The City of Austin and Travis County have launched a campaign to highlight Central Texans' efforts to connect, unite, support, and keep one another safe while the local health authority and community fight the spread of COVID-19.

The campaign, “ATX for ATX”, is inviting residents to share their stories over social media and via an online community engagement tool (SpeakUp Austin!).
 
The initiative will serve to help connect individuals and families in need with information and resources from both City departments and community organizations.
 
The SpeakUp Austin! page, www.SpeakUpAustin.org/ATXforATX, states: “Our community is resilient, strong, creative, and caring… Whether you are helping as an individual, with friends, neighbors, as part of a community of faith, or a business, please share your stories to inform, empower and inspire. No act is too small or too big. We’re all in this together, just six feet apart. ATX for ATX.”
 
The SpeakUp page already showcases a range of examples of how businesses, non-profits and individuals are demonstrating their generosity by helping the Austin community during the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.

Examples include:

• Tito’s Handmade Vodka is donating hand sanitizer community-wide. A 55-gallon drum of sanitizer, which was transferred into bottles of varying sizes today, will be used by Austin Public Health (APH) clinics, COVID-19 test sites, and at Austin Animal Services.
   
• Facebook, Cypress Semiconductor, and NXP semiconductors have donated personal protective equipment, including masks, gowns and gloves, to be used by first responders and healthcare professionals working at testing sites.
   
• Central Texas Food Bank remains open and ready to assist with food access needs. Its food banks remain operational and the organization has issued a call for volunteers.
   
• Local people are cutting fabric and sewing masks and N95 respirator covers for health care workers who are running short of surgical masks and respirators.
   
• Gourmands, a neighborhood bar and restaurant in East Austin, is providing meals to seniors at the Rebekah Baines Johnson Center, people experiencing homelessness, employees and all other Webberville area bar staff who’ve been impacted by COVID-19.
   
• Local artists helped brighten up Sixth Street with a number of murals following the closure of bars due to COVID-19.

Members of the community can join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram using #ATXforATX.