Help Your Community

During a time of crisis, our first instinct is to help. Though we are practicing physical distancing, you can still find ways to volunteer. There are many ways to channel your energy during this time. Here are some general tips for helping your community, as well as direct ways to volunteer your time safely.

General Tips

The best way to help your community, your healthcare professionals, and other essential workers is to stay home if and whenever you can. Stay Home, Save Lives is true. Slowing the spread of Coronavirus means stopping direct contact with individuals outside your household.  Maintain a distance of six feet between you and anyone not in your household.

Practice good hygiene. Wash your hands frequently and often and disinfect surfaces regularly. Be sure to thoroughly wash fruits and vegetables with soap and water (rinse well before eating!).

Stay connected. Too much social media isn’t good for anyone; however, social contact is. Try setting up video calls or phone calls with friends and loved ones. Check in on neighbors by calling or talking while maintaining a distance of six feet from one another. Check on the immunocompromised, elderly, or otherwise vulnerable people in your neighborhood while maintaining social distancing.

Stay engaged. We need to be aware of what’s going on, what resources are available, and what actions are being taken to address the consequences of the COVID-19 emergency. Try to remain informed during this crisis. We will do our best to help you in that regard, but our resources and information are by no means exhaustive.

Fill out the 2020 Census. The 2020 Census is essential to our communities. It brings crucial funding to our communities that is directly related to how accurately we are counted. Filling out your census takes 10 minutes and is one of the easiest most direct way to help your community while keeping yourself and others safe. Click here to visit my 2020 Census issue statement to learn more about why filling out your census is so crucial to the well-being of our community.

Want to help the Santiam Hospital directly?

If you have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) at home in its original packaging please consider donating it to the Santiam Hospital. They have accepted items that were purchased over five years ago. If you have questions on whether or not they can accept something please email giving@santiamhospital.org and they can provide you with some guidance. Most shortages for PPE are masks right now.

The Santiam Hospital is accepting homemade masks. They have sewing kits available to pick up if you would like to help with this. They come with instructions and each mask takes approximately 15 minutes to sew. Some people are helping the hospital by making 3D printed face shields.

If you are looking for other ways to support the hospital and your community during this time please contact the Service Integration Team by emailing  SITmobile@santiamhospital.org  and they will let you know their current support needs.

Want to help with food access issues?