Starfish Family Services

Starfish blog: Talking turkey about Vax-giving

November 24, 2021 by Starfish Family Services

***Do what feels right and safe for you and your family***.

Thanksgiving is traditionally a time for family and friends to come together and celebrate. Last year, during the first wave of the pandemic, many of us drastically limited our gatherings—spending the holiday alone or only with those in our immediate household. In 2021, we are still in the throes of a pandemic, but now we have more protective factors to help make safe decisions for ourselves and families.

Many people are calling this Thanksgiving “Vax-giving,” a reference to having most (or all) family members who are gathering on Thanksgiving be fully vaccinated (or children 5-11 years old receiving at least 1 shot). Hosting a “Vax-giving” can help protect children and adults in your family who are not yet eligible to receive the vaccine or cannot receive the vaccine due to medical or religious reasons. It can also help reduce anxiety for some. An added layer of protection families can utilize is at-home COVID-19 tests. These tests can be done hours before guests gather and can be purchased at your local pharmacy.

This might mean having a difficult conversation with family members who are not vaccinated or following safety guidelines. You might decide to ask these guests to test before coming, wear a mask while indoors, or you might not feel comfortable inviting them at all. It is important to prepare yourself mentally and emotionally for such conversations. Try taking a few deep breaths and practicing the conversation with a trusted friend or another family member. Remind everyone that you are trying to keep everyone as safe as possible. Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Safer Ways to Celebrate the Holidays.

According to an article from The New York Times, “For many people, coping with the anxiety of getting out and about may be the hardest part of adjusting to this new phase of pandemic life.” If you are feeling anxious, begin by assessing the risk of COVID-19 exposure for yourself and those you will be near. Recognizing and saying out loud that you are feeling stress or anxiety—and mindfully taking stock of your body cues—will help this feeling pass. Ultimately, do what feels right for you and your family.

Holidays in general can cause some stress, which is typical and okay! Below are some tips and tools to help you and your family navigate “a normal for you” during the holidays. (Compiled by Starfish Trauma Informed Care Specialist Alice Santa, MSCP, TLLP. Materials adapted from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network and Connecticut Children’s.)

Parents & Caregivers: Taking care of YOU will increase your patience with your children & ease their distress.

Allow yourself to feel sad, worried, or angry.
Do something to take care of yourself.
- Listen to your favorite song.
- Take some deep breaths.
- Pay attention to your body—is your body tense, relaxed, alert?
- Go on a walk.
- Get enough rest.
- Eat well.
- Drink enough water.
- Ask for help.
Try to adjust your expectations.
Focus on what you are grateful for during the holiday season.
Children look up to you and model your behaviors and energy. If you reflect positive, calm behaviors, your children will pick up on those cues and do the same.

Children (0-12 years old): Moments of connection allow children to feel loved and seen.

Examples of connection moments:
- Playing together
- Eating together
- Talking about their day
- Singing holiday songs together
- Hugging and holding your child
Validate children’s emotions!
- Let them know it’s typical and OK to feel angry, frustrated, or sad about the changes to their holiday traditions.
For younger children, keep things simple in terms of explanations and celebrations.
Get creative about how to express thanks for what’s near and dear right now.
- Try writing letters or making cards.
Ask them for their ideas about how to make the holiday special.

Teenagers and Young Adults: Listen! When teens talk, they often want to feel heard, not to have you solve the problem.

Ask them how they are feeling. Validate their feelings and let them know you are there if they need to talk.
Allow them a sense of control by giving them choices, such as allowing them to plan a special activity or, maybe, help out with cooking if it’s something they enjoy.
Engage in self-care activities with them.
- Disconnect from electronics for a little each day
- Practice relaxation activities together:
  - Slow breathing
  - Stretching
  - Yoga
  - Meditation
  - Paying attention to how their body is feeling

Starfish blog: Cranberry-infused tale of care & community

November 22, 2021 by Starfish Family Services

***Wyatt Andrews, Caleb Moore, Tina Ryan, Jeanne Holda, and Steve Holda***

“Maybe I should take a few bottles over to Grand River Brewery?” This was the question Steve Holda posed to his fiancée Tina Ryan in late spring of 2021. After almost 30 years of brewing beer in the kitchen of his home, Steve had honed his craft. But this latest experiment resulted in the best beer he’d ever made—a cranberry-orange pilsner. Steve shares with a chuckle, “I don’t even like cranberries!”

