News

COVID-19 Update 3.9.23

Hello Families, 

Rimland is happy to open in-person visits at the Rimland homes. We still want to be cautious of COVID-19 and other viruses. We ask that if you want to visit your loved one in their home, that you schedule the visit in advance. Also, we will have one visitor at a time in the homes (one visitor per family and one visitor per home at a time). 

Please contact one of our Associate Executive Directors when planning a visit. Here is the contact information if you do not have it and which homes they supervise:   

Samina Rahim: 708-912-3420 or srahim@rimland.org  

Tammie McClendon: 708-641-0077 or tcmclendon@rimland.org  

Michael Christopher: 708-828-8051 or mchristopher@rimland.org  

Samina oversees: Des Plaines North, Dewey, Hartrey South, Emerson   

Tammie oversees: Des Plaines South, Foster, Dodge, Grey and Hartrey North  

Michael oversees: Mount Prospect, Maywood, Custer, Brown and Fowler South  

Shared supervision by all three Associate Executive Directors (contact who you know best): Highland Park, Lake Zurich, Colfax, Fowler North, Simpson   

Thank you and we welcome any questions,  

The Rimland Team   

COVID-19 Update 11.4.22

Hello everyone, 

We are happy to announce that we are able to drop the testing requirements for home visits (your loved one can go for a visit and come back without a COVID-19 test). At this time, we are not opening visits in the Rimland homes, to protect the health (against COVID-19 and cold/flu season) of the individuals we support.  

We are happy to announce this with Thanksgiving coming up. For Thanksgiving pick ups, please keep in mind that we are having a Thanksgiving celebration at lunch time on Thanksgiving Day for the individual we support. This celebration will take place at our day program. We ask that families make arrangements to pick up their loved ones from the home and not the day program. We do not have the capacity to safely transport medication during the celebration to the day program from the homes. The individuals will be at the day program on Thanksgiving Day at 9am and home by 3pm.  

Going forward, please contact one of your Associate Executive Directors with your pick up/visit plans. Here is the contact information if you do not have it and which homes they supervise.  

Samina Rahim 708-912-3420 or srahim@rimland.org 

Tammie McClendon 708-641-0077 or tcmclendon@rimland.org 

Michael Christopher 708-828-8051 or mchristopher@rimland.org 

Samina oversees: Des Plaines North, Dewey, Hartrey South, Emerson  

Tammie oversees: Des Plaines South, Foster, Dodge, Grey and Hartrey North 

Michael oversees: Mount Prospect, Maywood, Custer, Brown and Fowler South 

Shared supervision by all three Directors (contact who you know best): Highland Park, Lake Zurich, Colfax, Fowler North, Simpson  

Thank you and we welcome any questions, 

The Rimland Team  

COVID-19 Update 10.15.22

Hello all – 

We want to send an update to the below (visit restrictions). Right now, we are in the process of getting the Omicron booster for the individuals we support. We are using the vendor, Walgreens. Our Health and Wellness Department is taking the individuals to Walgreens by home (group home). Currently, we are close to having half the homes complete. Our expectation is to get everyone done by the end of the month. That will make Rimland more comfortable with lifting the visiting restrictions, we very much hope, by the end of the month.  

Another note, is that Rimland is moving from Omnicare Pharmacy to Forum Pharmacy. We thought for a long time about the decision to move to a new pharmacy. We feel that Forum will bring a smoother process to Rimland. Forum (along with our Health and Wellness Department) will contact you if there are any uncovered medications for your loved one. 

Thank you for everything you do and we will be in touch very soon!  

The Rimland Team 

COVID-19 Update 9.14.22

Hello all –

We want to send an update based on last month’s communications. We are seeing the number of cases in our area begin to fall recently. We want to keep an eye on the transmission rate several more days before lifting the restrictions on indoor visits along with COVID-19 testing for going on and returning from home visits (please see update below from 8.19.22). We plan to have another update out next week. 

The Rimland Team 

Exciting News!

We are proud to announce that Rimland is the recipient of a Niles Township Grant! Rimland and the Niles Township Government have partnered for many years to improve the variety and quality of our wellness offerings. The pandemic fundamentally altered the way Rimland operates and forced us to rethink and adapt many of our programs and support systems. Though the severity may ebb and flow, COVID-19 is here to stay and it is our responsibility to remain proactive and vigilant in order to protect our community. Funds from the Niles Township will be put towards expanding our Health & Wellness services by building an onsite doctors office. This office will include high quality items such as an exam table, medical equipment, phlebotomy chairs, privacy dividers, and more. This doctors office is an investment in a long-term solution that will serve residents for many years to come. We are grateful to the Niles Township for their continued support of our mission!

