July 24, 2020
Dear Clients, Employees, Families & Friends of The Arc of the St. Johns;

We’re all learning that COVID19 doesn’t have a time where it just sits back and waits. It just moves forward. All of us at The Arc of the St. Johns have been doing everything we possibly can to create and maintain safe environments for our staff and the individuals for whom we care for every day. We have secured and maintain a good supply of PPE and sanitizing materials and equipment.

We have closed our adult day training facilities for all but essential administrative personnel. The individuals we serve are quarantined in our twelve group homes, all under the care and supervision of our staff members 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The group homes are sanitized constantly, and our staff and individuals practice all recommended safety measures: masks worn at all times, hand washing many times every day, and safe distancing whenever possible.

Even with all of that defensive protection, COVID19 has found us. With our recent testing, 22 cases have been confirmed. Eleven of those involve staff members, and the other 11 involve our group home residents. The St. Johns County Health Department deployed more than a dozen professionals to our main campus on July 17, and, as the results of those tests are made known, we may learn of additional cases. In all cases, staff members are sent home, individuals are further isolated, and all are monitored under the close observation of our nursing staff. Three are being cared for at the hospital, and will soon be released.

We are working quite aggressively to have group homes for people with IDD classified in similar fashion as the nursing homes and elderly care facilities, where test kits are provided, and the staff members are tested free of charge at least every two weeks. Individuals with IDD in group homes must be afforded the same levels of safety. We are making some headway on achieving that goal, but we desperately need the Agency for Health Care Administration and the Agency for Persons with Disabilities to move more quickly and deliberately to help us ensure the health and safety of the good people we serve. In the meantime, we are very fortunate to have our Flagler Hospital agreeing to provide additional testing for us on a regular basis.

The Arc of the St. Johns is doing all that we can to fend off COVID19 as it continues to surge in our state.

Thank you for your patience, your support, and understanding as we work our way through this challenging time.

Kathy Jackson
Chief Executive Officer
The Arc of the St. Johns

May 26, 2020
Dear Clients, Employees, Families & Friends of The Arc of the St. Johns,

The Arc of the St. Johns Day Program still remains closed for services due to COVID-19. On April 29, 2020, Governor DeSantis announced a plan to gradually reopen the state through a three-phase process. The purpose of reopening in phases is to reopen carefully, evaluate progress, and keep the risk at a minimum. We continue to monitor all statewide and local directives because these directives are related to state and local infection rates. Currently St. Johns County appears to be at a very low infection rate but we are still under Phase I, limited opening. All updates regarding our reopening will be disseminated by email, our website, and social media.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work our way through this challenging time.

Kathy Jackson
Chief Executive Officer
The Arc of the St. Johns

REOPENING PLANS UNDERWAY

I can’t help but say it: Closing is a whole lot simpler than reopening. We are taking this process step by careful step. We have counselled with our Agency for Persons with Disabilities, and we have had productive one-on-one discussions with our friends and the St. Johns County Health Department, all to prepare correctly, safely, and efficiently for our eventual return to daily on-site programs. We have very clear, qualifying guidelines, and we’re awfully busy tending to the many, many details to make The Arc a safe place to learn, work and serve.

Our super staff has done a wonderful job keeping our individuals happily engaged in their group homes, with great planning and fun things to do. We will all be delighted to have the men and women we serve back on campus. Look for that reopening date to be announced soon. In the meantime, STAY SAFE OUT THERE.

Kathy Jackson, Executive Director

April 17, 2020

The Arc of the St. Johns is continuing to provide safe and healthy environments in our group homes, and in our Adult Day Training facility when individuals come for some special activities.
Our main campus remains closed to the public. Essential administrative and managerial staff are working on site or remotely from their homes to ensure that the details of our operation are attended so that we can resume total operations with a minimum of disruption when conditions allow us to re-open.
More than 120 members of our residential staff and nursing team are working in shifts to provide quality, direct care to the individuals in our twelve group homes. Direct-care staff are provided with appropriate personal protection materials to further ensure their health and safety, and that of the individuals in their care. We continue to fortify our inventories of face masks, gloves, gowns, and other supplies, although that is an ongoing challenge. A good portion of those supplies are being assembled and donated to us by people in our community, and we will be forever grateful for their care and generosity.

Please stay safe out there.

KATHY JACKSON
Executive Director

UPDATE March 30, 2020

Greetings Everyone, from The Arc of the St. Johns.

We are responding to the Coronavirus directives from every level you can imagine, keeping our individuals and staff safe and productive.

The full operation of our Adult Day Program has been curtailed for now, but individuals in our residential program have an opportunity to come out two houses at the time so that they can have a safe place to just get out of the house. Our group homes receive an extra thorough cleaning and sanitizing to ensure a clean and safe environment. Our transportation fleet is cleaned and sanitized, as well.

We have been able to retain our caring and dedicated direct-care staff, and I want to extend extra special thanks to all of them for coming to work every day to work with the individuals we serve. We are blessed to have this wonderful team working together, safely, at The Arc of the St. Johns. On behalf of our board of directors, our staff, and the individuals we serve every day, I want the community to know that all of us appreciate your trust, interest, and support you have given us for 48 years.

Please stay safe out there.
Kathy Jackson, Executive Director

Wednesday, March 25, 2020
For Community Families/non-residential clients at The Arc of the St. Johns:
The Adult Day Program will remain closed until further notice. Please stay safe and we look forward to seeing you again soon.

An Important message from Kathy Jackson, Executive Director of The Arc of the St. Johns:
The St. Johns County School District has amended the school calendar to extend the scheduled spring break by one additional week. Students will now return on March 30. The Arc’s charter schools – the Therapeutic Learning Center for Children and the St. Johns Community Campus will follow that schedule.

The Arc of the St Johns Adult Day Training (ADT) programs will continue daily operations as usual.

Thank you.