Dear friends, benefactors, and volunteers:
As the COVID-19 situation continues to develop across our community, we want to make you aware of temporary changes we have made in the Voices for Children Montgomery’s (VFCM) office operations, volunteer in-service, and pre-service training as well as in the ways our CASA volunteers advocate for children.
Eventually, social distancing will prove successful and our community will be healthy again. Until that time, VFCM staff members are working from home with access to e-mail, telephone, and video conferencing. Monthly supervision meetings with volunteers are being conducted by telephone or video chat. We are also conducting volunteer pre-service and in-service training remotely.
Our CASA volunteers are keeping regular contact with professionals and caregivers by
telephone and email; we have asked volunteers to refrain from in-person visits with children until further notice. These measures aim to serve the well-being of children and families, caregivers, professionals, and our own volunteers.
For children 13 and older, regular video chat visits and telephone calls are encouraged. For children under 13, we encourage regular contact through telephone calls and video chats, with several restrictions; please contact your Case Supervisor for more information.
We are eagerly learning new ways to ensure that the children we serve are safe! Please know that the entire VFCM staff is available to answer questions as we all navigate this new and challenging situation. We are confident that our efforts to minimize in-person contact will help stop the spread of this virus and serve the best interests of children in our community.
Finally, we have postponed our annual fundraising event, our Beer, Wine & Food Festival, which was to be held on April 18. Thank you to those of you that supported this event. We are hopeful we will be able to reschedule it later in 2020.
Please contact our Office Manager, Nancy King, at the main VFCM telephone number (301-340-7458 ext. 201) for more information.