Cayuga Centers is appealing for help in purchasing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to safely provide its essential services to children and families at this difficult time.
While we do not know when the “pause” orders will be lifted in the three states where we operate programs, we are prepared to ramp up all of our programs to meet what we think will be the greater need families will have because of the trauma this pandemic is inflicting on them.
While we are meeting these needs from agency funds, COVID-19 has posed other challenges for us, especially as we work to acquire Protective Personal Equipment (PPEs) for the staff we are sending into homes or into the community. These are items we have never had need of before, so we have never budgeted for them. Now that we need them, we have found the price to purchase them has risen dramatically – from less than $0.50 to over $5.00 in some cases for a single use mask. As a result, we have now spent more than $100,000 on PPE, and we will need more in the weeks and months ahead.
Cayuga Centers are asking supporters if they can help by making a contribution to buy PPE for our staff and foster parents. 100% of donations will be used for the sole purpose of purchasing PPEs for our staff and foster parents. Your donation will not be used for any other purpose.
Despite the many restrictions and obstacles created by this pandemic, Cayuga Centers continues to serve.
- We are supporting our many foster homes spread from Upstate New York to New York City, to Delaware to South Florida, by checking on each child and foster parent daily. We are continuing therapy and coaching through video platforms like Doxy but send staff into homes as needed. The willingness of our foster parents to allow new children in their homes despite COVID-19 has allowed us to continue to accept children from crowded congregate settings or unsafe homes.
- We continue our interventions with high-risk families in communities ranging from Rochester to Albany. While much of this work is now being done remotely, daily we send therapists into homes to stabilize families and to ensure they are safe if we feel it necessary.
- We continue to unite our Unaccompanied Children with family members living in the United States. After we qualify these family members for Federal approval to receive these children, our staff regularly board planes to supervise travel to these families.
These highlights only scratch the surface of what we continue to do.
To give, please go to https://bit.ly/DonateCayuga or send a check to Cayuga Centers, 101 Hamilton Avenue, Auburn, NY 13021. We are a 501c(3) charity.
Thank you,
Edward Myers Hayes
President & CEO, Cayuga Centers
