Leader
Ross Guttler
Location
22 E. 30th Street New York, NY 10016
The New York Open Center, the country's longest running urban holistic health and education center, has launched New Yorkers for New York (www.newyorkersfornewyork.org), a free public service created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. New Yorkers for New York provides frontline and essential workers, as well as all other local residents struggling with stress and anxiety, the mental and emotional wellness support they need right now amidst the city's current health crisis. The program offers an array of free tools, resources and services to those working to keep our community healthy, safe and nourished.
As part of this initiative, The New York Open Center, an iconic New York City non-profit organization founded in 1984, has created an easy-to-use toolkit to reduce stress or anxiety in a matter of seconds. The organization is also providing to strengthen, build resilience and provide comfort during this demanding time in New York. This is an adaptive program, which continues to evolve in real-time, in order to bring together the local community and meet the needs of our friends, neighbors and family members.
New Yorkers for New York also brings together the efforts of other partner mission-led initiatives, including NYC COVID Care Network, a grassroots group of more than 3,000+ volunteers to provide individual and small group healing and therapies sessions, as well as the nonprofit organization Operation Warrior Shield, to reach New York City's first responders and service members, including members of the NYPD, FDNY, veterans and more.
With generous funding, New Yorkers for New York will expand and refine our offerings of free stress management tools designed for New York City's frontline, with an open-door policy for anyone struggling with well-being during COVID-19. These holistic practices aim to make our city healthier and stronger, and more connected as a community.
Complimentary offerings include:
To support other hard-hit cities, The New York Open Center is creating a "launch kit" containing resources and guidance to help other organizations and volunteers from local chapters of this community initiative to ensure frontline and essential workers all over the world receive the critical care they need.
New York City is facing a health pandemic of massive proportions—COVID-19. Nearly 10,000 individuals in New York City have died as a result of COVID-19 infection, and the death toll is expected to climb as the months of April and May continue.
As many first responders and frontline workers such as medical professionals, NYPD officers, and FDNY workers, are deployed to assist with the myriad medical crises facing the community while also enforcing new laws designed to restrict the public’s mobility, they face great uncertainty, exposure to potential physical harm, and high levels of toxic stress. In addition, citizens throughout the city, especially essential workers, are coping with the ongoing stress of the pandemic which, if not properly dealt with throughout this crisis, is likely to evolve into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition that can ultimately lead to flashbacks of this traumatic time period, nightmares, and severe anxiety.
All of these mental health phenomena create a negative impact on an individual's ability to physically and psychologically heal, maintain employment, navigate relationships, and create a safe and healthy emotional environment for their children and families. New York City as a whole will ultimately suffer unless the mental health of its citizens is properly attended to—and quickly.