Dear Impact100 WA,
Thank you so much for reaching out – it is a challenging time for Kalparrin and for the 4,000+ families we support.
We have moved from our location at the Perth Children’s Hospital to free up the space for their COVID-19 response and are now working from home. The families we support are extremely concerned about the potential impacts of COVID-19 on their families, financially, medically and in regard to NDIS and their resilience and mental health. We have moved to a more online model of support for our families and are busy pulling together quality reputable information that is relevant to them and also advocating for our families at a State and National level.
We are all having to find different ways to work. One of the projects Kalparrin is piloting in these new COVID-19 times is the establishment of small online peer support groups which we will run through Zoom. These will connect vulnerable, isolated families with the aim of providing mutual aid and support. They will also allow our Family Support team to keep an eye on families and refer them onto other support services if necessary.
The biggest disruption we are facing is working from home without the infrastructure in place to help so if any of your donors has 3 laptops and a 6-month subscription to Microsoft Teams that they could help us with we would be immensely grateful.
My staff are all using their own computers some of which are very old and not up to the job!
I think we are yet to see the worst impact on our Kalparrin members as a number of them have very medically fragile, immune compromised children and I have huge concern for them. We are in regular contact with these families who are all taking things one day at a time.
Thanks again for checking in. It is a difficult time for many and I hope all the Impact100 WA crew are doing well.
Kind regards,
Carrie Clark, CEO Kalparrin WA
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.kalparrin.org.au