Dear friends,
COVID-19 has entered our region and quickly changed life for each of us. In so many conversations, I have been repeatedly struck by how incredibly important Community of Hope’s mission is in supporting many vulnerable families in DC, especially during this public health emergency. There has been no similar time in our 40 years of caring for families. We continue to be the safety net for so many patients and families experiencing homelessness in the District. We are working closely with our government partners in all of our planning. We seek to make sure we are doing our utmost to support patients and families during this time, while balancing the safety of our staff, volunteers, and partners.
Community of Hope has made several changes to our health services and added new protocols to keep everyone safer.
In partnership with DC Health, we are pleased to be able to offer the Pfizer vaccine! More information about the vaccine is available here. We are committed to getting the vaccine out to as many eligible people as possible. Visit here for our current times and locations.
Health Center Patients, click here to access up to date information about our enhanced Telehealth Services, Medical Services, Walk-up Testing for COVID-19, Dental Services, Emotional Wellness Services, and other Wellness programs. This page also provides critical more information for high-risk categories and helps all our patients learn what to expect during your visit with Community of Hope. Additionally, there have been many changes impacting our housing families, volunteers and mentors, and donors.
- Housing Families – We will continue to provide safe and dignified supportive housing at all of our sites. We have added hospital-grade cleaning protocols and are supplying the immediate needs of our families. We will pause some of our auxiliary programming for child and are adapting our group meetings.
- Volunteers and Mentors – We have paused our children and family engagement activities and will continue to make updates based on the latest guidelines from the CDC. Volunteers, you will be missed, so please stay tuned for returning. Mentors, look out for a message from Lauren Cranman, Volunteer Manager, for further instructions.
- Donors – Your gifts are welcome at any time and each makes a tremendous difference for the people who rely on Community of Hope. Consider making donations of household goods or activities for children while they are out of school.
Our immediate focus is on meeting the needs of our families. But we do believe that this crisis will have long-term ripple effects on the people we serve – lost income and increased worry, stress, and anxiety. While strong and resilient, they are people who already face a lot of challenges. We are in this with them for the long-haul and will work as a community to address the long-term impacts.
There is no more important time for us to be a Community of Hope to our patients and families. We ask that, as you take care of your families in this strange moment, that you think kindly of families facing homelessness and people living with health challenges. We will be back in touch with you as we understand further implications including financial impacts and changes to other programs and events.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Kelly Sweeney McShane
President and CEO
Community of Hope COVID-19 Resource Guide
We know that so many people are needing help in moments like these and have put together this resource to share. Click here
Further updates on this situation may be found here:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus
DC Health – https://dchealth.dc.gov/
Government of the District of Columbia – https://coronavirus.dc.gov/
