UPDATED 4/01: Total cases: 160. Active under quarantine: 124. Deaths: 5. Tested: 2,987. (Source: VC Emergency)
New – Action #14 – Train online to be a volunteer certified nurses aid.
Action #1 – More masks please! They need at least 3000 3500!!
Check here for all updates to mask project pattern and specifications.
Update 4/02/2020: 2,194 completed masks out of 3500 needed!
Update 3/25/2020: Ventura’s mask-making volunteers have made the New York Times! Check out the bottom paragraphs of this article! Then watch this video of the project from KEYT. Local high school students are also using 3D-printing to create face shields for medical workers. Ventura County is full of awesome people!
Update from Amy Towner, CEO of Health Care Foundation for Ventura County, Inc.:
“Our community continues to grow, today 250+ people to help protect and serve our county. Infection control is thrilled with the quality of masks being produced as is administration, doctors and nurses. (We knew all along that we could produce something better than money could buy and made with love to provide additional protection). We now have about 1,769 masks in current stock and we need at least 3,500 and we can do it.” UPDATE 4/01: 500 additional masks required for drive through clinic personnel.
- Send an email to Amy here to volunteer (do this first!) Tell her the following:
-
- Full Name
- Cell Phone
- Email address
- Full residential address
- Need/donation
- “I have fabric/thread supply to donate”
- “I need need fabric so I can sew”
- “I can drive for supply/demand”
- Mask pattern, instructions, fabric specifications and drop-off information are here.
Action #2 – UPDATED 4/01 – Check your garage and storage areas for unused baby monitors and other medical equipment!
- Baby Monitors: UPDATE 4/01: They now have 67 monitors. They are trying to get to 100 . The doctors and nurses said that the current stock have been deployed to rooms and they are a HUGE help. “Nurses are relieved these are coming in for monitoring patients in overflow rooms.” This was a best practice shared by another teaching hospital who has already experienced the surge. Please prepare the unit by:
- Sanitizing the entire unit including the cords,
- If it takes batteries and you have extra, please include extras. Put this in a ziplock or plastic bag with your name, email, cell and address on it for a future thank you note.“
- Drop off monitors to 765 Saratoga, Ventura.
- When we are through this pandemic, we will sterilize them and offer to MediCal patients that deliver and need a monitor for their newborn.
- Temporal infrared thermometers – UPDATE 4/01: TAKING ALL TYPES OF THERMOMETERS!: Temporal infrared thermometers are sold out everywhere. If anyone has any extras, that is another current need. We need approximately 20. Crazy to think in America, we can’t get the basics.
- All other “Personal Protective Gear”: We are still seeking all PPE, isolation gowns, N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, goggles.”
- Send an email to Amy here if you can help or need delivery assistance. Drop off mask or other donations to 765 Saratoga, Ventura.
We are still at 67 baby monitors for rooms but still needs some more. Please share through your social networks, as we need to get this number to 100. The doctors and nurses said that the current stock have been deployed to rooms and they are a HUGE help. These monitors during the pandemic will assist nurses in monitoring patients in overflow patient rooms. This was a best practice shared by another teaching hospital who has already experienced the surge.
- Monitors to be donated need to be sterilized before donated, in good working order with any batteries and, if possible, back up batteries included, donated via plastic Ziplock or plastic bag.
- Please include your name, email, cell, and address so we can thank you after this is over. After this pandemic, we will give these monitors to low income mothers who have babies in the county that would not otherwise be able to afford a monitor.
- These donated monitors can be delivered to765 Saratoga Avenue, Ventura, CA 93003.
Action #3 – UPDATED 4/01 – STAND BY FOR JOINING THE “GOWN-BRIGADE”:
We realize that in the face of this national shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) we may have to resort to alternative PPE gowns. Likely, these would be made from plastic bags. The hospital staff are sourcing products, and running the concept through the proper channels like Infection Control.
We may be looking at a production of 10,000 gowns. A test group assembled 200 in less than 2 hours to give you all an idea of the challenge ahead. We are figuring out how to deploy the boxes of plastic bags in a safe way and also how we can receive them safely.
Those who want to help with this project will need a solid surface like a large dining room table and scissors, possibly an iron.
Sign up to get notifications for when this project starts!
Action #4 – Ventura County healthcare workers need donations of PPE equipment
This week, the Ventura County Office of Emergency Services began accepting donations at three drop-off locations: Assembly member Jacqui Irwin’s offices in Oxnard and Camarillo and the Ventura County Community Foundation in Camarillo. The county is requesting new and unused surgical masks, N-95 masks, procedure masks, isolation gowns, medical goggles, dracon culture swabs and Tyvek suits.
If you live in Ventura County, you can also contact Amy Towner here, Her mask-making crew might be able to make a pick-up.
You can also donate them to medical professionals anywhere in the country at MasksforDocs and at #GetUsPPE.
Action #5 – Feeding healthcare workers!
From Amy Towner: “Our BIGGEST challenge is going to be feeding our healthcare workers… For 300 workers at Ventura County Medical Center and 100 at Santa Paula Hospital, that’s 400 x $10/day in food x 7 = $28,000 x 8 weeks = $224,000.
