Grace Like Rain & The Coronavirus
UPDATE: POSTED 3/16/20
Grace Like Rain, along with several local non-profits and churches, has been collaborating to establish a plan to assist families in the Denton area who will be greatly affected during the extended time of school closures in response to COVID-19. According to the government/CDC recommendations, these sites will be limited to 10 children (split into various areas) plus volunteers to keep our numbers under the CDC recommended guidelines. We will also be washing our hands regularly and cleaning all surfaces multiple times a day. To sign up to help, please go here. For more information please email info@glrtx.org.So far, here is a list of events that we have postponed or cancelled.
UPDATE: POSTED 3/14/20
Grace Like Rain, along with several local non-profits and churches, has been collaborating to establish a plan to assist families in the Denton area who will be greatly affected during the extended time of school closures in response to COVID-19. To minimize lost wages for families during this time, we will be opening multiple locations for childcare for Ages 3 to 11 years of age (5th grade) for the duration that schools are closed. The hours will be from 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and will be housed at several local churches. We will require a referring agency or verification of services received from a local social service provider, along with employment verification. We will also be following all guidelines from health officials. If this is something you are in need of, please fill out this form. If you are needing extended care to 6:00 PM, please email info@glrtx.org directly.To make this happen, we will need your help. All sites will be run by volunteers and will provide breakfast and lunch for each child involved. Please sign up at this link to volunteer. There will also be additional funds needed to assist our families during this time. To donate financially, please do so at this link.All volunteers will need to complete the GLR volunteer application and background check. We are asking that volunteers do not bring their own kids, if possible, as it will decrease the number of children we will be able to serve. With that in mind, we also understand that this might be a barrier to your availability to volunteer. If that is the case, please email GLR at info@glrtx.org.
ORIGINAL POST: POSTED 3/13/20
Thank you to everyone who has reached out to Grace Like Rain in regards to how they can help our families and community during this time of hardship. Firstly, we want to mention that the safety and well-being of our families, employees, supporters, and volunteers are of the highest importance to all of us. In response to growing concerns surrounding the Coronavirus (COVID-19), Grace Like Rain is closely monitoring the situation.The Coronavirus (COVID-19), has not had a lot of cases in our area but has led to school closings, food shortages, and temporary job closings. As we know this leads to complications for the families involved in our program such as childcare, wage losses, extra grocery bills, and more. We are working with a few other local non-profits to come up with a solution to help ease these complications for not only the families in our program but also the general community. Grace Like Rain is closely monitoring recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO), U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Texas Department of Health Services, and the Denton County Department of Public Health.We know that so many of you are eager to help and we LOVE that you are in sync with our mission for the Denton community. However, until we come up with a plan to counter these complications that have arose the best thing you can do to help us is to keep us in your prayers. As we make these tough decisions on what we feel is best to help our community, we ask that each of you prays for our spirit and mind to be in sync with what the Lord has set out for us to tackle. We will publicly announce this decision; please follow us on Facebook for the most up-to-date information.
As for our upcoming events..As many of you know we have 2 events coming up in the next month. The Golf Tournament (March 30, 2020) and the Volunteer Conference (April 4, 2020) will continue as scheduled at this point in time. However, we will continue to closely monitor the recommendations set out by WHO, CDC, Texas Department of Health Services, and the Denton County Department of Public Health. If this changes, we will inform those involved of this change and make adjustments accordingly. Please watch for updates on our Facebook page. As always, we ask that anyone feeling under the weather around these events to simply not attend. You will be missed!
We will be canceling the following events this coming week.
Faith and Finances - March 17, 2020
Coaches/FCM Coffee Break - March 21, 2020
As a reminder, here are the best ways for you and your family to stay safe and healthy during this time:- Wash your hands frequently for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.- Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.- Avoid close contact with people who are sick.- Cover your mouth with a tissue when coughing and/or sneezing.- Avoid handshakes and/or hugs.- Clean and disinfect frequently touched items and surfaces such as your keypad, phone, etc.- Stay at home if you are sick.We will continue to monitor the situation and send updates as needed. Thank you for your loving hearts for those in need!