Welcome to the fifth week of our campaign highlighting essential workers. Whether working from home or within our neighborhoods, essential workers are supporting a strong recovery for those who are too often overlooked, underrepresented, or underinvested in.  

Our sixth essential worker feature focuses on Joanna Chan, Director, Brooklyn Enrichment Services. The following snippet is from a Q&A between Joanna and Lai Ling Li of CPC Leadership Council. Joanna normally oversees five of our school-based afterschool programs in Brooklyn but moved into an emergency responder role at our Regional Enrichment Center in the wake of COVID-19. She is also one of the supervisors of CPC's Resource Navigators Program, which supports those affected by COVID-19 with accessing assistance while quarantined. 

Lai Ling Li, Leadership Council: How has COVID-19 affected your work? 

Joanna Chan, Director, Brooklyn Enrichment Services: When the pandemic started, CPC opened up a Regional Enrichment Center (REC) for the children of essential workers. We brought in staff from both our early childhood and afterschool programs to serve about 30 kids, with the youngest aged two and the oldest in sixth grade. They’re there from 7:30 am to 6:00 pm daily, and each age group’s programming is structured differently. We provide activities for them and assist them with their schoolwork, which a lot of families have had trouble with. They don’t understand how to use the remote learning technology. Many didn't even know that it was there and missed over a month of material. We try to help the children catch up and act as liaisons between their parents and schoolteachers. We want each child to be able to move on to the next grade.  

Share Joanna's story using #EssentialWorkers and #AlwaysEssential.

Essential Worker Quick Facts

 Black, Latinx, and Asian people make up
more than 70% of the city’s essential workers.

Human services workers are essential workers.

New York City contracts have not set rates that accurately reflect 
human services workers' commitment to essential work.

All of CPC's staff are essential workers. 

Tweets You Can Use To Share #AlwaysEssential Posts:

Help me lift the voices of #EssentialWorkers. Like and share this post to stand in solidarity with human services workers. #AlwaysEssential bit.ly/cpc-always-essential

#EssentialWorkers risk their health and their families’ health to serve others through COVID-19. As New York begins to recover, orgs like @cpc-nyc will be among the ones helping the hardest hit New Yorkers put their lives back together. Support them here: bit.ly/cpc-covid-19-relief-fund #AlwaysEssential

About CPC
The Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) is the nation's largest Asian American social services organization. Founded in 1965, CPC aims to promote the social and economic empowerment of Chinese American, immigrant, and low-income communities of New York City.

華人策劃協會(華策會)是全美國最大的亞裔美國人及太平洋島民社區服務機構.成立於1965年,華策會專門為紐約市的華裔美國人,移民,和低收入民眾提供金融權力和社區服務.