Scope and arrangement
The Henry Street Settlement Hope & Resilience on the COVID Frontlines oral histories, dating from 2020 to 2022, consist of twenty-five audio recordings of interviews with Henry Street staff members, program participants, and Lower East Side residents, along with transcripts of each interview. Katie Vogel, Julie Beth Napolin, and Sylvie Douglis conducted three, fourteen, and eight interviews, respectively. The narrators' full job titles held at the time of the interviews, the name of the interviewer, and interview summaries are noted in the container list. Interview summaries are abbreviated adaptations of the original summaries written by the interviewers. The oral histories provide a broad illustration of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Henry Street Settlement staff and the Lower East Side community.
During the interviews, Henry Street staff members were asked to state their full names and titles, their first experience with Henry Street, when they heard about the COVID-19 pandemic, their job duties before the pandemic, their job duties after the Henry Street pandemic pivot, work challenges associated with the pandemic, how systemic racism and police brutality overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic, how Henry Street met community needs when COVID-19 hit New York City, how they would like their work at Henry Street to be remembered, and any concluding remarks about their experiences. In response, Henry Street staff members discussed the challenges of maintaining existing programs, transforming an after-school program into a food distribution center, and creating a helpline and an emergency cash assistance program.
Residents and program participants were asked questions similar to those of Henry Street staff members. The interviews also cover how the narrators heard about Henry Street, their experiences participating in Henry Street's programs and services, and how those services and programs changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arrangement
Alphabetical by last name.