thanks for tuning in and I'll be back this Friday with an interview with Congressman John Garamendi. Looking forward to that and from the KDRT studio I'm Autumn Laberino and this has been the COVID-19 Community Report.