Political Leaders inform residents via online forum
Political Leaders inform residents via online forum
BY TIA CAROL JONES
The Hyde Park Kenwood Community Conference hosted a COVID-19 Virtual Community Forum. Residents had the opportunity to hear from political leaders and others from the community about what is being done on the local level to help people during COVID-19.
Topics included resources, how to get food, housing, unemployment compensation, as well as food insecurity.
Fylynne Crawford is the president of the Hyde Park Kenwood Community Conference. Crawford said the organization was trying to figure out how to connect with people.
“Our mission is to address issues in the community that affect our quality of life,” she said. “And, this affects our quality of life, so we thought, ‘let’s have a COVID-19 forum.’ “
The organization had been hosting meetings for their members online. So, they decided to have the COVID-19 forum online. Crawford said it wasn’t’ easy to coordinate and credited her board and the communications committee with facilitating the event. She said there were 200 people signed up to participate in the virtual forum.
“We had pretty good attendance. People seem[ed] grateful to have their voice[s] heard. And, the elected officials were happy to join us,” she said.
Bill Lowry, Cook County Commissioner, was one of the elected officials who participated in the forum. Lowry said it was important to communicate and listen to the residents in his district.
He said he’s always interested in putting himself in situations where he can hear from others. “I really enjoyed hearing from the community, hearing the concerns that many had, such as the issue with rent and mortgage payments. I think it’s very important that you put yourself in the position to hear from those that you’ve been elected to represent,” he stated.
Lowry added one of the things he wanted to deal with during the forum was unemployment and how members of the community could take advantage of those benefits.
“I think it’s so important because we’ve never seen unemployment to this degree,” he said. “So, it’s very important that all of us are able to get in, make use of resources that allow us to maintain our homes, feed our families.”
Lowry said it is important for residents to take advantage of these resources, especially when jobs are being eliminated and people are being furloughed during the pandemic.
Lowry said he shared information about what’s happening at Stroger and Provident Hospitals with the forum attendees.
“I’m very pleased to report that the Providence Emergency Department actually reopened on Monday, the 20th at 7 a.m. That was 16 days before the targeted reopen date,” he said. “So now, that emergency department is open for our community and that’s very important to note, with those three areas being reconfigured for purposes of treating COVID-19.”
Lowry said those sites are also testing for COVID-19. He was happy to share information about the hospitals and resources with the residents. He said he also wanted to talk about the disproportionate mortality rate for African Americans who have contracted COVID-19. “I clearly believe what we’re seeing today is something that started centuries ago, or certainly decades ago, the disinvestment in our community, lack of health care, good health care [and] often lack of good food sources,” he said. “I want to make sure those resources are finding their way to the West side, to the South side [and] to the South Suburbs.”
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