Selfhelp Community Services Inc

Selfhelp's home care program provides approximately 2 million hours of home care each year to approximately 2,500 clients who are frail, older adults, or disabled. services include home health care, skilled nursing, chore assistance, housekeeping, homemaking, and emergency home care. selfhelp employs approximately 1,500 home care aides and trains aides in both spanish and english.selfhelp was born from crisis and has weathered economic, political, healthcare and social justice turbulence for over eight decades. during all of these times, an honest assessment of mission, human and financial resources, and ingenuity have guided the organization. when we unexpectedly began our response to covid-19, we realized that a nimble, ready-to-act task force would be necessary to address immediate planning, policy and procedural matters, special staff and client issues, and unforeseen circumstances. a covid response team was immediately established with 24-hour responsibility, comprised of several members of selfhelp's senior management team.our first concern was for the safety of our employees. we developed a work from home plan that was implemented within 48 hours and continuously monitored government guidance, adjusted our policies as appropriate, and kept staff advised.secondly, we wanted to make sure that selfhelp's finances would be secure, therefore, in the first week, we contacted all of our funding sources at city and state agencies, managed care companies and many foundations that had granted us funds in the normal course of business. we received commitments for ongoing funding.our third area of priority was communications. we immediately developed a communications plan for our 450 employees at home, 1500 home care workers, our broader supportive community, and our boards of directors.our founders in 1936 had no roadmap or prior experience with the human kind injustice of the holocaust, yet they managed to aid and save countless people who may very well have perished if not for their ingenuity and life-saving actions. and once safe in the new land, selfhelp's founders did not stop there. they went on to build an organization that would support holocaust survivors, "until there are no more".it is resilience and ingenuity that guides our ability to thrive within change and can be relied upon to govern selfhelp in the years ahead.