The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness is committed to supporting and advocating for women and families in our community during this unprecedented time of uncertainty and instability brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our focus is to support Black women and their families to remain safe, healthy, and resilient through the current crisis, and to position them to adapt and recover quickly.

• Maintaining a daily presence in communicating accurate and timely information, safety protocols, and critical community resources to women and families.
• Using existing and newly attained dollars to provide immediate and direct emergency response support to women and families to sustain food, housing, childcare, and to secure basic living needs.
  
• Actively creating online social engagement channels to support the physical and emotional well being of Black women and community members in the midst of social distancing and economic hardship.
  
• Advocating with local and state health officials for increased access to testing and timely screening of African American community members who presently face the greatest risk and casualties from COVID-19.
  
• Demanding accountability and transparency in the reporting of COVID-19 data on cases, treatment, and impact on the Black community, with a lens on addressing disparities in access and treatment.
  
• Talking with policy makers and decision makers now about effective recovery actions and needs of Black women and families to regain stability.
  

The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened existing needs, gaps and inequities within the African American community and specifically among Black women who are disproportionately heads of household, primary or sole breadwinners, and leaders and caregivers of multi-generational households and family systems that include both children and elderly family members.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services COVID-19 data indicates that there is a disturbingly disproportionate number of COVID-19 cases and deaths within the Black Community. As of April 12, 2020, the Black Community which is 7% of the population in the state of Wisconsin, accounts for 26% of COVID-19 Cases, and 42% of COVID-19 deaths. These startling statistics reflect the pattern of persistent and unmitigated disparities in the living, working and health conditions of African Americans across Wisconsin and here in Dane County, prior to COVID-19.

We are working daily to illuminate and drive greater accountability, equity, and effectiveness in current COVID-19 emergency response efforts, testing, treatment, and recovery efforts, while directly supporting women to maintain and sustain personal and family well-being.

With the help of local donors and funders, we have launched a COVID-19 Relief Fund to support women, mothers, and their families in Dane County, Wisconsin to weather the immediate challenges caused by the pandemic. Click here to donate in support of our Relief Fund and to increase our capacity to assist as many women and families as possible.