By day, Steve puts a different form of expertise in motion as the Chief Financial Officer of Starfish Family Services. With a long history of leadership roles, landing at Starfish means Steve can also be part of the mission to strengthen families to create brighter futures for children—something he is very passionate about.

Born and raised in Jackson, Michigan, Steve hoped Grand River Brewery (GRB) might be willing to hear him out on (and even taste!) his cranberry-orange pilsner. So, off he went. He was introduced to GRB’s owner, Justin Dalenberg, and master brewer Wyatt Andrews. After one friendly taste, they could tell that Steve was a true brewing expert—and they agreed that cranberry-orange pilsner was, indeed, something special!

In the beginning, Steve’s biggest wish was to simply have his beer featured on tap and be able to enjoy a pint with his family and friends in his hometown. Yet, that inquisitive trip to the brewery sparked much bigger possibilities after discovering a shared commitment to early childhood education, families, and the community.

By the end of the visit, there was a plan to do a large brew of the cranberry-orange pilsner AND Grand River Brewery kindly offered to donate the profits to Starfish Family Services. How fantastic! In the months that followed Steve, Tina, and his mom, Jeanne Holda, participated on-location with the brewing process and Tina taught the team how to make the cranberry juice. Everyone looked forward to the first pint being poured!

That time came on Sunday, November 21, when Grand River Brewery officially premiered “Cranberry Gothic Pilsner” at their Jackson location. “It just turned into a complete win-win,” shared Steve. “I’m so grateful the folks at Grand River Brewery gave the beer a chance and we’re all honored to support Starfish Family Services!”

Starfish would like to thank Grand River Brewery for their incredible generosity and hospitality. Most important, we share our gratitude with our treasured colleague, Steve, and his family. Starfish is so honored to benefit from this dream come true!

To find out more about Grand River Brewery, including hours and ways to purchase Cranberry Gothic Pilsner, visit: Grand River Brewery.

Starfish blog: Committed to mission, fully vaccinated . . . Thank You!

November 18, 2021 by Starfish Family Services

Today I offer my profound gratitude for Starfish employees and their commitment to become fully vaccinated—THANK YOU! I am so proud of our teams and their unwavering support for mission. This means Starfish can keep our doors open for children and families who need our services and steadfast allyship now, more than ever. (Starfish CEO Ann Kalass)

The COVID-19 pandemic has uprooted our ability to connect with friends and family, often chipping away at our daily rhythm, increasing isolation, and pulling children further away from educational and health milestones. On October 1, 2021, Starfish Family Services announced a Covid vaccination mandate for our employees with a November 12 deadline to participate.

Since the pandemic first arrived in Michigan, Starfish has been committed to doing everything possible to keep our employees, children & families, and communities safe. From mask-wearing, to handwashing, to social distancing, to screening tools, to increased cleaning—Starfish has leveraged guidance from health experts to inform our planning.
A vaccine mandate was simply the next tool to keep our commitment to safety and protect the extremely vulnerable children in our programs who are too young to be vaccinated or wear masks.

I know that for many of our employees, considering vaccination was a complex decision that involved consultation with doctors, family, religious leaders, and even neighbors and friends. I spoke to more than one employee who pushed past very real and deep-seeded fear to become vaccinated. I acknowledge that this was not an easy process—even as we feel confident in Starfish’s strategies to support heath and safety.

I want to share a reflection about getting vaccinated from one Starfish employee, Sarah Stolicker. In their role at Starfish, Sarah currently supports our Safe Start protocols. Again, thank you Team Starfish and thank you, Sarah!

Reflection from Sarah:

I initially chose to get vaccinated early in the pandemic after seeing my spouse, who is a nurse, come home defeated and depressed after work because of how overloaded the hospital was, how sick the patients were, and with no vaccine available at the time, how scary it was to be in contact with people with COVID-19. I vowed to do whatever it took to help bring an end to the pandemic and to keep my spouse, my family, friends, neighbors, and community safe. As an able-bodied, healthy person, getting vaccinated when the Pfizer vaccine initially rolled out was a relatively easy way for me to do my part for the community and for the people I care about.

Months after getting vaccinated, I took on a new opportunity at Starfish where the first task was to provide leadership and project management to our Safe Start protocols, specifically ensuring the vaccine mandate was completed and employees had the information and support they needed. Helping Starfish finalize this project and cross the finish line will positively impact the long-term health and well-being of every member of our Starfish circle—employees, families, and children. It was a very thoughtful and significant consideration for many of my colleagues. I appreciate the chance to be a partner through many exhausting days and will always know that being part of our mission—and keeping everyone safe—is honorable work.

