Current Kadima COVID Guidelines
Approved by Kadima Board March 11th, 2021
This document was drafted over the months of December 2020 through February 2021 by the Kadima Pandemic Response Committee, a committee of the Kadima board.
This document was drafted over the months of December 2020 through February 2021 by the Kadima Pandemic Response Committee, a committee of the Kadima board.
This group included:
The document also benefited from review and commentary by Morgan Scherer (Kadima Director of Operations and Disability Justice Coordinator) and from Kadima Rabbi David Basior.
It is a living document that the committee plans to revisit in three months’ time as the pandemic continues to unfold, and ongoing as long as necessary.
We want to take a moment to thank the members of our community, and the staff, who were willing to contribute their expertise and emotional labor to creating this document. Kadima is incredibly fortunate to have such a deep well of public health knowledge in our members, and we are so thankful for the participation of so many experts in this field. Drafting this document was an incredibly thoughtful, collaborative process, weighing the many needs of our community alongside COVID safety. If any community members would like to contribute to future revisions of this policy, they are encouraged to contact office@kadima.org.
Values From Which We Are Operating:
Process:
General Policy:
Gathering Guidelines:
In-person gatherings, even when done safely, hold some level of risk, and should only occur because they meet specific community needs.
Indoor: Kadima will hold no indoor convening, meetings, or services.
Outdoor:
Responsible Parties for Community Programming:
Kadima encourages all programming to be virtual. If the responsible party chooses to hold an in-person event, Kadima requires that all outdoor gathering requirements, as listed above, are met.
Partnerships Involving In-Person Events:
Exception to No Indoor Event Policy:
Event Coordinator Roles:
These practices are the responsibility of the staff event coordinator and community support person to implement together.
* Many chronically ill people have "COVID-like symptoms" regularly. We include the word “new” throughout this document to visiblize this possibility and be clear that we are not asking chronically ill people who have similar symptoms as COVID to refrain from attending an event.
- Isaac Lord (Board Member and Chair of this committee)
- Mollie Wolf (Kadima staff, Director of Youth & Family Learning)
- mads deshazo (Kadima staff, Community Nurturer)
- Susie Levy (Kadima community member, King County Public Health professional)
- Mark Collins (Kadima community member, background in biochemistry)
- Bre Holt (Kadima community member, works with King County Public Health contact tracing)
- Michal Waldfogel (Kadima School teacher and naturopathic doctor)
The document also benefited from review and commentary by Morgan Scherer (Kadima Director of Operations and Disability Justice Coordinator) and from Kadima Rabbi David Basior.
It is a living document that the committee plans to revisit in three months’ time as the pandemic continues to unfold, and ongoing as long as necessary.
We want to take a moment to thank the members of our community, and the staff, who were willing to contribute their expertise and emotional labor to creating this document. Kadima is incredibly fortunate to have such a deep well of public health knowledge in our members, and we are so thankful for the participation of so many experts in this field. Drafting this document was an incredibly thoughtful, collaborative process, weighing the many needs of our community alongside COVID safety. If any community members would like to contribute to future revisions of this policy, they are encouraged to contact office@kadima.org.
Values From Which We Are Operating:
- Reliable Communication & Honesty: We communicate regularly with our membership as the situation changes about what we can and are doing, and what we can’t.
- Staying Informed: We make our evaluation and decisions following the lead of those with the most scientific information and informed by Public Health - Seattle & King County guidance.
- Access & Equity: We make decisions and send communications with our most vulnerable community members in mind.
- Expressing Care for Ourselves & Each Other: We express and perform physical, emotional, and spiritual acts of care such as listening; creating space for emotion (fear, sadness, surprise, happiness, anger, and beyond); providing the opportunity for community members to show up with physical support for one another; making spiritual counseling accessible to one one another; opening ourselves up for receiving requests for care.
Process:
- Kadima Pandemic Response Committee creates recommended guidelines.
- Board reviews guidelines, returns to committee with questions until it can be approved.
- A staff liaison who has been working with the committee helps explain and interpret guidelines with staff for implementation.
- The committee reconvenes to reassess guidelines in 3-6 months.
- All text from this document will be published on the Kadima website. Stock language (listed below) about the necessity of our community commitments to each other to agree and abide by the guidelines, will be included in all in-person event publicity.
