USF Community Cries for Rapid Employment Due to COVID-19 Devastating Job Loss

Abstract

Josie Rocco hung up the phone and wiped away the tears streaming down her face as she contemplated what her next move would be. This was the third call she'd received that day where all she could say was, “I am so sorry to hear that.” Words that felt empty with no real solutions or answers attached to them. Josie was the Chief Operations Officer for the University Area Community Development Corporation, Inc. (UACDC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving community through resident empowerment and self-sufficiency. Josie was in charge of all the programs and services, and in her 25 years of doing this work, she had never heard such hopelessness in her community's collective voice. The number of residents who had lost their jobs due to COVID-19 was overwhelming. This public health pandemic came out of nowhere, like a thief in the night stealing away security and peace, leaving behind the devastating effects of death, unemployment, loss of housing, and crippling food insecurity.