Starfish blog: Committed to continued COVID safety

October 14, 2021 by Starfish Family Services

Since March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic first arrived in Michigan, Starfish has been committed to doing everything possible to keep our employees, children & families, and communities safe. How to keep people safe during such uncharted times has been a continuous learning experience—especially since no two days during the pandemic have been the same. One constant is that Starfish is dedicated to consistent, timely, and transparent communication with our community as part of our response management. To stay informed, visit and bookmark our COVID & Our Community page.

Decisions based on data

We leverage data and health-expert guidance in making all decisions. COVID case and testing data is posted three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. It steers our course as we make purposeful adjustments to our protocols. For example, the below is from October 13, 2021. The average number of new confirmed cases is 4,335 per day. October 2021 trends are worse than one year year ago. And we are trending upward as we head into the holiday season.

We plug health-expert data and Starfish-collected data into our own rubric. The cumulative score indicates our color-coded level of response. In this case, we are ORANGE.

This means all the action items below are 100% in effect and 100% enforced.

COVID safe start success

The Starfish COVID Transition Team (CTT) is the steward of our COVID Safe Start Plan. CTT members meet at least weekly to analyze dashboards created by the Starfish Value Acceleration team and strategically problem solve. Such ongoing evaluation has resulted in a robust series of investments and protocols, including but not limited to: mask wearing, social distancing, handwashing, health screening tools, facility updates, contact tracing, and quarantine. And it’s working! We have not had any identified positive cases that are traced back to known exposure at Starfish.

Escalating our safety efforts

Mandatory vaccinations

We believe vaccinations are an essential and safe community-level strategy for saving lives and combating COVID-19. Since January 2021, we have offered numerous opportunities for Starfish employees to get vaccinated, and we continue to provide accessible education and forums where employees and clients can gain information and insight. Currently, more than 70% of our employees are fully vaccinated but, after much deliberation, we decided that more needed to be done and now.

Mandatory Vaccinations: On September 29, 2021, and with unanimous support from the Starfish Board of Directors, Starfish announced an agency-wide COVID-19 vaccine mandate with a deadline for all employees to complete the vaccination process and verify their status with Starfish by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, November 12, 2021. Determination of non-compliance will result in immediate termination and ineligibility for rehire at Starfish. Unvaccinated employees may also choose to resign in writing prior to the deadline and will be eligible for rehire upon proof of completed vaccination(s). Employees seeking an exemption from this policy due to a medical reason or because of a sincerely held religious belief must submit a completed Request for Accommodation form to, and work with, our Human Resources Department.

Some additional context surrounding this decision and mandate are outlined here:

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination is now fully approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) followed by releasing an updated Vaccine Overview and Safety brief.
On September 9, it was announced that OSHA is developing an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require unvaccinated workers to provide a negative COVID-19 test result at least once per week before coming to work.
On September 9, Office of Head Start notified grantees like Starfish that all at Head Start and Early Head Start programs will be required to get vaccinated by January 2022.

Starfish is subject to both the Head Start and ETS requirements, and these announcements impact every employee and our entire Starfish community. We are implementing the mandate in advance of the January 2022 deadline to increase safety for all clients, families, and employees—and to ensure that we can maintain exceptional services and our commitment to mission.

Starfish COVID-19 testing program

Starfish’s latest investment centered in the priority goal of safety for all begins October 19, 2021. Starfish will offer onsite and free-of-charge COVID-19 testing two days a week at 10 of our centers in Detroit and Western Wayne County. Finding COVID-19 infections early helps stop the spread to other people. Testing will help stop the risk of spread through our centers by employees and clients who may not know they are sick. Starfish employees, children enrolled in our programs, and children’s caregivers will be offered the opportunity to test once a week. Results are available the next day.

Starfish blog: Back-to-School Prep

September 2, 2021 by Starfish Family Services

Created by Brianne Twombly, LMSW, IMH-E III—Manager of Trauma-Informed Care at Starfish Family Services. Bri has over ten years of specialized experience in the treatment of childhood trauma and toxic stress. Download the PDF. Bonus PDF: Back-to-School prep for older children. Visit the Starfish YouTube channel for corresponding videos created by Alice Santa, MSCP, TLLP—Trauma Informed Care Specialist.