One Heart McKinney
July 22, 2020
When COVID-19 became a global health crisis in March of 2020, the needs of the McKinney community changed overnight. Mayor of McKinney, George Fuller, City Manager, Paul Grimes and restaurateur, Rick Wells brought together a group of people from the public and private sectors to gain an understanding of the impact of the virus and maintain a pulse on the constant changes taking place. Within the first conversations, a need was identified to create a centralized place for all the COVID-19 related information and social services to be published. The City of McKinney, the Seed Project Foundation, and Independent Financial took the first steps in the creation of One Heart McKinney.
The website launched at the beginning of April and serves two primary purposes: to inform people living in McKinney about how their food, housing, health care, jobs, schooling needs can be met, and to raise money for the local nonprofits providing those services in response to the crisis. During the first weeks of the state-mandated shutdown, One Heart McKinney raised over $200,000, and is in the process of distributing it back out to the local nonprofits aiding in the community recovery. The simple application can be found on the One Heart McKinney website and they are reviewed weekly. One Heart McKinney is excited to share some of the success stories!
In May, when quarantine measures became its strictest, domestic violence cases spiked, and Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASAs) of Collin County wanted to assure that each client that they were assigned to could be properly checked on and communicated with. The grant money they received from One Heart McKinney was used to purchase new devices that their clients can use to directly and effectively speak to their case managers virtually.
Streetside Showers is a local nonprofit that provides hot showers, clean undergarments, and hygiene products to people experiencing homelessness, promoting cleanliness and dignity. Every week, Streetside Showers makes 3-4 stops in Collin County with their mobile shower trailer to provide their services and support our most vulnerable community members. With the growing need, the grant from One Heart McKinney covered extra supplies and gas to keep Streetside Showers out there helping people!
As unemployment dramatically increased and more individuals and families became food insecure, Community Lifeline Center became one of the many unsung heroes for assisting individuals and families experiencing food insecurity. During the COVID-19 crisis, Community Lifeline partnered with six local churches to create Sack Summer Hunger, a feeding program that has been able to provide families with boxes filled with thirty pounds of food. The plans had already been in the making for the program to begin this June, but their efforts became even more pertinent when the needs of the community exponentially increased. Since last year, they have distributed four times the amount of food in comparison to the previous year. Without the help of the grant from One Heart McKinney, the organization would not have had proper warehouse space or refrigerators to store the donated goods to make their summer operations possible.
A second grant has allowed Community Lifeline Center to start a new program called One Month Away dedicated to helping members of our community on the verge of eviction due to job loss from the COVID-19 crisis stay in their homes.
To engage students while they were left to do remote learning from their homes and to meet the growing need for PPE, Alliance of Elite Youth Leadership, a non profit dedicated to the development of a diverse population of youth and young adults, received funds from One Heart McKinney to make protective face shields from 3-D printers. The director, Derrick Robinson, enthusiastically spoke of the innovative assembly line their group of students created to assure that the orders were being met in a timely manner. One student would print the visor while another student would attach the screen to the visor. A profound reminder that each of us is able to do our part to contribute to the collective good.
To date, One Heart McKinney has donated almost $100,000 in grants to the incredible nonprofits in our community helping us through the crisis. With the long road to recovery ahead, we are anticipating a significant amount of need coming from our nonprofits, particularly as federal funding depletes and families and businesses in McKinney become even further strained. We need your help! Please visit our website, make a donation, and see how you are able to best be able to contribute.