Important – CVS COVID-19 Update – Monday, March 16th, 2020

Dear Families, Caregivers, Staff and the People We Serve,

Further to our communication on Friday, the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve. As noted, our leadership team has moved out of our administration office and has met virtually today to discuss next steps. If you have been monitoring the news, you will have seen how things are escalating at the moment and the preventive steps the Canadian and BC governments are taking to reduce COVID-19 from spreading.

Now that it is clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is a major cause for concern, our leadership team is working hard to re-allocate our staff and resources to the best of our ability. For those families who have agreed to keep their loved ones at home during this time, we thank you. 

The CVS leadership team has agreed to complete its reallocation process by this Wednesday, March 18th at 4:00pm. What this means is that we intend to significantly reduce the number of people at our Port Moody and Port Coquitlam locations. We are relying on our families and caregivers to help us during this time to provide care for the individuals we serve and to reduce the spread of COVID-19 throughout our community.  

The leadership team is in the process of contacting all of our families in our Community Inclusion and Employment Day programs. We are doing this so we can assess the needs of each individual we serve on a case-by-case basis in an effort to re-allocate our staff and, where needed, to continue to serve these individuals outside of our Port Moody and Port Coquitlam locations. For individuals in our residences, we are working hard to maintain adequate staffing during this time. Our intention is to minimize disruptions as much as possible for the people we serve, their families, caregivers, our employees and other service providers.

We want to ensure our reallocation plan meets the needs of as many participants, families, caregivers and other service providers as possible. As I said, we are contacting all impacted families – we ask that if you receive a message from us (contact details below) to give us a call back as soon as you can, preferably by 5:00pm PT on Tuesday, March 17th, so we can be made aware of your circumstances as we continue our planning efforts. 

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact Kevin Lusignan or Linda King so that we can address any concerns or hear your advice as we work together to keep everyone safe. 

Sincerely yours,

Kevin Lusignan

Contact Information – 

Kevin Lusignan, Executive Director – [email protected] 

Linda King, Senior Director of Operations – [email protected] 

Dawne Windblad, Community Inclusion (Discovery 1 & 2, Footloose, Adult Residential) – [email protected]

Diana MacPhee, Community Inclusion (Employment & Outreach) – [email protected]

Joanne Weidinger, Children’s Services – [email protected]

Amrita Dhoot, Children’s Specialized Resources – [email protected]

Colin Wood, Shared Living – [email protected] 

Miriam Hoolahan, Communications – [email protected]