Hello friend,

During this difficult time, we want you to know that Old Mill Center for Children and Families continues to provide all its services in our community. We are still teaching preschoolers, meeting with kids and parents virtually who need help with their struggles, delivering diapers, wipes, food, and educational resources to homes, and offering support to families.

We are organizing virtual reading sessions and classroom time, and virtually reaching into the homes of our most vulnerable community members with home visits. Kids and families can count on us to help them survive this stressful time.

For our families -- many of whom deal with multiple stressors already -- this pandemic has been especially difficult. It is why we work so hard to find ways to stay by their side and continue to support them.

Like many of you, we are working from our homes... 67 mini offices scattered throughout Linn and Benton Counties employing Zoom, Skype, Telehealth, Google Groups, sidewalk “visiting rooms” and the ever-present mobile phone: an essential lifeline for talk, text and video.

We want you to know that we have not -- and will not -- stop doing what we do. And we want to keep you informed through a variety of lenses. With our new weekly updates, you will sometimes hear from me, sometimes from a team member, and sometimes from our kids.

Look for our more frequent updates during this unprecedented time, and please let us know if you have questions or thoughts to share. We truly are all in this together, and we will prevail.

Bettina Schempf
Executive Director