We are persevering

Innovation, creativity mark Full Life response to COVID-19

Back in March, we promised you that, over the Novel Coronavirus pandemic, we would persevere.

Over the last few weeks we have done exactly that.

Through innovation, adaptation and a lot of hard work and sweat, we are continuing to bring services to adults who face personal challenges of their own and need our help every single day.

Our business is hands on, making life difficult in a hands-off “stay-at-home” environment brought on by the pandemic. That means we’ve become creative.

We were the first to tell the story of the Mask Brigade, a group of Seattle women who banded together to solicit donations of medical masks and other protective gear and engineer a collection and distribution system to local health care workers.

We told you the story of our hard working Home Care Aides, who continued to visit clients in their homes at great risk to their health. And we created new ways that you could help Come Fight With Us and volunteer time and effort.

We began finding new ways to do our jobs from home while observing the state’s “stay-at-home” directives.

Then we began reaching out in new ways. Our Exercise with Lisa and Tony video brought Adult Day Health Center exercise routines to the internet and now allow clients to follow their exercise regimens at home.

To support staff working in the field, their colleagues banded together to create ready-to-go bags of sanitary supplies. Other staff adopted new duties delivering much needed food to folks who couldn’t get to the stores themselves.

Just a phone call away, our staff have created a new, task efficient way of checking in on some of our clients with the “Justice League,” delegating phone and procurement duties to expedite assessing client needs and getting them necessary food and supplies.

And we’ve learned to use video conferencing to conduct training and meet our commitments with other social service partners.

And even though our Adult Day Health Centers have been closed since March 3, our staff have come up with innovations using video conferencing to keep in touch with clients and make sure their needs are being met.

Helping make a lot of this innovation possible is the extraordinary support of the local, state and federal public health agencies who fund and/or regulate our work. Their cooperation allowed us to execute many of the ideas we’ve developed. We’re grateful for their support and encouragement.

And we’re also grateful to you, our Full Life supporters. You help us to remain innovative and creative as we cope with the ongoing health emergency. You are investing in positive and effective solutions. We need your continued support to keep going.

Today and tomorrow, thousands of people are going to show their support for their favorite Washington nonprofits during GiveBIG. We want you to show yours again for us now. COVID-19 has presented us with some of the most challenging circumstances in our history. Yet, we are here every day and our staff is working tirelessly to make sure that our clients are safe, fed and receive all the care they need.

If you can, donate now. We thank you. Our clients thank you, too.