During these extraordinary times, we felt it was important to reach out and assure you, our wonderful supporters, that we are committed to the safety and well-being of our guests, staff, and volunteers. We understand that many in our volunteer base are at a higher risk from exposure to COVID-19, and beginning today, we are implementing enhanced policies to maintain the healthiest possible environment at our shelter facility, Easton’s Promise.
Due to the nature of the services we provide, we are not in a position to close down our program – in fact, now more than ever, we must be available to those in need in our community. We hope that you will join us in making sure that our operations continue uninterrupted as we navigate this unknown territory.
Here’s what we would like you to know:
- All guests, staff, and volunteers should wash hands immediately upon entry to Easton’s Promise, prior to signing in or touching anything.
- At the beginning of each shift, guests, staff, and volunteers will perform a wipe down of all common areas. Guests will be responsible for the bulk of the house, but volunteers and staff will disinfect the sign in area and front hall, all knobs and door frames, and the doorbell at the front of the house, and the living room.
- If a book is removed from the bookshelf, or a toy is taken out of the toy box, it should be disinfected before it is returned. Guests know to do this already, and there is a bottle of Lysol in the house specifically for this purpose.
- If you are feeling sick in any way, please stay home and take care of yourself. We will make sure that you are covered.
- Should you decide to self-quarantine, please let your team leader or our Volunteer Coordinator Joyce Scharch (tis.joycescharch@gmail.com) know as soon as you have made that decision so that we can cover any shift for which you are scheduled.
- We’ll need all hands on deck to fill any potential gaps in our schedule. If you are able to act as an on-call volunteer, please contact Joyce to sign up.(tis.joycescharch@gmail.com)
- Dinner volunteers needn’t stay for dinner. In fact, we encourage dinner volunteers to bring food in disposable or reusable containers that they do not need back, and to drop meals at the front door, so as to limit the number of people in the house at dinner time.
- We anticipate that there may be times when we need to call on our staff to work shifts that we can’t cover with volunteers. This may mean an increase in our staff expenses over and beyond what we have budgeted for. If would like to make a donation to help defray these additional costs, it would be a great help.
We are sure that many of you are wondering about our annual Lip Sync Battle. With the prohibition on events over 250 people, we are unable to hold a physical event this year. However, we feel it is important to keep the joy flowing, especially at a time like this, so we have created a new plan to convert LSB 2020 to an online fundraiser. We’ve also included some fun and free ways that our neighbors can entertain themselves while self-isolating! Read all about it and watch our special announcement from Jayme HERE!
On behalf of the staff and board of directors of Talbot Interfaith Shelter, we want to thank you for your support. Without you, we cannot operate. Many of our neighbors who are living on the edge may be adversely affected by the many closures that are happening in an effort to curtail COVID’s spread, and we must be ready to offer assistance if and when they need it. We are so blessed to partner with you to serve our community and provide our guests the resources and tools they need to build a brighter future!