03/14/2020
How Birth & Beyond Women's Care will take care of our community in light of CoronaVirus.
Juan Diego Society's Birth & Beyond Women's Care takes very seriously the health of our mothers and babies, our pregnant ladies, their spouses and extended families.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) is top of mind for everyone, and as a supporter of our work, we wanted to update you about what we are doing to address the challenge at this time. We know you have questions and we want to personally assure you that we are monitoring the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) closely.
The entire team of Staff, Volunteers and Board are committed to doing our part. We are following the guidelines of the Santa Clara County Health Department with regard to prevention measures.
After reviewing the health department’s latest recommendations, we have decided to take the following steps from now through May 15th:
1) We have closed our office to the public effective March 11th. We are unable to accommodate in-person face-to-face visits at our Center at this time.
2) ALL client visits will take place via phone, text, Google Hangouts, or anonymous Spanish/English eChat.
3) ALL Birth & Beyond classes, training, events including weekly Moms & Tots meetings are cancelled.
4) We are increasing the cleaning and disinfecting schedule for our facilities per health department guidelines. In addition, we are adding touch-free hand disinfectant stations throughout the Center and hands-free antibacterial soap stations in the kitchen & restroom areas.
Temporarily closing our doors is a painful decision, as we know that many of our community are served with our "no appointment needed" drop-in Center, as well as our weekly classes, peer support and counseling sessions. We made this choice out of an abundance of caution, based on the CDC’s guidance that certain classes of the population (e.g. pregnant/expecting women) are at higher risk of complications from Coronavirus.
For over 34 years we have been practicing the gift of love through our life-affirming ministry to young women and their families in the Alum Rock neighborhood of East San Jose. We are strengthened in body and spirit as a community center, and we celebrate the amazing resilience of our community. These are always relevant themes, but we find them to be particularly resonant today as we face the need to promote our community’s health and well-being in new ways.
Please PRAY for our guests, staff and volunteers: We ask for the Lord’s guidance and protection as we do all we can to fulfill our mission to share God’s unconditional love. Please continue to SUPPORT us financially as we continue to develop our online services, adapt programs and bear the additional costs of modifications to our Center.
We appreciate your continued and ongoing financial support in order to serve our women and children in our community, especially those who are homeless and/ or facing an unexpected pregnancy. Your generous help is what allows us to be the FACE of Christ to ALL young ladies in crisis pregnancies in the Bay Area, homeless or not.
We will continue to monitor Health Department guidelines, and we will keep you informed of any changes as they occur. REST assured, we are working quickly behind the scenes on this! Thank you for your patience, understanding, and cooperation with these guidelines. We are truly grateful to be a part of this incredible community.
If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us directly.
Clients needing assistance may reach us anytime 24/7 :
* English: text/voice hotline (331) 444-5433 "LIFE"
* Spanish: live eChat 24/7 https://www.embarazoayuda.org
* Email: (English/Spanish) info@jdwcenter.org
* Google Hangouts: live video meetings (English/Spanish), on request
Finally, with these unprecedented developments, we invite you all to unite in prayer and reflection of what are we called to do. May God abundantly bless you, keep you healthy, and may Our Lady of Guadalupe, Juan Diego’s Directress and Patroness of the Unborn, guide your steps in the Service of Her Son.
In His service & in His love,
Christine Ibanez, Executive Director
Rafael Betancourt, Chairman of the Board
Juan Diego Society Inc., dba Birth & Beyond Women's Care
