Trojan Shelter's Plan During COVID-19
Dear Trojan Shelter family,
We hope that you are staying healthy and safe during these uncertain times. As the Covid-19 virus continues to uproot our communities and usual rhythms of life, we are thinking of all the members of our Trojan Shelter community.
As a result of the outbreak, our programs were heavily affected, especially in our loss of volunteers. As you have been hearing, college campuses, including USC, are encouraging students to go back home for the safety of our community. Though this is essential and necessary for our whole community, our programs rely heavily on volunteers as they are the body of our organization and keep our shelter afloat day by day.
In light of the changes at USC and in our city, we are taking steps at the shelter to ensure that our residents are given the same quality of care we have always promised from the start. We want to outline these changes to you, our community, and ask for some assistance in this uncertain time.
As USC transitions into online classes until the end of the semester, we can no longer ask our volunteers to do overnight shifts. Instead, we are hiring David Gomez, one of our incoming Directors of Resources, to act as a full-time RA for the remainder of our season. We are eternally grateful for David’s dedication and passion for our mission and are excited to be able to keep our residents in the shelter, thus being able to limit as much disruption we can to their lives during the unpredictable nature of COVID-19.
By having David be a full-time Resident Assistant (RA), we will also be able to give our residents a comfortable and safe space to social distance and quarantine. We are thankful our residents will be able to practice these measures that are being recommended nationally. Instead of having our hours be from 7pm-7am, we are now keeping our space open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We will continue to provide home-cooked dinners to our residents, but because of the new circumstances, we have opened the kitchen to be used by our residents for breakfast and lunch. Our goal is to add a sense of security and independence for our residents as there is still so much uncertainty as COVID-19 further develops, and as the volunteer force is reduced to one full-time RA.
We will miss the day to day experiences with our residents, but we recognize the necessity of allowing for both our residents and volunteers the privilege of low social contact in this season! We want to protect each other, and our community’s most vulnerable, by minimizing exposure for all.
What will stay the same:
Trojan Shelter will still provide case management to our residents
Three meals a day will be provided
Our efforts toward long-term housing for each resident will continue
As we look to maintain the same quality of care we have always intended for our residents, we also acknowledge that our new plan is expensive. The support of our gracious and hardworking volunteers is going to be replaced with a full-time staff member. Though we do have an emergency fund to help sustain our new plan, we are worried that it will not be enough. The Trojan Shelter Executive Board and I are asking you to give what you can so we can maintain our programs and be ready for anything else that we need to be prepared for. We are fully dedicated to serving our residents but also know that this is going to affect us heavily. We ask you to financially support us where you can and share this with the people around you.
Donations can be made at https://www.trojanshelter.org/donate.
We cannot overemphasize our gratitude to each member of our community. Your support, prayer, kindness, and generosity mean more than you know to our residents, our volunteers, and our board. Your partnership from day one has been an immeasurable blessing. Thank you and stay healthy.
Best,
Matthew Lee, Trojan Shelter Director of Media
For more information about Trojan Shelter, go to trojanshelter.org
To help support us financially, go to trojanshelter.org/donate. Make sure to specify that your tax-deductible donation will be going to Trojan Shelter!