Open Letter To Our Community from Little Friends CEO

So many of us have had our lives changed abruptly over the past several weeks dealing with the spread or potential spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19).  To pretend that it’s just another day or week would be absurd.  However, as we’ve dealt with the challenges at hand ensuring we provide the best of care and support for those we serve and those who do the hard work we do, I have been emotionally moved by the incredible teamwork and support that has come from nearly every entity that touches our lives. 

The cooperative spirit and efforts to help each other is something I wish we all saw more often.  Maybe it will be one of the lessons from this experience?  In any case, several people have asked how we are doing and wanted to know if we were OK.  While things are literally changing daily as we deal with the nearly 1,000 lives we support in some way, we are doing well and staying in control at the time of this writing. 

Quick update how things are

The following is an update on each program Little Friends operates:

For our Center of Autism, we made the difficult decision to shut down all onsite therapies for the children we serve last Thursday. To honor the shelter-in-place announcement from the Governor’s Office, our staff now communicates with many of our children and parents through remote technology. Like many of you, we have experienced a few challenges, however, we have confidence we are doing what we can to help our families and children in the time ahead. 

We effectively closed our three schools, Krejci Academy, Bridge High School, and the Mansion High School, on Friday, March 13. While our plans are to resume operations on April 6, we anticipate the return date could be pushed back to the middle of April. Thanks to the work of our amazing teachers and administrators, we continue to maintain contact with our students through E-learning and customized lesson plans. We recognize the challenges this new learning situation has created for parents and we will continue to actively communicate with families to make this transition as smooth as possible for everybody. 

We were required to shut down our Community Day Services program last week and it will remain closed through April 16. Closing our facilities allowed us to reassign some of our personnel to our residential services program. We maintained a skeleton crew of our employees to produce key components for essential manufacturers, many from whom we have had business partnerships for years. I am grateful for the flexibility exhibited by staff members to accommodate these unique needs. 

We closed our Respite Program and will not reopen until the schools are reopened.  We know how important this service will be once normalcy returns and look forward to offering this service. 

For our Residential Services, this important segment of our agency remains fully operational. Several of the adults we care for do not have anywhere else to go, and our job is to keep them safe as best we can. We are fortunate to be able to have additional staff from our other departments step forward to provide increasing amount of support for those we serve in our residential facilities.

How you can help

We are doing OK and we are making it through this most interesting time for now. Many of you have asked “What do you need or How can I help?”

First, allow me to share how appreciative I am that many local businesses and individuals have stepped forward to lend a hand. Thank you truly for your help! Like every other healthcare provider we have need for thermometers, masks, and gloves.  Any assistance with these items will always be helpful.  Looking forward, as it is difficult to predict how long our challenges with COVID-19 will last, we not only appreciate the items to keep people safe but other things like puzzles and incidentals will help those we serve pass the time.  Thank you for helping with this as well.

We are doing our best to protect those we serve, and remain fully aware that all of our residents have been identified as part of a higher risk population. Please rest assured we understand this and are taking what we believe are the necessary steps and precautions to look after the people we have been entrusted to care for.  While in these times it could be described as our job, but actually in reality it is a privilege to help those we serve and their families who rely upon us for what we do.

Sincerely,