I’m Danna and I’m the Medical Case Manager for Hospitality House, I connect our guests with medical services as well as handling their medical insurance needs to housing.
Since mid-March, Hospitality House has ramped up its policies and procedures in order to keep our guests, staff, and the community safe. As one of the medical case managers, I have helped facilitate trips to the hospital for tests, triaging any incoming guests and those who show symptoms, and continuing medical appointments for those with pressing conditions. While we currently have had zero cases of COVID-19 in the shelter and within our outreach community to our knowledge, we continue to stay on top of safety precautions to keep up this trend. We are still placing our most vulnerable guests in hotels so that they can be isolated while still receiving three meals a day and case management. Those that come down with any possible symptoms are immediately taken to the hospital in our designated COVID-19 vehicle and transporting staff are required to put on a gown, mask, and gloves. Vehicles are sanitized after transporting and the guest bedding and related is sanitized as well. We will continue to adhere to CDC and Health Department guidelines and will continue our expanded services to keep people as safe as possible, but welcome the community’s help and now is the time to create great impact.
Local community members have come forward to help Hospitality House during the pandemic by offering an incredible donation match opportunity. Through May 31, all monetary donations made to Hospitality House will be matched by these individuals, dollar for dollar, up to $25,000. This means a gift of $10 automatically becomes $20 and will give 20 people struggling with homelessness each a hot and healthy meal.
A $50 donation will help one person in crisis receive a night of emergency shelter with wraparound services, such as food, clothing, job training, mental health counseling, transportation to medical, and customized case management to return to stable housing, on top of supplies and the support needed to make it through the pandemic. But community members who make their $50 donation by May 31 will automatically have their gift doubled and help two people right now.
To help people in crisis during the pandemic, donations may be made online at hhshelter.org, or by mail at 1262 Sutton Way, Grass Valley, CA 95945. Donations will be doubled through May 31.
Normally at this time we thank all the cook groups who came and cooked over the last week, but to keep our shelter safe amid COVID-19, our cook groups are supporting our meals by donating financial support and food, and Chef Chris is safely cooking all meals instead. We’d like to thank Wolf Creek Lodge, Telestream, The Gourmet Squad, Meals by Heals, Peace Lutheran Grass Valley, CA, The Home Team and First Baptist Church. A big thank you also to The Oaks Clubhouse in Lake Wildwood for helping us provide meals on weekends and to Friar Tuck’s Restaurant and Bar for launching a food fundraiser for us too. To everyone who donated our most needed items last week, thank you as well!
Now down to the nitty gritty needs of the shelter for this week…
• Tylenol (not ibuprofen)
• Gloves
• Mask
• Adult coloring books
• Colored pens and pencils
• Any crafts that can be done by one person
• Deodorant
• Bleach
• Shampoo
• One special request: Guitar strings and guitar picks to help our guests play some music!
In addition to these urgently needed items, we are also actively collecting needed items to slow the spread of COVID-19. A few of these items include n95 masks, hand sanitizer, Airborn, disinfectant soap, disinfectant wipes, and disposable cleaning gloves. Please visit our website at hhshelter.org to see the full list. Please drop off urgent items to Utah’s Place, located in Brunswick Basin, past the DMV, at 1262 Sutton Way. For a tax receipt, please ring the doorbell and wait for someone to come outside to assist you. We greatly appreciate the community’s help at such times of certainty. If we all stick together, we’ll all get what we need. Thank you!