CEO Message for August 28, 2020
Community Response to COVID-19
This week we continued to work with our member agencies to provide COVID-19 testing kits and training in collaboration with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Nona Scientific. We are excited that some of our members are taking advantage of the mobile testing units.
We have added some information to the FCC member portal – Star Chapter – regarding Nona Scientific Testing as well as additional details regarding the testing process. Please visit the members’ only COVID-19 Resources section of the portal to access these materials.
While life for many continues to be disrupted, the need for our #communityofcare remains critically important to communities throughout Florida, perhaps now more than ever. Your agencies have continued to provide critical services, uninterrupted, throughout this pandemic that are critical to keeping Florida’s children and youth safe and healthy.
Staying Safe, Strong, Healthy, and Well amid COVID-19
To continue this critical work in our communities throughout Florida, we must also remain healthy. I want to encourage everyone to consider your own personal well-being and some steps you can be taking to care for yourself and your staff.
Too often, in times of crisis, critical workers like those throughout our community of care prioritize others’ physical and mental health over their own. Your health and well-being is just as important. So whether it’s exercise, taking extra time with your family or taking up a new hobby — taking time for yourself can truly help reduce stress and help us feel restored.
FCC’s Chief Knowledge and Innovation Officer, Dr. Patricia Nellius, shared some thoughts along these lines in a recent Learning Community brief. The article includes some great resources, and I encourage you to read the full brief and utilize some of the resources she provides.
“Even in the best of times child welfare is a stressful field. But with the sudden and sustained stress produced by COVID-19 along with the personal stress of child care and school closures, job loss, food shortage, health risks and the uncertainty of when this will all end, can gradually wear down even the strongest among us….Remember in order to adequately care for others through COVID-19, we must first care for ourselves.”
Our community is resilient and we have continued to protect children, provided services that strengthen families and even completed adoptions virtually during these unprecedented times. We will continue to do this as we are instruments of healing and grace in communities throughout Florida. #InThisTogether