COVID-19 Update 8.19.22

Hello Rimland Families,  

Unfortunately, we are seeing an increase in COVID-19 cases (several staff members and individuals we support). We have not let up on mask requirements, etc. However, to keep the individuals we support safe and to keep our workforce intact, we will need to make a few temporary changes to visits. Again, we have not opened up indoor visits yet.  

Starting Monday, August 22, anyone coming for a visit or going on a home visit will need to be tested by our nurse (at our main office in Evanston). The person picking them up or visiting them will need to be tested. When an individuals returns to our program, they will need to be tested. If they are positive for COVID-19, they will not be able to return to the program until after the quarantine period. COVID-19 testing can take place with our nurse with an advanced appointment (Please contact Barb at 847-840-1706 or bcooper@rimland.org). The testing can take place Monday to Friday 10am-4pm. This is temporary and will be reevaluated after Labor Day. 

The Rimland Team 

COVID-19 Update 5.20.22

 Hello,

The COVID-19 numbers are going up, especially in Evanston. We are going to pull back on indoor visitors. To visit your loved ones, you are free to pick up your loved ones from the home or day program. Please continue to inform our Health and Wellness Department. We will continue to monitor the numbers and keep you updated.

Again, you are welcome to take your loved ones out or home but at this time, we are not having indoor visits. 

The Rimland Team

Easter Celebrations

Dear Rimland Families, 

We would like to share with you how your loved ones will be celebrating the upcoming Easter holiday. This Friday, April 15^th at our Community Day Services Program, we will hold an Easter celebration. There will be a catered lunch from Corky’s Catering that will including turkey, roasted veggies, mashed potatoes and mac & cheese. There will be dessert of course, festive Easter cakes from Williams Sonoma! Everyone will also receive an Easter basket with chocolate goodies. On Sunday, each Rimland home will have a pizza party for dinner. 

Enjoy the holiday! 

The Rimland Team 

COVID-19 Update 4.12.22

Hello Friends,

We are happy to see the positivity rate for COVID-19 “low” in Illinois! We are excited to be able to open in home visits once again (one ​visitor at a time). Please abide by the following guidelines prior to going to one of the Rimland homes to visit with your loved ones. To avoid overcrowding in the homes, visits need to be scheduled in advance. 
Please schedule a visit with Barbara Cooper or Samina Rahim: bcooper@rimland.org or srahim@rimland.org. Please also email a copy of your vaccine card and declare you have no COVID-19 symptoms. 

A visit should be one person at a time. If other family members want to visit, they must book a separate visit. Thank you for understanding. 

Welcome back!

COVID-19 Update 2.25.22

Dear Rimland Families,  

As you many know, the State of Illinois and the City of Evanston are lifting some of the mask requirements in relations to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the vulnerable population that we support and Rimland’s success in preventing COVID-19 outbreaks within our agency, we will keep the following practices in place:  

• Masks: We will continue to mandate masks for staff at all Rimland sites for an indefinite period of time. 

• Vaccination: Full vaccination mandate for all staff and clients (a two dose minimum).  If the CDC recommends annual boosters we will make that a requirement for employment. 

• Visitation Policy: This will remain the same and will be re-evaluated at the end of March. Here is a recap of our current visitation policy: We CANNOT have any guardians, visitors, etc. in the homes. Guardians cannot go in the homes when they drop off their loved ones. Additionally, no visits can take place in the homes. You can pick up your loved ones from the group home (or main office/CDS) for a home visit or take them out for a walk, ride, etc. If your loved one is going on a home visit, please schedule this visit with Barbara Cooper or Samina Rahim: bcooper@rimland.org or srahim@rimland.org.  We are doing visits at the main office. The visits are 10am – 3pm Monday – Friday for an hour. Please schedule a visit with Barbara Cooper or Samina Rahim: bcooper@rimland.org or srahim@rimland.org. Visitors are subject to be tested for COVID-19 and must show proof of being fully vaccinated.   

Thank you again for your support and continued partnership.

Sincerely, 

The Rimland Team

Program Updates

Dear Rimland Families, 

We hope 2022 is off to a good start! This year, Rimland would like to provide more consistent updates as to what is going on in our programs, to give you a bigger picture into your loved ones day.  

