The Philadelphia Chapter hosted a virtual meeting/webinar on Zoom on July 30th with guest speaker, Benjamin Collier from Temple University, presenting on "Post COVID-19: The Future of Public-Private Partnerships." Due to the severe adverse economic impacts of the pandemic from federal and state-mandated shutdowns and decrease in demand for products/services (in addition to the obvious health effects), Ben presented the dire need for a "pandemic relief" or "PRIA" model, somewhat similar to what the industry currently has for TRIA to cover catastrophic terrorism acts -- to cover future pandemics. Ben engaged our audience for close to an hour, followed by a Q&A session, led by Chapter Secretary, Carmela Robinson.
We want to thank all of our members/nonmembers/students that attended our Zoom webinar, and for everyone's generous charitable contributions, that will be passed through to the PHL COVID-19 Fund. Our total contributions from our registrants amounted to about $546, and with a matching contribution from our chapter, we will be donating $1,100 to the PHL COVID-19 Fund. Below is some information on the Fund:
Launched on March 19, 2020, the PHL COVID-19 Fund brings together a diverse coalition of philanthropy, government and business partners to create a regional rapid response fund that complements the work of regional public health officials and expands local capacity to address the effects of this national emergency on our region as efficiently and effectively as possible. The Fund is a joint venture between Philadelphia Foundation and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey (UWGPSNJ).