March 20, 2020

 

Community Members,

There has been increased guidance provided by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) and the Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD) over the last week regarding COVID-19.  Each time we are provided with additional guidelines, it becomes more and more clear that the efforts to flatten the curve and slow the spread of COVID-19 will extend farther into the future than originally expected.

As many of you already know, all local schools will be closed until May 1st and the efforts to adhere to social distancing has resulted in many additional closings including service industries, manufacturing and retail.  We know that this will impact many of the families that we serve, and we remain prepared to provide services to our community.  Barring any significant change in current events over the weekend, Hawthorne will remain open next week – albeit in a limited capacity compared to normal. See below for more specific information about the status of our various programs and services.

Youth Programs:

  • Hawthorne will suspend its youth basketball program until after April 5th.  As April 5th approaches, we will discuss next steps for the program.
  • Hawthorne will continue the suspension of its School-Age and Early Childhood programming during the week of March 23rd.

Adult Programs:

  • Hawthorne will suspend Senior Citizen Program until after April 5th.  As April 5th approaches, we will discuss next steps for the program.
  • Our Center for Working Families (CWF) will offer basic needs services but not face to face client case management during the week of March 23rd. The CWF would still support clients through phone to ensure that they are being supported during this time period and also ensure they have access to food.

Community:

  • Hawthorne has cancelled all private rentals and community events scheduled to occur through April 5th. We will follow CDC and MCPHD guidance on all rentals and community events (non-essential services). 

If you are need emergency assistance or are struggling to meet your basic needs, please contact us at (317) 637-4312. If you call after business hours, you will be prompted to leave a message. If you are attempting to contact us about emergency assistance or support with basic needs, please select extension 123. If you are attempting to contact us about our youth program offerings, please select extension 101.  Any other questions can be directed to extension 123.  We will be regularly checking messages, cataloging our client’s needs and requests and returning calls as soon as we are able.

The end goal of each of these decisions is not to stop serving our community but to evaluate the needs of its members and ensure that we are in a position to meet those needs while not putting our facilities, our staff or our clients in a precarious position. We will continue to monitor this novel situation by following the most up-to-date guidelines provided by the CDC, ISDH and MCPHD. As new information becomes available, we will re-evaluate the above steps on a weekly basis and communicate any updates to you as they occur until the threat posed by COVID-19 has dissipated.

I realize that these are trying times and the decisions made today could very well change tomorrow, but one thing is certain; we remain determined to meet the current needs of the community, even as they may change and evolve over the coming days and weeks.

Stay safe, safe home if you can, and we will get through this together.

 

Caleb Sutton
Executive Director