Changes at North Star for Participants during COVID-19 Outbreak

Governor Tom Wolf has extended the closure of Pennsylvania schools and non-essential businesses indefinitely. The stay at home order, already in effect in Chester County, has also been extended to include more counties and will last until April 30, 2020. The North Star office will remain closed while we serve our participants remotely. We are instituting remote case management via telephone for this month's budget meetings. If you have an appointment, we will call you at the scheduled time. If you need to make an appointment, please call the office and leave a message. If you do not have access to a phone, please email us. Rent receipts, bills, bank statements, and other documents may be sent to: casemanager@northstarofcc.org. We do not have reliable access to our office fax machine so please do not fax documents at this time. If you can take legible photos of documents, you may email them to us.

The Good News

-PECO is suspending all shut-offs and waiving late payment fees until May 1st.

-Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and many other companies have pledged to suspend disconnections and waive late fees for the next 60 days. You can find the full list of pledged providers here.

We understand this situation may cause missing work, lost wages, and more due to kids being home from school and businesses temporarily closing. While everyone should plan accordingly to keep their utilities paid, we wanted to make our participants aware of these changes. If you need to talk to a case manager about your particiular situation, please call us.

We will continue to follow the guidelines provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Chester County Health Department including:

-Wash hands with soap and water OFTEN for at least 20 seconds. Use alcohol-based hand sanitizer (60-95% ethyl alcohol) only if hand washing is not possible.

-Cover nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing with a tissue or flexed elbow

-Avoid touching face, eyes, and nose

-Avoid close contact with anyone with cold or flu-like symptoms. -Practice social distancing by avoiding large crowds and limiting activities.

For more information, please visit the Chester County Health Department’s dedicated page for Coronavirus updates: https://www.chesco.org/4376/Coronavirus-COVID-19