Make an Eternal Difference During Coronavirus

Ways to Reach Out and Encourage Others

As featured on CBN News

  • Pray daily for the people closest to you and ask the Lord how to love and/or serve those people.
  • Send texts of encouragement, humor, wise thoughts, quotes or encouraging words to others.
  • Email prayers, loving words or even fun pictures to the people in your life who may get a chance to smile at a great picture, or ponder a profound thought that may be a new thought to them or just be encouraged to hear from you.
  • Call anyone in your life who comes to mind. If someone pops up in your mind, take a moment to call and just let them know you’re thinking of them. Even just leaving a loving message could make someone’s day.
  • If you are willing and able: Make a simple flier to put on the doors of your apartment building or on neighborhood houses, letting your neighbors know how to call you if they are in need, or offer to deliver them groceries to their door, if they can’t get out themselves, to cut their lawn if they need it, or do anything that might be hard for them during this time. Introduce yourself to them, give them your name, address, email and/or phone # and let them know you’re there for them.
  • Set up a video call with your small group, prayer group, or friend group and touch base once a week. It’s the next best thing to being there.
  • Set up meetings by Zoom or Google Hangout.
  • Write hand written encouraging and/or love notes and mail them to your friends and family or co-workers. What a wonderful surprise it is to get mail when all we’re getting is junk mail and bills. There’s nothing more personal than a hand-written note in the mail.
  • Have something special delivered to someone through amazon.com or anywhere that ships. You can send things for fun, because you thought of them, or because you know they love something and it will remind them of you, etc. If you have the finances to do it, that could be very fun.
  • PRAY! Take neighborhood prayer walks, pray for everyone on your work contact list, or make prayer lists of family, friends, associates and even strangers who are on your mind. People need prayer because of financial hits, isolation, discouragement, and fear!
  • As you watch movies, remember to take extra time at the end to use the credit list as a prayer list. If you pray for all the names that pop out at you as you read the credits you could be praying for people who have never been prayed for before! How cool is that?
  • Send someone a virtual greeting card for free on Evite
  • Watch a movie with faraway friends using Netflix Party Browser Extension for Chrome
  • Sew some masks for local medical workers. If you’re in the LA area, you can mail or drop off masks here: Los Angeles Mission, 316 E Winston St., ATTN; VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENT, Los Angeles CA 90013. Or, do a quick Google search to find a drop-off location near you.
  • Check out these volunteer opportunities or do a Google search to find ways to volunteer locally.
  • Join others for virtual coworking at Epiphany Space, every weekday.
  • Check out the Instagram account Good News for a daily dose of encouragement.
  • Donate to Christian Filmmakers through the Kappa Christian Film Finishing Fund.
Those are our ideas. Email back some of yours to karen@hpnemail.org and let’s go out and change the world – one loving act of service at a time! We look forward hearing from you!
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Financial Resources

Financial Resources for Hollywood Workers

California Unemployment or visit your state’s website for information on applying for unemployment benefits.

SBA Small Business Loans are being applied to small businesses hurt by the COVID-19 outbreak.  If you have a production company that could use extra finance to get through this time, this could be a great resource to get you by.

IRS Employee Paid Leave is being provided for companies that fit the requirements and apply. If you have full-time or part-time employees at your production company, you may be able to get government assistance paying them.

SAG-AFTRA Relief Fund is offering financial assistance to all SAG members. They are getting a lot of applicants, so your application could take up to two weeks to process.

DGA is working to fast track residual payments as well as waving COVID-19 testing fees.

IATSE is waving COVID-19 testing fees and donating to charities that help support industry workers.

WGA is waving COVID-19 testing fees and helping its members find the resources they need in this difficult time.

Teamsters are connecting its members, who have been furloughed, to companies like Ralph’s and Stater Bros who are currently hiring drivers.

Motion Picture and Television Fund are offering financial and emotional assistance to those who need it.

Actors Fund offers free and confidential social services for people in performing arts, nationally. They offer counseling and support groups, education, emergency financial assistance, and other practical help.

Will Rogers relief fund is currently ironing out the details of their COVID-19 relief fund for furloughed industry workers. But they have links on their website to other helpful things in the meantime.

Pay Up Hollywood offers a one-time stipend payment for partial wage loss ($450) or total wage loss ($900) as they are trying to help as many people as possible.

Recording Academy aims to help musicians who have lost gigs due to venues closing down because of the COVID-19 outbreak. It seems like they offer a one time grant, but that may change depending on funding and the length of time things are closed down.

The Foundation for Contemporary Arts will disburse $1,000 grants to artists who have had performances or exhibitions canceled or postponed because of the COVID-19 Virus.

Equal Sound is working to support musicians who have lost income because of events being canceled. They are still working out the details, but are committed to helping those affected by the outbreak.

Tips on protecting your credit during a pandemic

More resources. This link contains all the current assistance options in California. Check your local and state governments for other assistance programs.

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Ways to Spend Downtime

Programming and Tours:

QTips.org – “tips to turn quarantine time into quality time”

Digital Tour of the Holy Land

10 Best Virtual Tours of History Museums

Film:

AFI Movie Club

More than One Lesson – Movie Reviews and Podcasts

Visual Parables Movie Reviews – a great resource for faith and film

Spiritual:

Fuller Seminary is making their online Fuller Formation learning platform free until July 1. A few courses we recommend:

Image journal has taken down their paywall for the next two months. A few interesting places to start might be:

The Spiritual Frontiers of Film by Ron Austin

NT Wright free course on Philemon

BibleProject

C.S. Lewis Society of California

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