We are going to need some donors… Please be creative, think outside the box and lean in for ideas and connections… Feeding our workforce is the most beautiful expression of how we can nurture healthcare workers as they care for our community, alongside protecting them with masks. …At this time, we need this deep primal connectedness to one another.”
- To make a tax-deductible donation, go here.
Action #6 – Gofundme for protective Gear for Medical Staff at VCMC & SPH
“We are the healthcare professionals and staff of Ventura County Medical Center and Santa Paula Hospital, and we need your help. We choose to work at our hospitals because we believe that everyone deserves quality medical care. We are the county’s safety net, and we are going to be here for our community throughout the coronavirus crisis.
While our hospital leadership and staff have done a remarkable job of preparation in the face of the COVID pandemic, in light of the severe shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE) that have affected every hospital hit hard by COVID so far, we recognize the need for innovative approaches that will allow us to safely care for patients and conserve valuable PPE.
A donation of any size will allow us to continue protecting ourselves and our families, so that we can continue caring for you and yours. Please help if you can.”
Action #7 – United Way of Ventura County needs help too!
United Way of Ventura County is recruiting people to help in the 211 volunteer corps, which can be done remotely from home. Ventura County’s social services hotline has been inundated with calls over the past couple of weeks. Some have questions related to COVID-19 and others need support.
On a typical day, the center would get 150 calls. Now, the call volume is in the thousands, said Mitchel Sloan, United Way vice president.
The 211 line needs 48 volunteers a day. Volunteers must be at least 18. and need a laptop and headset.If they don’t have their own, the organization will provide them. People answer calls on four-hour or eight-hour shifts between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. People can volunteer on-site at a temporary call center in Camarillo or do so remotely from home. For both options, however, on-site training in Camarillo is required.
- To sign up or get more information, go to http://www.volunteerventuracounty.org/.
Action #8 – The 805UNDOCUfund has been reopened!
The 805 UndocuFund is a collective effort among Ventura and Santa Barbara County-based grassroots organizations to assist local undocumented immigrant individuals and families who are excluded from federally funded safety net programs; that have been economically impacted by the loss of their homes, wages, and/or employment due to disasters in our community like wildfires, mudslides, and the coronavirus.
- Learn more about this fund that serves some of our hardest working residents here.
- To donate online, go here.
Action #9 – Ventura County Area Agency on Aging seeks volunteers.
Ventura County Area Agency on Aging (info here) is seeking volunteers to make food deliveries or work in the agency’s senior nutrition garden to help harvest produce, which is given to area residents.
- Contact lois.vcaaa@ventura.org with your name, phone number, and cities where they can volunteer.
Action #10 – Food Share seeks volunteers.
Food Share needs volunteers to help sort donations, pack boxes and help out pantries. The need is critical now. The organization is trying to double how much food it can provide as needs increase.
- To volunteer, go to foodshare.com/volunteer.
- To donate, go to https://foodshare.com/donate/.
Action #11 – Do you have some computer /high tech skills?
If you have high tech skills to volunteer – join the “Design to Combat COVID-19 Community.”
- We are a community of volunteers who refuse to sit on the sidelines.
- We want to virtually assist where we can, and want to take action now.
- We are community of designers, engineers and creatives who want to remotely volunteer their skills and help create innovative solutions to support others affected by the pandemic.
- We have the virtual resources, with the passion to help get involved, and can assist those affected by helping the best way we know how.
- Do you have technical skills to donate? If you have experience running medical equipment, especially PCR machines or 3D printers, there are ways for you to volunteer. And, Helpful Engineering is organizing people to contribute to a number of projects to fight COVID-19.
Action #12 – The Ventura Shelter needs donations
Action #13 – Do you have an RV you can loan to a healthcare worker?
“A spontaneous idea by a Dallas-area woman for keeping her doctor husband quarantined from the rest of the family when he is off duty during the coronavirus crisis has blossomed into ad hoc, national volunteer service to match medical personnel with people willing to donate an RV or camper.
The idea, launched a week ago, is simple: Provide a cheap way for medical personnel to remain near their families without risking infecting them.,,,
Her one requirement: the whole process must be entirely free.”No dollars are to be exchanged,” she said. “It is completely and totally donations.” – USAtoday.com
If you do, please write about what you can offer here.
Action #14 – Train online to be a volunteer certified nurses aid to help fight COVID-19.
As the fight against the Coronavirus escalates, Volunteer Certified Nurse Aides(CNA) can help take up the slack, allowing more RNs and MDs to focus on critical care. If we are interested in helping out, VolunteerSurge is ready to train and place 1,000 Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs). If we choose to sign up, we’ll get an online learning system with a Red Cross-licensed 40-hour CNA training program, and ADP’s WorkMarket platform to match us with opportunities in communities all across the country. They will build a profile that includes our special skills and areas of interest, and pair us with a volunteer assignment that fits our needs. As the need for volunteers surges, we can scan postings in WorkMarket for assignments that touch our heart or inspire us. We can come together as a country, fight hard and save lives when we sign up to train as Volunteer CNAS here: https://volunteersurge.com/ Thanks for answering the call!
If we’ve missed an important volunteer opportunity to help our community in this time of crisis, tell us. Send emails here: indivisibleventura@gmail.com. We will be updating this post.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 