From Rev. Nathan Watts, minister at First Congregational UCC in Flagstaff:
Immigrants have long held low-wage jobs in Flagstaff restaurants, hotels, cleaning services, and construction. And many have already been laid off in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Although undocumented workers are vital to our economic and community well-being, most are systemically excluded from safety-net programs like unemployment insurance and other public benefits. And despite paying into our tax system just like the rest of us, most will not receive a dollar of support from the COVID-19 federal relief program. This is a huge injustice!
We rely on the tireless labor of our immigrant neighbors. Today, they need to be able to rely on us.
By contributing to the COVID-19 Fund for Flagstaff’s Immigrant Families, you help local families and individuals pay their rent and utilities, buy groceries, and obtain urgently needed medical care. You also let them know they are valued in our community.
Please give as much as you can! We welcome all amounts — from $5 on. Consider pledging all or some portion of your federal COVID-19 relief check to the immigrant community. As you consider what you can give and what is just, perhaps Rabbi Hillel’s words can guide you:
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what am I?
And if not now, when?”
This emergency fund is a mutual aid project by El Pueblo de Flagstaff to help immigrant families who would otherwise be pushed further into the shadows, without ways to meet their immediate survival needs during this pandemic and resulting economic crisis.
El Pueblo de Flagstaff is an organized network of community people prepared to protect the wholeness and wellness of our communities that are being targeted and torn apart by ICE and other forms of state violence. It is every person’s human right to exist openly and freely in the spaces where they live, love, work, party, and pray.
We are grounded in the values of interdependence and mutual aid.
We are partnering in this fund with the First Congregational Church of Flagstaff, which is committed to doing justice, seeking peace, and effecting change for a better world.
We invite YOU to partner with us too!
1. Donate to this COVID-19 Emergency Fund. No amount is too small or too large.
2. Spread the word to your social network — both locally and online.
And thank you for helping us widen the safety net to all!
OUR COMMITMENT
All donations received through this GoFundMe campaign go directly to a designated account with Pastor Nathan Watts and the First Congregational Church of Flagstaff, which will distribute grants of $500 per applicant. Grants will be provided to affected families on a first-come, first-served basis until all funds have been completely distributed. A fund application will be released soon. Applicants will be contacted and funds disbursed within days.