Dear Program Participant and Support Team Members,

First, we hope this communication finds you and your family well. As you know, HSI’s programs have been suspended since March 18, 2020, in compliance with federal and state declarations to stay home and practice physical distancing. Our previous communication on April 3, 2020, announced our program suspension would continue in alignment with the Governor’s statewide closure until May 1. Given that the COVID-19 pandemic is still not under control to the standards of the Federal and State health officials, congregate programs like ours will remain suspended until June.

Given this new reality, our leadership team is examining creative strategies to potentially resume services while maintaining Federal and State guidelines to minimize the risk of spread. In the spirit of creativity, we are considering several ideas and want you to provide feedback.

Pre-COVID-19, a typical day at HSI could have 120-200 people (people served and staff) at our location each day. Guidance for re-opening locations is variable. Some guidance says no more than 10 people can congregate and other guidance, the one we follow at HSI, says no more than one person per 200 square feet may congregate and masks must be worn. So, 120-200 people at 555 Reactor Way would not work.

We are thinking that in the interim we could offer in-home Jobs and Day Services.  Services such as iChoose (Day Habilitation) or iWork (Pre-Vocational services)? Or we offer services for very small groups at some satellite locations closer to where people live? These ideas and subsequent plans would include maintenance of all precautions for sanitation, physical distance, personal protective equipment (PPE), and so on.

The good news is that the state of Nevada’s Sierra Regional Center has approved temporary in-home Jobs and Day Training (JDT) services for people who could benefit from these services. Plus, we have been thinking through how to do this as well, so that idea is viable already. The following steps are provided if you are interested to access in-home JDT services:

• Let your Service Coordinator know, as you’ll need to start with a team meeting (with the person and their support team)
  • Identify what supports would be needed in their home
  • How many days, how many hours per day
• Upon your support team’s approval, HSI would complete a home visit to determine that a proper environment exists to accomplish both the program support goals and to maintain safety
• HSI would identify potential staff members who could work with the person
• Given a match between a person served, their support team, and an HSI staff, HSI will follow protocols for new in-home JDT Services. HSI In-home JDT protocol will:
  • Develop processes to create a consistent in-home staffing work schedule. Consistency of schedule and staff will support effective program services while minimizing the number of different people served by any one HSI staff member during the week.
    • Prior to each shift and before arriving at an in-home assignment, ALL HSI staff will have their temperature taken and answer basic COVID-19 screening questions
  • HSI provides all appropriate PPE to the staff based upon the person being served, gloves, masks, disinfecting supplies, etc.
  • HSI provides programming materials as available, unique program materials may need to be identified and requested and paid for by the person’s support team.

So, here’s where your feedback will be critical. Would you or your family member like to consider in-home JDT supports for the next 2-3 months as we await further federal and state guidance? In order to build an in-home program, we need to understand what in-home supports, how many days and how many hours you would be interested in.

If you would like to help us and the state gauge interest, please answer the questions below by 5/1/20. If you have any questions, contact Mark Malady, via email.

On behalf of our staff and leadership team, thank you for your input and understanding. We will communicate more as soon as we have more information to share. Please know that we are doing everything we can to maintain our organization and our great staff.

Sincerely,

Mark Malady
Director of Programs

Pictured: Jimmy Breslin, HSI Community Development Officer, delivering more than 1,100 face coverings to the Boys and Girls Club.

Many fantastic people in our community are making masks and face coverings but at iCelerate – High Sierra Industries (HSI) we know there are some populations that can fall through the gap, especially during times of a crisis. And what if you don’t have access to, or can’t afford fabric, or have sewing skills?

Although HSI’s day service facility operations are closed, the iWork job training and employment program is operating. The iWork division is an essential business because it supplies assemblies to other essential business in our area. While practicing safe workplace protocols, in addition to our contract work, HSI also found a way to give back and help our community, most importantly, to those families who are often overlooked when it comes to accessing vital resources.

Custom Ink generously donated several hundred poly-cotton blend t-shirts. We found that the Center for Disease Control suggests the blend is a better barrier than other fabrics if you don’t have access to an actual mask. From the t-shirts we made more than 1,100 washable and reusable face coverings, that can be customized to different size and require no sewing. These face coverings were delivered to the Boys and Girls Club of Truckee Meadows. They will hand them out — with English and Spanish instructions for cutting slits that fit over the ears, on Thursday as part of their weekly Food Pantry distribution with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada.

“People with disabilities are just like you and me and with our heightened abilities to evaluate situations through a lens of equity and inclusion, we’re able to quickly identify a need or deficiencies in processes. It’s what we do every day in our learning systems that help people with disabilities. We identified a need in our community and put our assembly skills to the test to produce more than 1,100 washable face coverings for families.” says LaVonne Brooks, CEO iCelerate – High Sierra Industries. “We are so thankful for the quick response by Custom Ink to deliver us hundreds of t-shirts at a moment’s notice to put the l’s face covering design into production.”

The face coverings are now available through the Boys and Girls Club of Truckee Meadows and are distributed through their Food Pantry project in conjunction with the Food Bank of Northern Nevada. Learn more at: https://bgctm.org/covid19-programming/.

Instructions included in each package on how to properly fit the face covering, in English and Spanish, based on CDC’s guidelines.

Written by Andy Geisel, iCelerate/HSI – WARC

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of former Board Member William “Bill” Petty, who passed away on November 30 at age 83. He served for more than 20 years on the boards of HSI and WARC and will be well remembered for his energy, his vibrant (and often funny) personality, and his passion and dedication to serving others, especially people with disabilities.

During his tenure on the Board, he approached each agenda item, each issue, large or small, from the standpoint of advancing our Mission. Among his many contributions to our organization, we’ll fondly remember him for his help in the design and funding of the “water wall” in our Art Room – thank you, Bill!

You can read more about Bill in this wonderful remembrance.

A celebration of Life will be held at 2 p.m. on January 14, 2020 at Sparks Christian Fellowship, 510 Greenbrae Drive, Sparks, NV, 90431. In lieu of flowers, donations in Bill’s name can be made at fredhutch.org – please choose the “lung cancer” option.

Our sympathy and condolences to the Petty family, and his many friends and business colleagues.