After hearing a number of concerns about the effects that COVID related isolation is having on youth, Desta Beattie contacted between 80% and 90% of the Cortes Island families with teenagers to see how they are coping. Her quiet, unassuming manner is almost the opposite of Maunda Aufochs Gillespie, whose bubbling enthusiasm is displayed in constant movement and ever changing facial expressions. Gillespie has also reached out into the community, giving it platform to express itself and planting seed money where it is most needed. Their ministries, Cortes Island Family Support & Folk U, were the focus of the eighth Cortes Virtual Community Conference on May 19, 2020.
Continue reading May 19 Virtual Community Meeting: Family Support & Folk UTag Archives: CCHA
The third Virtual Cortes Community Conference
If nothing else, the third Virtual Cortes Community Conference may be remembered for its bloopers. The first 23 minutes were not broadcast over the radio because of an unexpected technical difficulty. Consequently, I used a recording that was never intended to be made public.
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Second Cortes Community COVID-19 Response Conference
Around 29 local businesses and organizations signed in to the second Cortes Community COVID-19 Response Conference. This session was more topical: front line services like medical response and stores, off-island traffic, and enforcing the provincial guideline.
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A Remote Island Prepares: Can Cortes Self Isolate?
Regional Director Noba Anderson invited many of Cortes Island’s key businesses and community groups to a Zoom conference call to explore responses to COVID-19. Thirty-nine people connected by phone or computer and a second person appeared on several computer screens. Many embraced the idea that we should act as if the virus is already here. In-so-far as is practical, most attendees appeared to want to see Cortes self isolate.
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Augmented Home Support
In October, 2019, Cortes Island’s Augmented Home Support (AHS) program was looking at the very real possibility that they may have to shut down. They had enough funding to continue until the end of the year, after which they could not pay their part-time employees. Some of you may have read their appeal in the Cortes Community Health Association (CCHA) Newsletter and made a donation. The immediate concern is over, but it prompted me to reach out to the Augmented Home Support program’s organizer, Ron Croda.
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