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    Widespread school closures have thrown a wrench in the gears of education this year, but kids can still have fun learning thanks to a number of free online resources… even if it’s from their own homes.

    FinanceBuzz is a great site to find a list of resources for online learning materials. To check out these resources and for more information about FinanceBuzz, visit www.financebuzz.com.

    Colleges and universities across the United States and around the world are scrambling to keep their students, faculty, and staff healthy, safe, and educated during the COVID-19 pandemic. As experts on the daily crises that derail #RealCollege students and prevent them from completing their degrees our team at the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice offers the following considerations and resources to support your work.

    For more information about The Hope Project and their COVID-19 resources, click here.

    Due to the COVID-19 health crisis, colleges and universities have closed their campuses, told students to return home, and moved to online instruction. These necessary actions may force HBCU students to drop out, due to financial hardship and lack of access to the required technology. Over 72% of HBCU students are Pell Grant eligible (family income less than $20,000 per year), and 43% rely on jobs to cover basic living expenses. HBCUs themselves do not have the infrastructure to support students, deliver online coursework, retain today’s students and ensure that next year’s students enroll. To support HBCUs and their students, TMCF created its TMCF’s COVID-19 HBCU Emergency Fund, which will cover HBCU student short-term costs due to the COVID-19 school closures, and provide HBCU medium and long-term financial support.

    Read more at www.tmcf.org.

    National Geographic Kids is offering some great resources for learning at home. To view these resources and learn more about National Geographic Kids, visit www.kids.nationalgeographic.com.

    About National Geographic

    National Geographic has been igniting the explorer in all of us for 132 years through groundbreaking storytelling from the best and brightest scientists, explorers, photographers, and filmmakers in the world. Our yellow border serves as a portal to explore the farthest reaches of the Earth and beyond. Places only National Geographic can take you.

    The Smithsonian is committed to supporting teachers and their students around the globe as they face unprecedented new learning challenges. Here, on the Learning Lab, teachers have access to millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and more. You will also find pre-packaged collections that contain lessons, activities, and recommended resources made by Smithsonian museum educators as well as thousands of classroom teachers like you. Use the search bar below to search for Smithsonian Learning Lab Collections.

    For more information, visit www.learninglab.si.edu/distancelearning.

    For individuals whose stimulus check is being direct deposited into an abuser controlled bank account

    • Individuals can track their payment by accessing this page on the the IRS website, IRS Get My Payment
    • The current challenge is that most direct deposit payments went out this morning, Wednesday April 15, and the site where individuals can provide updated banking and account information is not slated to go live until Friday, April 17
    • It is also not clear what happens if a stimulus check is direct deposited into an account that is still active but a survivor is not longer on that account
      • We will continue to track these issues and update you with more information should remedies come forward

    For individuals whose stimulus check is being directed to a bank account that is no longer active or has closed

    • The payment will be reverted to a paper check
    • The Treasury must send notice of the payment by mail to the individual’s last known address
    • The notice will include how the payment was made and the amount of the payment
    • The notice will include a phone number for the appropriate point of contact at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) if the individual didn’t receive the payment
    • Individuals can help make sure that checks go to the correct location by updating the address after a move
    • Most people do that on their tax return, but individuals can also submit a federal form 8822, Change of Address (downloads as a PDF)

    It generally takes four to six weeks to process a change of address.

    The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act CARES Act (Pub. L. 116-136) defined a number of programs that charitable nonprofits will be eligible to apply for. The chart that follows provides information on those loan options, eligibility criteria, terms, and application information. This chart is neither financial nor legal advice for any specific organization. It is an analysis of the new law before any rules or regulations.

    For more information about these loan programs, visit www.councilofnonprofits.org.

    All of us—wherever we are—can contract or transmit this novel virus, though it is imperative to note that social determinants of health, economic injustices, less employment opportunities and exacerbated barriers to accessing to the health industrial complex, especially culturally competent care, all together make queer and trans—particularly queer and trans people of color—susceptible to physical, financial and mental effects of pandemics like COVID-19.

    Moreover, according to an open letter that over 100 LGBTQ+ organizations—including the National LGBTQ Task Force—signed on behalf of our communities, we call attention to the reality that the LGBTQ+ community is increasingly vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 due to three factors:

    First, LGBTQ+ people continue to experience discrimination, unwelcoming attitudes and lack of understanding from providers and staff in many health care settings, and as a result, many are reluctant to seek medical care except in situations that feel urgent—and perhaps not even then.

    The LGBTQ+ population also has higher rates of HIV and cancer, which means a greater number of us may have compromised immune systems, leaving us more vulnerable to COVID-19 infections.

    And finally, the LGBTQ+ population uses tobacco at rates that are 50 percent higher than the general population. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that has proven particularly harmful to smokers.

    Furthermore, we implore the health industry to acknowledge that there are “more than 3 million LGBTQ+ older people living in the United States who are already less likely than their heterosexual and cisgender peers to reach out to health and aging providers, like senior centers, meal programs, and other programs designed to ensure their health and wellness, because they fear discrimination and harassment.”

    The 1980s HIV/AIDs pandemic also reminds us that even though we are engaging in social distancing, we should not stigmatize—or worse, criminalize—those who have contracted coronavirus or those who transmit this virus.

    To read the entire article, visit COVID-19: A Black, Queer, Feminist Grounding and Call for Self and Community Care.

    CHANGE THEIR WORLD. CHANGE YOURS. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

    Change their world. Change yours. This changes everything.