COVID-19

When Jeff Burke started a new job at YAI as a Floater in March of 2019, he was optimistic for the year ahead. His job required him to fill in at whatever program needed extra staff. He’d find himself in Brooklyn one day and in the Bronx the next. But there was no way to predict that by March of the following year, he would contract the novel coronavirus that had begun to hit New York.

For months we’ve marveled at the successes—and suffered through the failures—of in-person activities translated to a virtual format. At YAI, the virtual Central Park Challenge toppled fundraising expectations without a single footstep in the park itself. But what some event producers and political campaigns have managed to do beautifully has tripped up universities, religious organizations, and dramatists. The question: how can we duplicate a genuinely human experience in a digital sphere?

Sometimes people on the margins aren’t first on the list to receive information that others take for granted. According to a 2010 study published in Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , most emergency preparedness strategies fail to ensure that vulnerable receive necessary information during a crisis.

Because of the pandemic, YAI rethought its traditionally frenetic calendar of springtime events this year to reach the digital sphere. The results, which surprised many, helped deliver new perspectives on disabilities to international audiences.

Not even the pandemic can stop the back-to-school spirit from energizing YAI’s two affiliate schools. Though online learning took parents and students by surprise in March, a summer of preparation has brought focus to virtual learning platforms at the International Academy of Hope (iHOPE) and Manhattan Star Academy (MSA).

For YAI, which operates more than 140 residences across the metropolitan area, containing the virus demanded not only decisive action but amplified support to compensate for upheaval in the lives of people who appreciate a routine. One resident of YAI’s Cobble Hill residence, where eight older adults have lived for more than 20 years, moved from illness back to health with the benefits of both.

No more hugs or visits from loved ones. A total disruption of daily activities. Housemates who left and will never come back. These are just a few of the difficult changes that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) supported by YAI are experiencing through the coronavirus pandemic.

A longstanding bilingual program at YAI in Queens has reinvented itself to better serve families of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) in need during the COVID-19 crisis. The program caters to native Spanish speakers, providing instruction on the use of English-based resources such as OPWDD online portals or immigration documents.

As Americans get used to thinking in terms of “essential” and “non-essential” roles, two members of YAI’s supported employment workforce have soldiered on through the COVID-19 crisis. Housemates Richard Clolery and Jordan Kraus live in a supported apartment in East Meadow, Long Island. They have stepped up to the challenges of the pandemic, providing essential services to people experiencing the stress of this public health emergency.