General Policy:
- Kadima gatherings are held virtually whenever possible.
- In-person gatherings will only be held in small groups and outdoors following our shared guidance, outlined below.
- Parties responsible for determining when an event will be held in person are listed below.
Gathering Guidelines:
In-person gatherings, even when done safely, hold some level of risk, and should only occur because they meet specific community needs.
Indoor: Kadima will hold no indoor convening, meetings, or services.
Outdoor:
- Upon sign in, everyone will be required to attest that neither they or any member of their household have had new COVID-like symptoms or possible exposures in the last two weeks.
- All gatherings will have a maximum of 4 households and one staff coordinator.
- All events will keep a record of who attends for contact tracing purposes. (Anyone attending an in-person event is encouraged to install the WA Notify app on their smartphone, if they carry one.)
- Everyone maintains a 6-foot distance from all others at all times (except for others in your household) to assure we are not coming into contact with each other.
- Keep events short: less than 1.5 hours, with a hard cutoff at 2 hours, when everyone must actually be gone from the site.
- No meals or shared food. For sips of drinks, individuals will move 10 feet away from the group and will sanitize their hands before re-joining the group.
- Everyone over the age of two will wear a mask at all times. Properly fitting masks are required, worn over the mouth and nose. (We will have extras if anyone arrives unmasked.) You will be asked to leave the gathering if you are not wearing a mask.
- All gathering sites will have outdoor bathroom availability or public park bathroom access. Everyone washes or sanitizes their hands when they return to the group after using the bathroom.
- Hand washing or hand sanitizer will always be available on site.
- All events will include a staff or teacher who is present running the event, as well as a community support person (a designated event participant) tasked with ensuring guidance is followed and reminding people as needed of shared agreements. (Description of role listed below.)
- All participants are asked to monitor symptoms after attending any event, and seek testing promptly if new COVID-like symptoms arise. If you receive a positive COVID test result after attending a Kadima event, please contact lifecycle@kadima.org ASAP.
- If an event participant tests positive, Kadima will alert all other event participants within 24 hours that a participant has tested positive and provide recommended actions. No identifying information will be shared.
Responsible Parties for Community Programming:
Kadima encourages all programming to be virtual. If the responsible party chooses to hold an in-person event, Kadima requires that all outdoor gathering requirements, as listed above, are met.
- Lifecycle Events: The family leading the event, in collaboration with staff, will create events that are responsive to the needs of the family and the needs of congregants.
- Services, Rituals, Holiday Celebrations, & Community Education: Staff, in collaboration with the Ritual & Liturgy Committee when relevant, will create programs that are responsive to the spiritual, social, and physical needs of the Kadima community.
- School: Staff, in collaboration with teachers, will create programming that is responsive to and deeply informed by the unique needs of the young people and families in each class.
- Partnerships: Staff and board will make decisions about in-person partnerships based on the guidance below.
- Staff & Clergy Visits: Staff will meet in person with community members at their own discretion, following all guidelines as outlined above.
Partnerships Involving In-Person Events:
- Kadima will partner with other groups on in-person events if there is a staff member working closely with the planning team. All such events will abide by all Kadima gathering guidelines as listed above.
- Kadima will not partner on events that we are not involved in planning. We are happy, however, to publicize in-person events that our communities share with us, and will include the relevant language below in all publicity.
Exception to No Indoor Event Policy:
- If needed, indoor lifecycle and/or rabbinical visits such as end-of-life clergy visits with one household are permitted. Medical grade masks are required.
Event Coordinator Roles:
These practices are the responsibility of the staff event coordinator and community support person to implement together.
- Carry a COVID kit, including hand sanitizer, extra masks, and a first aid kit.
- Set out sign in sheet, including an attestation confirming attendees have had no new COVID-like symptoms or contacts in the last two weeks.*
- Perform verbal health checks for all attendees at sign in, using this document for guidance.
- Remind people of masking and physical distancing requirements throughout the event.
* Many chronically ill people have "COVID-like symptoms" regularly. We include the word “new” throughout this document to visiblize this possibility and be clear that we are not asking chronically ill people who have similar symptoms as COVID to refrain from attending an event.