Organizacion Latino-Americana of Eastern Long Island, which has been chosen as the New York State Project HOPE provider for the East End, now has two crisis counselor teams up and running to serve and represent the community.
Thanks to these teams, FEMA-Project HOPE is 20 people stronger with OLA's trilingual, state-trained professionals who reflect the Shinnecock, African-American, white Anglo, and Latino populations in the area, the organization said this week.
Minerva Perez, OLA's executive director, wants East Enders from all walks of life to know the helpline at 631-500-0837, "is just for them."
The helpline connects callers to crisis counselors, who speak English, Spanish, and Portuguese. They were easy to find, said Ms. Perez, who hopes to dissolve any fiction that diverse job candidates are scarce. A $1.9 million budget will keep the counselors on full time until June 15.
The state has its own helpline, but Ms. Perez said that "this is doing it a little bit better" because OLA can provide resources closer to home, where the counselors actually know what those resources are. If someone needs extra help, OLA is on the other side of the process and can always take things from there, Ms. Perez said.
"If you're holding onto a job during Covid, but someone is not paying you. . . ," Ms. Perez began a long list of example issues that can be brought to a crisis counselor's attention, completely anonymously and free.
Lack of food or transportation, questions about the eviction moratorium or health care, what to do when someone lacks access to Covid testing or cannot get the vaccine even when in the 1a or 1b-phase group are questions for Project HOPE professionals, whose profiles are online at olaofeasternlongisland.org/project-hope.
"This is an initiative for everyone," Ms. Perez stressed. A "white Anglo calling in because he lost his job and is nervous because his elderly wife is sick, but doesn't want to call and put pressure on his kids," was another example of the kind of issue OLA can help address through Project HOPE.
"It's only going to get worse," without appropriate access to mental health support, even more specifically on the East End, she said.
