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ACS Corona Virus Preparedness Plan Update
March 12th, 2021
See Previous Messages or Printable Versions Here

Dear ACS Staff, Families, and Community Partners,
As promised, we are excited to share that as of Monday March 15th, ACS will be moving to its Level III/Yellow phase of our Emergency Operating Procedures. You may be asking what that means, and we invite you to review the changes below.

Staffing

• We are focused on expanding our staff base to meet the need for services in supported living and our Day Hubs.  This will include increased administrative presence on-site at the various programs.  It also means that ACS is actively seeking good candidates for employment.
• WE ARE HIRING! If you, or someone you know would be interested in joining our team please have them visit our website at https://www.abilitychoice.org/hr to apply. 

Supported Employment

• Our supported employment team is now running at full capacity and is currently providing support in the community for work strategy assessments, job development(remote meetings are still available if needed) and job coaching.  For those who have been waiting to return to work due to the pandemic, please stay in touch and let us know when you are ready to get back to work. We look forward to supporting you through your return!

Day Service Hubs

• Moving forward, we will have group sizes up to 20 people per programming area under the condition that we are still able to support six feet of social distancing between each participant/staff.
• Participants will have the choice to resume planning and attending community-based activities with precautions in place that ensure social distancing can be maintained.
• In person tours will be permitted with clearance through our COVID-19 pre-screening process.
• Buildings will remain secured. The exception to this is the front lobby area of our programs that continually staffed.  This allows us to ensure that anyone entering the programming areas has been screened for COVID symptoms and maintain building security from unauthorized entry.
• Inside pick up and drop off can now occur in the front lobby vs. curbside pick-up/drop-off.
• Visiting will be limited to essential visitors only and must go through the COVID-19 pre-screening process.
• Emergency drills will be completed but modified to accommodate social distancing.

Transportation

• Masks will continue to be required for transportation at this time.  If you have questions regarding this decision, or if you are wanting to discuss an accommodation, we are evaluating this on a case-by-case basis.

Masks/PPE

• We know that participants and staff are anxiously awaiting the day that masks will not be a requirement while attending the Day Service Hubs.  At this time, due to high vulnerability of many of the participants we support and varying levels of vaccination, masks will continue to be worn, and social distancing practiced, until we receive different instruction from the Department of Human Services stating that we are permitted to change this expectation.
• Additional PPE will continue to be worn any time a staff person is performing job duties that would require they be in close contact with the participants they serve.

Vaccinations

• As an agency we have attempted to obtain permission from the state to serve as a “pop up”” vaccination site specifically for our participants who are waiting on vaccination.  At this time, we have been denied and told to recommend that we direct our participants to their local health departments, pharmacy, or personal physician’s office to obtain vaccinations. 
• Health Department Info:
• Salt Lake County: https://slco.org/health/COVID-19/vaccine/
• Tooele County: https://tooelehealth.org/covid-19-vaccination-plan/
• Davis County: https://webportal.daviscountyutah.gov/App/CovidPublic/home
• Utah County: https://health.utahcounty.gov/covid-19-vaccine/

We hope you have found this information helpful as many of you are making decisions about returning to day hub services.  As mentioned above, we are actively working on the hiring process so that we can support the return of participants to programming.  This process is not always as fast as we would like and is dependent on quality applicants.

Due to this challenge, we are currently running a waitlist for re-admission to the Draper and South Salt Lake Day Hubs. If you have not already discussed a return to programming with us, please reach out to the respective area Directors to address this by calling 801-281-0700.  We will be giving start dates to participants in order of their place on the waitlist which is currently growing by the day.

We are excited to be looking forward and wish you all the best for a safe and healthy weekend!

Sincerely,
Kendra, Dan, and the ACS team