UPDATE May 29, 2020: All NJCH-funded public events are postponed through August 2020. Postponements include all grant, Public Scholars Project (PSP), and MoMS activities that involve any in-person gatherings. In July, we will announce fall programming updates for grants and PSP. Check back for further updates.
Dear Friend of NJCH,
Earlier in the week, we sent out a message to the entire NJCH community about the importance of prioritizing public health and safety. As promised, we’ve been monitoring the situation closely to remain as informed as possible.
In light of the recent momentum of the COVID-19 outbreak and its threat to public health, we have decided to ask all program partners and grantees to indefinitely postpone public events supported by NJCH. At this time, this directive is for all events scheduled for March, April, and May. As more information about the COVID outbreak and timeline becomes available, we will provide updates for programming scheduled for June and beyond. Postponements should include all grant project and Water/Ways activities that involve any in-person public gatherings as well as all Public Scholars Project programs. To be clear, when you postpone programming happening between now and May, we will work with you to reschedule it and will fund the rescheduled event as originally agreed; if your grants timeline is affected by this decision, will work with you on developing an extension and a new timeline.
This decision was not reached lightly. The collective benefits of swift and consistent preventative measures and our commitment to continuing to support this work once the situation is stabilized were major considerations that guided our decision making.
We will be sharing this message of indefinite postponement throughout our own channels, which can be referenced or shared when you are crafting your own messaging to your constituency. When we have a better understanding of the timeline associated with the COVID-19 outbreak, we will provide updates about the process of rescheduling all events.
For now, we are asking all organizations with any NJCH-funded public events to confirm receipt of this urgent programming update via email to info@njhumanities.org. In that email, please include a brief description of any postponed public event(s) and a short summary of how you informed your audience(s). Please be sure to remember to include any involved project scholars (grants, Water/Ways, and PSP) in those outgoing event postponement communications. You are encouraged to contact us regarding any special circumstance or potential complications that result from indefinite postponement. We will respond to each email, but due to the high volume, response time may be delayed.
We recognize the difficulties that may result from this holding pattern, but we believe that this decision will best serve the public health of the residents of our state and beyond. Again, we are committed to working with our program partners to reschedule events at a later date and addressing any issues that might arise during this time of uncertainty.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation and the requested email updates that should be sent to us immediately after you take steps to postpone your events. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or feedback.
Best,
Carin Berkowitz, Ph.D.
Executive Director
PS – We’re hard at work developing some public humanities programming that can be digitally accessed. We’ll share more details as they are confirmed.
