COVID-19 PRACTICES

We continue to carefully monitor the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Contra Costa Health Services updates and recommendations.

In mid-March 2020 East Bay Center moved all of its instruction to virtual platforms and staff continues to work remotely. All in-person concerts and events have been canceled or postponed. 

While the Center remains closed to in-person instruction and events, we are working to sustain continuity of care for the most impacted among our students and families – and in Richmond as a community.

This is what we are doing:

• Training and Instruction: Our 65 faculty and 24 staff are actively and creatively delivering remote activities and instruction for all our current 3,500 local school children and our 500 main site students. As we adapt materials and technology, we are providing content to the local school district population of 32,000 students and 1,300 teachers.

• Basic Needs: We remain focused on meeting our students basic needs, staying in contact, helping to connect needs with resources, providing mental and emotional health support, along with tutoring and academic assistance while schools remain closed.

• Community Partnerships: We are working closely and assisting school district personnel as part of a task force with city, county, and local CBO partners to address the challenges of the schools’ and community’s most vulnerable families.

• Staff are available: All key Center staff members are equipped and set up to work remotely for as long as needed, ensuring that our operations continue uninterrupted.

• The big picture: We are keenly aware of how our community is experiencing increased burdens of economic hardship and stress during the pandemic crisis. The Center is actively joining with local partners to address the challenge of underlying conditions and systemic inequities and we are resolved to get through this together.

Thank you for your support during this time. Throughout this global outbreak, our community’s well-being is our number one concern. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Contra Costa Health Services is working to make it easier for more people to get free COVID-19 testing.

At both of these sites, you can make an appointment if you want, or just show up. To make an appointment call 1-844-421-0804 (8 am to 3:30 pm daily) or visiting coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-tested. 

All people ages 12 and older are eligible to get vaccinated through Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS), even if they do not live or work in Contra Costa County. Please click here for additional information.

Food Bank of Contra Costa & Solano: Multiple locations for food assistance and community produce.

Map Of Food Resources in Contra Costa County.

WCCUSD Free Student Meal Pick-ups

The District will continue serving meals (breakfast and lunch) to WCCUSD students during the 2020-2021 school year. Families will need their student’s Student ID for meals to be picked up in accordance with the USDA’s National School Lunch Program. Mutliple days’ worth of meals can be picked up from 8am to 1pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the following 15 schools: De Anza, El Cerrito, Kennedy, Pinole Valley and Richmond high schools, Lovonya DeJean, Helms, Hercules and Pinole middle schools and Bayview, Nystrom, Riverside and Verde elementary schools, and Montalvin Manor, Peres, and Verde K-9 schools.

Meals will be available at no charge to students who are eligible or attend a Provision 2 school. The following schools are Provision 2: Bayview, Chavez, Coronado, Dover, Downer, Ford, Grant, Highland, King, Lake, Lincoln, Montalvin, Nystrom, Peres, Riverside, Stege, Verde, Wilson, Lovonya DeJean Middle, Helms Middle, Kennedy High, Richmond High, Vista Hills and Greenwood Academy. Families can apply online for eligibility at www.myschoolapps.com/Application.

• West Contra Costa Unified School District
• World Health Organization Updates
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• California Dept of Public Health
• City of Richmond Current Recommendations
• COVID-19 Bay Area Community Resources + Up-to-Date Health Information (English Version) / COVID-19 Recursos para la Comunidad del Área de la Bahía + Información actualizada sobre salud (Versión en Espanol)
• Department of Public Health COVID-19 FAQs

Students, parents, and faculty, we encourage you to contact the following program staff with questions and concerns.

To connect to our emergency fund please fill out this form.

For information about remote group classes, remote private lessons, ensembles, and student support services please contact:

• • Director of Student Development and Training: Kwesi Anku: Kwesi@eastbaycenter.org l Cell: 415-652-4409
  • Associate Director of Student Development and Training: Lolis Garcia, Lolis@eastbaycenter.org
  • Student Support Services: Corinna Espino, Corinna.espino@eastbaycenter.org
  • Private Lessons: Bryan Alvarez, Bryan.alvarez@eastbaycenter.org

East Bay Center continues to partner with WCCUSD schools and the district office to provide virtual learning in the arts. Our in-school and after school programs continue to provide both synchronous and asynchronous lessons for 3,500 participating students, and we are developing resources to be shared with the greater WCCUSD student population. Additionally, we are providing a series of workshops for classroom teachers focused on arts integration in a distance learning environment.

For more information, contact Andrea Landin, Director of School Partnerships: Andrea.landin@eastbaycenter.org

DONATE NOW to help address the ongoing – and at times urgent – needs our students, their families and recent alumni face throughout the year. 100% of funds received will go directly to provide support for private lessons, performance and travel costs, college application fees, and other needs related to the pandemic, including housing, food, medical emergencies and other basic necessities.

For more information contact Sara Rader, Director of Corporate Engagement and Individual Giving: Sara.rader@eastbaycenter.org.