Hall’s Calling
With more people staying at home due to quarantine restrictions, already strained relationships have undergone additional stressors.Thus, domestic violence rates have increased. “Those early morning hours are peak times, so we want to do whatever we can to offset those incidents.” Hall and a team of delivery drivers create care packages to distribute to victims escaping violent situations. “We can’t expect these individuals to just run across shelters or find the people they need. We have to be the ones looking for them.” With most of its expenses related to purchasing and preparing meals and other supplies, the coalition requires $10,000 each month to operate. Hall says she hopes to expand the organization to become a greater source of solutions to racial biases, particularly from the pandemic. “My goal is for us to be fully-funded, where we can hire staff to further expand our services because this community needs us.” Looking for Them
areas. Part of the coalition’s service involves preparing meals for children in low- income neighborhoods. While many local programs offer meals and other provisions, people with disabilities are often excluded from these benefits. “What happens if they don’t have a car or if they can’t walk? These are the people who need to access these resources the most, and limitations in mobility shouldn’t prevent that.” Since the start of the pandemic, many schools have been ill- equipped to prepare and distribute the number of meals required to keep children fed and nourished. Some programs require students to arrive on campus to receive the meals, leaving those with disabilities or no transportation at a greater disadvantage. So the coalition has been preparing and distributing meals. “We deliver the food to them so they don’t have to worry about finding ways to get to where those meals are. We don’t want to just talk about the disparities within these communities, we want to do the work it takes to eliminate them.” Since March, Hall and her team have delivered 47,000 meals to families in and around Cleveland.
Founded in 2011, the coalition serves about 8,000 people each year.Through her position, Hall speaks at conferences across the country on methods of accounting for gaps in resources among African Americans. “Cultural competency is a large part of what we do,” she said. “But it’s more detailed than that. It’s about finding ways to address each individual situation and not lump everyone together. African Americans are affected by all kinds of things, and the pandemic has only accelerated that.” Hall’s calling to outreach began at a young age. Her mother was a victim of domestic violence, and Hall witnessed her mother’s death when she was six years old. “Though I was young, I promised I’d help other women who were in similar situations to my mother’s.” Hall later experienced another tragedy when her brother was murdered in a racial incident. After gathering these life experiences, she returned to her promise to help others and address some of the core issues within her community. “I started thinking that if I haven’t done anything to change people’s lives, then my journey wasn’t worth walking.” Now 25 years into her work, Hall has continued working to identify societal structures that would prevent resources from reaching some of the community’s most vulnerable
-Yvonka Hall “We don’t want to just talk about the disparities within these communities, we want to do the work it takes to eliminate them.”
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