b'We would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to the hundreds of community members who provided donations to our sister agency, Peel Childrens Aid Foundation in support of their COVID-19 Emergency Fund. Over $485,000 was raised for local families while providing urgently needed items like groceries, toiletries, and baby formula. Emergency kits of personal careOur distribution centre withMembers of our Infant items that were delivered toclothing and other suppliesWellness Team with medical clients.waiting to be distributed. and baby supplies.Our Youth Success Team has continued to offer events online to keep young people connected, including the Think Caring through COVID Big! Dream Big! Be Big! networking event, In it Together virtual forums, and camp opportunities. In this online March Break A s the COVID-19 pandemic swept acrossrisk of infection. Policies and procedures werebaking camp, Vanessa from Vanessa Legair the world in 2020, it brought with itadapted to protect the safety of our staff andEvents & Design guided children and youth rapid change and evolving challenges forclients as our top priority. Mental health andto create some delicious treats!every individual, and every organization. Peelwellness resources were provided throughout CAS met these challenges head on, supportingthe year to help our team cope with the personal our staff to take the important measures neededand professional challenges the pandemic has to protect themselves, while continuing to carecaused.Our Community Engagement team for the children, youth and families in our com- pivoted to offer our educational munity.Peel Region is among the hardest hit regions inpresentations digitally through the country in terms of COVID-19 infections,Zoom. In addition to our usual Employees were encouraged to work from homeso the families we support are facing enormousDuty to Report sessions, we as much as possible, switching to a remotestrain and unprecedented challenges. Thedeveloped a new webinar called workforce almost overnight. We adopted avirus has had a disproportionate impact onParenting during the Pandemic, flexible approach to client service and in somealready marginalized communities, which areto discuss the struggles and cases moved to telephone and video conference,dealing with increased illness, job loss, socialopportunities, and offer tips and where appropriate, while ensuring all ministryisolation, school closures, and reduced accessadvice to parents dealing with this standards were met. When an in-person visitto community supports. Children, youth andnew reality. This presentation was was needed, workers were provided withfamilies need our support more than ever, andoffered in Arabic, Punjabi, Hindi personal protective equipment to reduce thewe are here to help. and Urdu, as well as English.8 Peel Childrens Aid Society Annual Report 2020-2021 9'