As you know, to say that 2020 has been an unusual year is an understatement! Yet through it all, people living with disabilities and seniors have reached out to us for help and, thanks to your support, we have been able to provide our support covid-style.
Our Workforce Development team pivoted and has offered many of our in-person classes through online methods. One class that we offered via Zoom is an employability workgroup specifically for veterans since many of the employment issues are different for veterans. Many veterans come to us with an established set of soft skills like communication, professionalism, and teamwork, while they need our help learning how to network, interview and present who they are in a civilian context. The classes have addressed these skills and have given the veterans an opportunity to discuss issues unique to veterans with other veterans (including the class facilitator).
While the stay at home order in April and May prevented our Occupational Therapy team from conducting assessments of people’s homes to ensure their safety, the team instead mailed needed equipment to them and checked back in with folks we hadn’t seen recently just to ask “Are you doing ok?” As soon as the order was lifted, our OT team was back out assessing homes for safety and making sure folks had the tools and knowledge to continue to live safely and independently in their own home.
Our Nursing Facility Transition Coordinator has helped 8 people transition from a facility to their own home during the pandemic. These people most times had no place of their own to return to, no furniture, bed, dishes, towels, etc. They had nothing but a desire to get into their own home. Our coordinator has been able to find them a place to live that they can afford and then helped them to furnish it the way that they wanted. All this has been done with lots of phone calls and internet shopping, and a true desire to make sure these folks get home.
These are just three examples showing that, even during a pandemic, Disability Advocates strives to meet our mission of working alongside people with disabilities as they seek to lead self-directed lives and to advocate for accessible and welcoming communities. We ask you to consider helping us continue our impact on the lives of folks like those represented in the snapshots above and so many others. Your gift truly makes this impact possible. To donate click here.
