UCP of the North Bay
Community Outreach Update

August 14, 2020

Agency News

UCP of the North Bay is proud to announce acceptance into the “Travis Credit Union Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief Initiative!”  From now through September 30, 2020, any donations made through the Travis Credit Union Fund (TCUF) website will be matched up to $20,000, so we have extended our #GivingTuesdayNow campaign to enable us to purchase more much needed technology for our students and employees with disabilities, their families, and staff, to stay connected.  This means we could raise an additional $40,000 to purchase an additional 1,000 fire tablets and/or other technology or connectivity for participants!

For those members of our community that already donated during the #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, please consider doing so again at that level, as this time, your gift will be matched!  For those who have not given yet, please consider your donations will now have twice the impact!

Please visit the TCUF website, www.tcufund.org Community Funding page and select “UCP of the North Bay” from the dropdown menu to make your donation that will instantly be matched!

For more information about the Travis Credit Union Foundation’s COVID-19 Relief Initiative CLICK HERE to see the official press release!

To learn more about UCP of the North Bay’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign visit, https://ucpnb.org/givingtuesdaynow/ to see how we have already raised over $18,000 towards our technology and “community unit” goals.

Legislation and Advocacy

This week, we were part of a UCP/ARC Collaboration call with key DDS staff, including the Director, as well as key legislators and aids who are watching our community carefully to insure we are able to navigate this pandemic safely.  The purpose of the call was to discuss the new DDS directive, effective September 1, 2020, to support Day Services throughout California to provide alternative service delivery to the many day program participants who are sheltering in place. 

Additionally, we discussed methods for technical assistance to those providers challenged by technology or other barriers in reaching those they were serving before the state of emergency and shelter in place orders occurred in March.  We emphasized the message that retention of our precious and qualified workforce is essential in order to continue to provide services in our facilities and communities, once it is safe to do so.

Congress has recessed until September without reaching a compromise on the next COVID relief legislation.  Once back in session, look for action alerts to continue to inform our legislators as to how essential it is that federal relief efforts support states to provide adequate and essential education and health and human service funding, without devastating cuts.

Cypress School Update

Cypress Summer Adaptive Behavior Program’s August Session wraps up today.  We want to thank the students and families for their active participation and the staff for offering great opportunities to connect and grow.  Cypress will hold their yearly all-staff training Monday.  They will begin their 2020-2021 school year remotely on Tuesday.  Parents are invited to attend the parent’s meeting Monday 8/24 at 2:30.

Adult Day Program Update

Our Adult Day Programs have been operating remotely since March 2020.  Since that time, we have provided weekly updates on our Outreach Program to inform the community about how we are supporting our participants.  We have successfully made daily telephone contact with our participants, provided a variety of online employment training classes and activities throughout the week, distributed new Amazon Fire Tablets to participants so that they could access the internet, and brought food and other supplies to participants that needed support to ensure their basic needs were being met.