DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY (3)

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Description of need: In March, the State of California mandated that museums and science center's must close due to the pandemic. So the Cube did just that and the result of which was a loss of operational revenues. This in turn forced the Cube to initially furlough and eventually lay off 200 full and part-time staff (95%). The Cube is now in a perilous situation like none it has ever been in and yet through it all the Cube has found a way to pivot to continue its mission. Continuing the Cube's Mission: Families of our community are in need now more than ever as they have all been directly impacted by the pandemic. SAUSD school campuses are closed, educational locations like the Cube are closed, and even playgrounds in local parks were closed all summer long. While our campus may be closed we knew we could still help families by bringing hands-on science programming to their homes. In April, the Cube started down this path. With PPP funds we were able to create a virtual learning platform called Discovery Cube Connect (DCC) with a goal to provide hands-on STEM programs to homes throughout our community. In a remarkable show of community support, a volunteer force of over 700 teachers from across Southern California helped Cube Staff to establish over 200 hands-on STEM activities for the DCC. From there the team created three science adventures which were later converted into after -school activities for SAUSD. The Cube is now in need of resources to keep this momentum going. Funding needs are operational payroll for the following: 1) To provide funding for our operations labor to continue developing digital STEM educational programs on the DCC for thousands of our at-home users in our city and beyond, 2) To provide funding for educator labor to create and conduct at- home and after -school programs derived from the DCC STEM content, 3) To provide for the indirect labor of support staff that keep the front line teams going like accounting, HR, payroll, finance, and marketing along with payroll taxes and benefits. Staffing to reopen the Cube: As mentioned the Cube did not have the resources to continue carrying staff which forced the laying off of a majority of the staff. Current conditions continue to make opening the Cube not economically viable until some time next year when the county health tier is at an orange or yellow level for a stable period of time. The longer it takes to reopen increases the risk of loosing the knowhow, the contacts and everything else it takes to bring the Cube back up. To this end we additionally see it is imperative to keep two of our experienced operations staff on projects over these next couple of months to refresh the facility so that we retain the knowhow to reopen when that day comes. With your help we can continue to provide educational services to families now and be ready to reopen in the near future. Thank you for your consideration!