FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Relief efforts are underway for the roughly 300 furloughed Bitwise employees in the City of Fresno.
Root Access held a free resource event on Monday to provide headshots, held on-the-spot interviews, offered resume building, and even supplied internet and printer.
“We’re doing a lot of community efforts. Even just having a space for people to gather and just exist with one another and take a sort of a collective breath after the absolutely chaotic week that we’ve all had,” said Derek Payton, Root Access Founder, and furloughed Bitwise Lead Software Engineer.
Payton said that even though it’s a difficult time, he’s just trying to help the tech family come out of this situation stronger.
“This is a hit, but we’ll survive. We’ll get through it. We’re in this together and we’ll get through it together,” he said.
Root Access is also offering a food pantry to provide essentials to those who were put in a tough spot, not only from the furloughs. but the final checks they said were bounced.
“You know, as people’s sort of food supply at home probably starts running low here in the near future, I’m expecting that to be more of use so I’m glad we have that set up now,” said Payton.
Fresno City Council Vice President Annalisa Perea was one of the many partners who stepped in to help Payton and other furloughed Bitwise employees on Monday.
“We’re just gonna be here to continue to support them. Whether that’s through financial resources or bringing other employers to the area to do more on-the-spot interviews. However we can be helpful, we want to do just that,” she said.
The coordinator of Monday’s event, Priscilla Del Toro, a former Bitwise employee herself, has also decided to utilize GoFundMe.
To try and make sure her colleagues can make those essential rent and car payments, and to help what appeared to be a booming tech industry in the city bounce back.
“I don’t want tech to die, you know? Here in downtown, we were doing a very great thing and I want that to continue. That is still very valuable to Fresno and we need that back,” said Del Toro.
If you would like to contribute to the employee GoFundMe, you can click here.
The food pantry is accepting donations as well.