Orange County United Way steps up whenever our community needs us and responds to immediate or emerging crises.
In response to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, we are supporting Orange County’s families, students, children, seniors, Veterans, frontline workers, and other community members in need through various relief and ongoing recovery efforts.
Relief Efforts
As Orange County went into lockdown early in March 2020, we immediately launched our Pandemic Relief Fund, knowing that our community’s low-income individuals, families at imminent risk of homelessness, the current OC population experiencing homelessness, students from underserved neighborhoods, and our service provider partners would need assistance. And the Orange County Community responded!
Through generous donations, gifts, and contributions of time and expertise, we have been able to support our Orange County neighbors in need through various relief efforts, including:
Housing and Financial Assistance
7,800+
families served with homelessness prevention funds for rent, food, and other basic needs.
Hunger Relief
50,000+
community members provided with meals & food assistance.*
Education
12,000+
books donated to children from low-income families and technology provided for high school students.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
30,000+
face masks and PPE donated to frontline workers & students.
$6.43M
raised
100%
of funds distributed to support our community’s most vulnerable
We are so grateful to everyone who donated to the Pandemic Relief Fund! For a complete listing of Pandemic Relief Fund donors, please click here.
Recovery Efforts
In an effort to aid recovery across the county, we took proactive steps to ensure our residents had the support and assistance they needed—helping to distribute Phase 1 federal and state COVID-19 relief funding for emergency rental assistance to thousands of our residents and bringing free COVID-19 vaccines to underserved populations in Orange County through neighborhood-based pop-up and mobile clinics.
Emergency Rental Assistance
3,000+
households received city and county CARES ACT emergency rental assistance, distributed via United Way infrastructure in partnership with the cities of Irvine and Santa Ana as well as the County of Orange.
Vaccine Distribution
3,500
free COVID-19 vaccines at 50 pop-up events were successfully provided to individuals from underserved communities throughout Orange County to ensure all of our residents had access to the vaccine. This was possible through a partnership with Edwards Lifesciences Foundation and Providence Health.
Success Stories
“It allowed me to better cope. Instead of just eating cereal and just getting by, I could actually have a full meal. I didn’t have to do without.”
“Honestly, I didn’t have enough money for diapers and food. I felt so relieved and grateful when I received the money from United Way. It gave me hope that we’ll get through these hard times, and it reminds me I’m not alone.”
