Even though Jacqueline Jones-Love had already created virtual learning programs, the COVID-19 pandemic forced her organization – Siena Literacy Center – to refocus its priorities. The organization was in danger of losing its eight employees and its dozens of volunteer tutors.
Sister Mary Hemmen of the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Northwest Detroit started Siena Literacy Center as a literacy program for those who needed basic skills. Today, the organization provides those services along with employment/workplace literacy, ESL, computer literacy and more.
Through CRF partner IFF, Siena Literacy Center was able to apply and receive a PPP loan to help pay its staff and focus on the future of its students and services. Jones-Love did not realize that nonprofits qualified for PPP loans, but the organization took a chance and it paid off.
When grant-based funds dried up and donations slowed, the PPP loan gave Siena Literacy Center a new source for payroll expenses and a new perspective on how to deliver its critical services to the community.
