A few years ago, if you looked up the Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center (Pomeroy Center), you would find numerous programs designed for individuals with mental and/or intellectual or developmental disabilities (Psych-I/DD) to integrate into their communities as fully as possible. The Pomeroy Center offered participants volunteer opportunities around the San Francisco Bay Area with Meals on Wheels, the San Francisco Food Bank, Project Open Hand, and Little Sisters of the Poor.  They invited members of the surrounding community to join on-site activities and events.  The Pomeroy Center has been a bastion of possibilities for adults and children with I/DD since its inception in 1952. They also offer supported employment services.

In March of last year, due to the advent of COVID-19, this all changed. The Pomeroy Center could no longer allow people to participate in on-site programming or even have direct contact with many of Pomeroy’s staff. The teams of people who create the programming quickly worked to develop a whole new way of doing business.  For the first time in the center’s 69-year history, classes in art, drama, and social experiences would not be in person.

Immediately Zoom and email became the norm, and Pomeroy Center participants began a whole new type of social interaction.  The shift from live to remote programming required the Pomeroy Center to acquire electronic devices for many of its participants.  In support of this unexpected need, PWDF provided a grant of just over $3,000 that the Center used to purchase tablets for participants to use from home.  So far, approximately 80-90 tablets have been purchased. The Center has given a device to every participant who requested one.

According to Lesley Steele, Director of Adult Programming (who has worked at Pomeroy for over 25 years), teaching and socializing through Zoom has its challenges. The drawbacks to online programming can be daunting. It has been difficult for some professional care teams (Board and Care Homes, for example) to visualize assisting people with online programming as the most productive use of their time. The Center though, has persisted in promoting these online experiences and has found that over time more and more homes and families are reaching out to be given a tablet and instructions in how to help their resident or family member participate more.  Participants who have difficulty communicating and picking up social cues, e.g., people on the autism spectrum, would certainly have a harder time trying to learn how to overcome those barriers through video pixels instead of live, in-person settings.  In-person contact is still necessary for most to thrive.  Anticipating this issue, the Pomeroy Center also quickly adopted a strategy to reach all of their clients on a regular but remote basis.  This means that every person served by the Pomeroy Center will have meaningful contact with a staff person or group from the Center regularly.  With over 250 participants, this is a massive undertaking for the Center, yet Lesley reports that for those unable to access Zoom, they make phone calls, FaceTime with participants, and join classes on the staff’s phones. Pomeroy staff go on “window” visits and community walks one on one. They send out YouTube videos to participants so they can enjoy classes at their own pace.  Emails are sent to check in and offer support. Cards and small packages are sent by US mail for people who prefer deeper distancing and supplies are dropped off at homes.  Pomeroy’s goal is for every person to know they still matter to those with whom they have spent years building relationships.

Still, for most participants, in person activities are critical to socialization and learning.  Center staff also believe that since participants typically cannot see people in person, they no longer take the interactions for granted.  Whatever the reason, this new normal has been has been a difficult journey and clearly no replacement for one-on-one interaction.  While the Center does not yet have a definitive plan as to how they will be incorporating the continuation of distance programming once the Center fully reopens, Lesley thinks it will be kept available in some form for those who are showing they benefit.

In response to the pandemic, the Pomeroy Center early on added a tab “COVID-19 INFO” to their website. Under this tab is the gateway to “OneCenter” and “Everybody,” under which you will find many classes, programming, and entertainment created by the Pomeroy Center, as well as additional community resources that can be viewed and participated in from home. Among the Center’s online and livestreamed classes and gatherings are courses in art, yoga, dance, current events, brain games, music, and much more. They also have pre-recorded courses for folks who would like to create a new individualized schedule.   [See https://www.prrcsf.org/2020adults]

In a decade when the model for meaningful programming for people with Psych-I/DD is that everyone must be out in the community at large to be valued and respected, COVID-19 and the Pomeroy Center again remind us that specialized programing for this population often needs to be more creative and less one size fits all.  The ability to adapt to the changing needs of each participant in addition to responding to local and national pandemic restrictions is a challenge. PWDF is proud to support the Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center’s creative and innovative endeavors to maintain connections and keep all participants healthy and safe during this challenging period.