The Neighborhood Leaders Academy, or NLA, is a group of McCaskey students working with the Mayor’s office of Neighborhood Engagement to bring Lancaster neighborhoods together. Since the beginning of the year, we have been meeting monthly at city hall, the Police Station, and McCaskey Campus to figure out ways to help Lancaster residents. 

But the outbreak of Coronavirus has drastically changed when and where the NLA meets. Since May first, the group has been doing weekly Zoom meetings with local experts and government officials.

“We are working on trying to keep everybody safe right now,” said Lancaster Mayor Danene Sorace at the Zoom meeting on Friday, May first. “I’m feeling for all of you, because it’s spring, and you’re all missing out on social life, proms, sports and sports events. The work I’m doing right now is trying to connect as best we can with our residents. If you or a friend or a family member hear of a need related to food, or housing, or masks, please reach out to us, we are here to help.”

Christopher Thomas, a social working student at Millersville University,  has been helping the mayor’s office with messaging related to anxiety during the outbreak.

“A lot of the residents who need the most help are at the most risk of contracting coronavirus,” he said. Poorer Americans are hit harder than wealthy individuals because of access to healthcare, basic needs, and information. This is exacerbated in the cases of non-english speakers who can’t access mainstream information.

“We knew that there was a population here that wasn’t receiving info about Covid…no tv, cellphones, internet access. Folks have language barriers,” said Milzy Carrasco, the Director of Neighborhood Engagement for the city. “Early on, we worked on police sector calls and a message from the mayor translated in other languages that the police officers announced as they’re patrolling. ”

The Mayor’s office of Neighborhood Engagement has also sent a letter to every household in the city enclosing information on the virus and step-by-step directions for how to make a mask. They have also delivered 5,700 masks to nursing homes across the city and to the homeless community.

Another way that the local government has been keeping in touch with residents is through the Mayor’s “Live at Five” daily Facebook live streams, where Mayor Danene Sorace debriefs the local situation and talks with various guests, including medical experts, local leaders, and, last but not least, McCaskey students.

Esme Martin, Mercedes Frederick, and I got the chance to talk a little bit about what the Neighborhood Leader’s Academy does and also what we’ve been doing during quarantine. “It was really cool to talk directly to the community through the mayor’s platform. I felt like I was talking to community members,” said Esme of the experience.

At a Zoom meeting on Friday, May 8, the group brainstormed project ideas to help Lancaster neighborhoods during this turbulent time. There was a great variety of suggestions,  with anything from tree knitting to distributing school supplies to households that may not have any. The NLA has an allocated grant of $500 for these projects. 

Along with making sure that each of its members and their families are safe and healthy, the leaders of the NLA, Carl Patterson, Milzy Carrasco, and Katherine Zimmerman have been working tirelessly to ensure that our community stays safe. To quote Milzy, “The most important thing we can be doing right now is community engagement.” Everyone in Lancaster, young or old, can do their part to help the city. We are seeing it everywhere: community murals, student projects like Georgia Cox’s, and countless mask and food donation efforts across the county. Lancaster has been putting up a fight, and the unity we are seeing throughout the city’s neighborhoods is incredible.