Thornwell coping with the Corona Virus
Here is how Thornwell is coping with COVID-19, and how you can help them during this time.
Residential
Family Teachers are helping each teen in their cottage with their school work - yes, homeschooling sometimes up to 9 teens in their cottage! Through our educational programs, we are still able to offer some tutoring help, which is awesome and a huge gift! Residential is, of course, under stay at home orders. They are limiting interaction between cottages, which is one of the biggest bummers for the teens but it is in an effort to keep everyone safe. It's all definitely difficult at this time for the staff and the teens, BUT like most things at this time, there are some really beautiful bright spots that are coming from the incredible amount of time our FTs are getting with the teens which on a normal school day, they wouldn't. It's been really amazing!
Building Families Program
Our Specialists are still meeting through zoom with families they are serving to help them through this stressful time. Many of our specialists have also been doing videos that have been posted through our social media to be shared with all families during this time - how to create a routine, how to talk to your children about what's going on, etc. It's been fun to see the ways these staff members are using their expertise to serve anyone needing some helpful hints.
Foster Care
Our foster care families are all doing well! Our FC team sent every Thornwell Foster Care family a family game and packet craft for them to do as a family during this time of isolation. Again, these families are getting some really incredible added time with the children in their care, which is of course, at times difficult, but also amazingly beautiful!
Needs - A few ways groups can help:
Residential
Family Teachers are helping each teen in their cottage with their school work - yes, homeschooling sometimes up to 9 teens in their cottage! Through our educational programs, we are still able to offer some tutoring help, which is awesome and a huge gift! Residential is, of course, under stay at home orders. They are limiting interaction between cottages, which is one of the biggest bummers for the teens but it is in an effort to keep everyone safe. It's all definitely difficult at this time for the staff and the teens, BUT like most things at this time, there are some really beautiful bright spots that are coming from the incredible amount of time our FTs are getting with the teens which on a normal school day, they wouldn't. It's been really amazing!
Building Families Program
Our Specialists are still meeting through zoom with families they are serving to help them through this stressful time. Many of our specialists have also been doing videos that have been posted through our social media to be shared with all families during this time - how to create a routine, how to talk to your children about what's going on, etc. It's been fun to see the ways these staff members are using their expertise to serve anyone needing some helpful hints.
Foster Care
Our foster care families are all doing well! Our FC team sent every Thornwell Foster Care family a family game and packet craft for them to do as a family during this time of isolation. Again, these families are getting some really incredible added time with the children in their care, which is of course, at times difficult, but also amazingly beautiful!
Needs - A few ways groups can help:
- PRAYER! Always and forever!
- LETTERS! If you wanted to write encouraging letters to the cottages, the teens and their FTs, that would be AMAZING and definitely something to lift their spirits!
- SHARE! It may seem silly, but Thornwell is doing some really incredible ministry through this time and so follow Thornwell on Facebook OR Instagram and share posts, sharing our posts helps us widen our circle of influence and is both a great way to share our resources with families who need them AND you never know when you have a friend who may want to support us financially!
- And of course GIVE! There are certain items that are being used more often than others, but that varies so greatly per cottage. But like most homes we are using more cleaning supplies and LOTS of groceries, haha! Any financial support is helpful to ALL parts of the ministry to cover unforeseen costs during this time but we know many may be more comfortable with gift cards in which case Amazon is the most versatile for the ministry to use for needs.