Local COVID-19 Efforts
Our local Rotary Chapter is sewing masks for our local healthcare providers.
Second Story Teen Center is working tirelessly to provide basic necessities like toiletries to teens in need.
Second Story Teen Center Teen is making masks for community members including seniors and children.
Sullivan’s Grocery is designating specific shopping hours for seniors first thing in the mornings.
Arukah Institute of Healing is offering counseling for Seniors, Children, and families who are struggling during this crisis.
Liberty Village (Senior Assisted Living) has been doing amazing things like hosting safe ice cream socials for their residents to provide a joyful moment in the day, while still practicing safe social distancing.
The Bureau County Fair Queen gifted the employees of Liberty Village Senior Living with baskets of snacks and goodies to thank them for all that they are doing to care for our seniors.
THE BUREAU COUNTY SENIOR CENTER is delivering free meals to seniors who are living in Bureau County.
Local residents are putting together Easter Baskets for those in need
The Princeton Moose Lodge is safely putting together Easter goody bags to hand out to over 200 local children.
The Chamber of Commerce is converting the Local Little Libraries into Little Pantries with toiletries and non-perishable food items for those in need.
The Chamber of Commerce is providing information to all residents of Bureau County daily from our State Government. For example, regarding childcare:
Effective April 1st, all essential workers in health care, human services, essential government services & essential infrastructure now qualify for Illinois’ Child Care Assistance Program, meaning the state will cover most, if not all, of the cost of care.
That includes everyone from nurses and doctors to support staff in hospitals to grocery store clerks and food producers. Full details & applications are available now on our Illinois Department of Human Services website and our state COVID-19 response website: coronavirus.illinois.gov.
As of this weekend, over 550 centers are running under the Emergency Child Care permit.
Additionally, over 1,500 home child care providers are still providing care, many of them on the critical night & weekend shifts that are so important to our essential workers.
These emergency child care providers are just another example of the incredible ways in which Illinoisans have stepped up to maintain normalcy where we can while we take up the fight against COVID-19.
We can’t thank them enough.
Last week we announced that we were providing one-time stipends to providers to soften the financial impact of this crisis – already, over 1,100 homes and centers have applied, and those who haven’t yet can do so by downloading the application from coronavirus.illinois.gov.
We also made sure that our Preschool for All grantees and Prevention Initiative grantees had the flexibility they needed to use grant funds to address emergency child care needs in their communities.
Today in Illinois, we’re building on our support for emergency child care centers, helping out the ones already running & encouraging others to join.
Effective April 1, we’re paying them 30% above typical rates to reflect the added costs of providing care in smaller groups.
Child care centers that are interested in re-opening as emergency centers can still apply for a permit through the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.