Coronavirus News & Updates - The Home for Little Wanderers

CoronaVirus News & Updates

The Home for Little Wanderers is deeply appreciative of your interest in supporting our children and families as we weather this unprecedented situation together. The health of our youth, families, and workforce is of the utmost importance and we are taking every precaution in accordance with recommendations from public health officials.

Our programs and services continue to operate providing the critical services our youth and families need during this crisis. As this pandemic is wearing on, the need for our services has become even more apparent, as well, new needs are emerging related to the crisis. As we have always done throughout our 220-year history, we are responding and adapting to the current climate to ensure our children and families receive the uninterrupted care they depend on.

How you can help The Home in this time of great need

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Thank you for understanding the unique role The Home plays in the health and safety of our communities’ most vulnerable children and families. Extraordinary emergency measures are impacting The Home significantly and we expect that we will continue to feel the financial impact of the pandemic even after the emergency measures are lifted. To help us continue to do whatever it takes for our children and families during these unprecedented events, we have established several ways you can help us keep them safe, supported and heard.

Make a gift to The Home’s COVID-19 Relief Fund to help us deliver uninterrupted programs and services to our children and families.
Send a gift card to help struggling families and individuals access food and essential item such as diapers, wipes, and sanitizing supplies.
Please contact your Donor Advised Fund to direct funds to The Home.
Contact Brianna Spencer at bspencer@thehome.org for assistance. Our tax ID is 04-2104764.
Contact Maha Nafees at MNafees@thehome.org if you wish donate gloves,
masks or other personal protective equipment (PPE) for our frontline workers and children.

How The Home is Handling COVID-19

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Since the onset of the crisis, we have put the following measures in place:

We are screening every visitor and staff member to our group homes and residential sites prior to entry into any of our facilities, in order to identify anyone with COVID-19 symptoms and/or who has come from the specific countries/locations the CDC has noted.
We have set up a group home that is a designated facility for caring for DCF children identified as COVID-19 positive.
For residents of The Home who are identified as exhibiting symptoms consistent with COVID-19, we have established separate areas of our sites to isolate them and continue care for them.
We are also caring for self-isolating residents who may have been exposed but are not exhibiting symptoms.
We have increased the number of meals served and staff hours to meet the needs of our kids living with us during school closures.
We are requiring our direct care staff to wear proper PPE in order to directly care for clients.
We have transitioned to telehealth services for all of our community-based “outpatient” services.
We are continuing to make every effort to support our families’ basic needs in addition to therapeutic needs.
Our special education schoolteachers are regularly reaching out to students individually, preparing schoolwork weekly to send home to children and sharing resources via a website dedicated to education and Google classroom.
We are prioritizing essential staff onsite at this time, with other staff working remotely.
We have suspended onsite volunteer activities and are developing virtual volunteer opportunities.

Virtual Reading for Our Kids!

Did you enjoy listening to our Preschool Outreach Teacher, Jill, read? Find more videos and content from The Home on our social media!

Information and Resource Links

Meal sites for children and families in Boston

List of available emergency child care sites for essential workers
Lesli Suggs WGBH Interview

Lesli Suggs WCVB Interview

Matt McCall WGBH Interview

We’d like to say THANK YOU to our generous partner organizations that have supported our COVID-19 relief efforts by providing funding and donating essentials such as gift cards, diapers, wipes, laptops, PPE and other supplies to support our children, families and staff.

Funders:

Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund Arthur J. Fisher Fund

Deborah and Steven Barnes

Anita and Josh Bekenstein

Boston Resiliency Fund

Breckinridge Capital Advisors

Coldwell Banker Real Estate Brokerage

Jeff Conklin & Family

Cook Family Giving Fund

Craig Maurer

Dean Foundation for Little Children

Doe Family Foundation