Dear Angels Families,
Friday, May 15, 2020
Dear Angels Families,
Here are some additional updates/guidance for Resource Parents in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. From now on I will only include new updates to you all, so you don’t have to sift through the old information. You can always access previous updates here if you missed anything. Please keep in mind that as an extension/contractor of child welfare, we (Angels and Resource/Foster Families) fall under the category of “essential services” and therefore are exempt from some of the government orders in order to perform the necessary services we provide. Please note that this extends to possibly supervising in-person parent visitation in some cases. Having said that, we will take every measure possible to keep ourselves and others safe and healthy while still working to support our children and families.
Home Visits
- We will continue to perform in-person home visits for our families on a monthly basis, or more frequently as/if necessary. We will continue to supplement our weekly visit requirement with "virtual" home visits.
Parent/Family Visitation
- We have continued to see more county social workers request that in-person visits occur, and expect that this trend will continue as more restrictions are lifted. We have also been sending individual workers the Angels policies/procedures for doing safer in-person visits and, for the most part, workers have been receptive and helpful with having these discussions with birth families.
- The county has opened up visitation availability at county offices around San Diego on an appointment basis. Please talk to your CCM or county social worker if you would like to use this space.
- The Angels office will be open for a limited number of visits beginning next Thursday, May 21st. We will be providing the space on a case-by-case basis with safety and necessity in mind. We have put additional safety protocols and a process in place which you may review here. It is still our preference that any in-person visits occur in an outdoor setting if at all possible as this is the safest way for in-person visits to occur at this time. If you think you might need to utilize the visit space at Angels, please talk to your CCM about this and we can advise further. Right now we are able to offer visit space on Mondays and Thursdays only and will continue to assess/adjust.
Juvenile Court/Attorneys
- Juvenile court closures are continued through Memorial Day. All hearings/trials that were scheduled through May 22nd will be continued and court is expected to resume May 26th (the day after Memorial Day Observance). We expect to have several cases “decided” quickly after courts re-open, especially if they were cases that were close to reunification prior to the pandemic.
Support for our Families
- We’ve had a few successful support groups so far! We will try our best to alternate days/times of day to accommodate everyone's availability. Please only sign up for ONE of the support groups in a month. We have a limit on the number of families in each group and we are seeing a lot of interest lately and want to make sure that we are able to give support to everyone who needs it.
Again, if you need anything, please always check in with your CCM or me and we will see what we can do to help. We have quite a few families/parents/others connected with Angels who have volunteered to help out in any way they can so if you have any child care needs or need help with supplies or something similar, we may be able to link you with helpers.
Please stay healthy and safe! Thanks, everyone.
