As you know, we have added a number of new staff to our team over the last year. With the pandemic, we placed our crisis management training on hold, because it requires staff to be in very close physical proximity to one another. In order to complete this training for our newest hires, we are going to add one training day for each center, where children will not attend.

In Burton, there will be no therapy on Friday, April 9th.

In Brighton, there will be no therapy on Friday, April 23rd.

The training we use is called Professional Crisis Management, and it is regulated by the Professional Crisis Management Association. This training provides staff with skills and information in crisis prevention, crisis de-escalation, crisis intervention, and post-crisis strategies.

We are using two separate days for training, and will only be training staff from one facility at a time, in order to decrease the likelihood of any transmission of illness from one building to the other. We had waited to provide this training in the spring, to further decrease the likelihood of illness among our participants.

If you have any questions regarding the training, please see the PCMA website or contact Amy Hund at ahund@sc-centers.com or by calling our main number: 810-344-8082. Please add these dates to your calendar.

Many of our staff members have had the opportunity to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. We have received guidance from the health department that if a fully vaccinated person is exposed to COVID-19, and then works with your child, your child does not need to quarantine and the staff member does not need to quarantine unless they begin to experience symptoms. With this new advice, we will begin allowing fully vaccinated staff to travel between buildings as needed. Generally, this will mean Leadership Team staff who have work in both buildings but we could allow a therapist to fill in if needed Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Many of you are probably aware that the CDC announced new guidelines for social distancing in schools today, and is recommending 3 feet is sufficient for distance between children in schools while they are wearing masks. Since our return to in person therapy last June, we have encouraged 6 feet of distance between our children, but they do sometimes come closer than that. We have also supported all of the children in learning to wear a mask, but we do not require masks all day, as we know this is hard on young children with Autism. At this point, the new CDC guidelines will not cause major changes in our day to day operations. We will continue to encourage our children to stay within their own movement squares when appropriate, but we do allow and encourage them to play together when participating in group activities. We will continue to encourage the children to wear their masks for increasing periods of time, especially when they are in group activities. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Courtney has worked at the Strive Center for Autism since August 2020. She has an Associates Degree in Liberal Arts from Oakland Community College.

Courtney has previously worked for Farmers Insurance and worked at Red Robin for over seven years.

Courtney loves to travel and would love to go to Thailand one day to work with an elephant sanctuary. She also volunteers in her free time at the Adopt-A-Pet in Fenton.

Email: info@sc-centers.com
Website: www.sc-centers.com
Location: Burton and Brighton, MI
Phone: 810-344-8082