In our Community Day Services Program we are launching our Technology Room and our Smart Board Program. The Smart Boards offers individuals many ways to learn information, express ideas, and demonstrate understanding.  It will address different learning styles such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic.  It will help improve communication skills and provide ease in creating and altering activities.  Visually engaging, individualized daily/weekly calendars will be created based on preferred activities and choices.  The calendars will interface with individual iPads and will work seamlessly in their home and CDS Program. Ariel James was promoted from a Direct Support Professional in our Residential Program to design and facilitate the Smart Board Program. Ariel graduated from Northwestern University. She taught English abroad.  She has a long history of work in management and administration. She has facilitated Diversity and Inclusion trainings for teachers and practitioners in the health and wellness industry and is passionate about community care.  

Longtime Registered Nurse, Carrie Johnson joined our Health and Wellness Team. Carrie received her Master’s of Science in Nursing from DePaul University. Carrie is providing additional training to Rimland’s Direct Support Professionals in the Residential setting on basic health and medication administration, along with direct observation of the individuals in their home.  We believe that a coordinated health and wellness program is essential for improving health outcomes.  

Rimland is also proud to offer our Direct Support Professionals with a pay scale that demonstrates an appreciation for their hard work.  We have increased our pay scale to recruit highly qualified individuals and also to increase retention. Our entry level positions pay from $15-$16 an hour. Our top level DSP rate is $24 an hour. We will be reinstating our merit based pay program that was put on hold during COVID-19. We want more people to make the topline rate. The most important criteria to meet topline rate is observable client interaction, implementation of personal care plan and maintaining a high standard of environmental comfort.  Currently a majority of our Direct Support Professionals are earning our mid to top line rates with 38.7% making $18-20 an hour and 46.6% making over $20 an hour.  

Rimland is excited to announce that we have purchased our 20^th home for our Residential Program! The home is located in Morton Grove and will be home to six females. 

We hope you enjoyed the Superbowl this Sunday; the homes at Rimland celebrated with a pizza party!

We are excited about the new year and new initiatives! If you have any questions, please reach out!  

Thank you, 

The Rimland Team 

COVID-19 Update 1.27.22

Hello Rimland Families, 

As you can see from the Illinois Department of Public Health link posted below, the positivity rate in our area is almost below 8 percent. Once we reach below the 8 percent positivity rate in our area, we can begin to relax visitation guidelines. Please review the following guidelines.

We CANNOT have any guardians, visitors, etc. in the homes. Guardians cannot go in the homes when they drop off their loved ones. Additionally, no visits can take place in the homes. You can pick up your loved ones from the group home (or main office/CDS) for a home visit or take them out for a walk, ride, etc. If your loved one is going on a home visit, please schedule a visit with Barbara Cooper or Samina Rahim: bcooper@rimland.org or srahim@rimland.org.  

We will also start doing visits at the main office. Those visits can be held as we did a few months ago. They can be 10am – 3pm Monday – Friday for an hour. Please schedule a visit with Barbara Cooper or Samina Rahim: bcooper@rimland.org or srahim@rimland.org. Visitors are subject to be tested for COVID-19 and must show proof of being fully vaccinated.  

We look forward to seeing you, ​

The Rimland Team  

COVID-19 Update 1.20.22

Hello Rimland Families, 

We are writing with a pandemic update as it relates to Rimland. The good news is that the individuals we support are back at the Community Day Services Program.  

We know one of the big questions is, “when will visit restrictions be lifted?” With today’s update, we are not able to lift restrictions yet. The number of cases/positivity rate is still too high. We need to keep the individuals we support safe, as well as our staff members. We want to share the site that we are using as a resource. It is the Illinois Department of Public Health.  At the following link you can see that COVID-19 cases are still highly transmittable at over a 12 percent positivity rate in our area. Once the positivity rate is below 8 percent in our area, we can lift some of the restrictions.  

Here is the link https://dph.illinois.gov/covid19.html

We hope everyone is safe and well! 

The Rimland Team  

COVID-19 Update 1.13.22

Dear Rimland Families,  

We would like to share some updates that relate to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

We are planning on having the Rimland program participants return to the Community Day Services Program (CDS) on Monday, January 17^th.  Each group will be socially distanced with their cohort group (the residents of their home). We have started to resume yoga. Yesterday, our yoga teacher (who is vaccinated and receives a COVID-19 test each time she comes to the building) resumed classes house by house coming to our CDS Program. We are also taking the individuals we support on van rides with their cohorts as much as possible.  

Regarding family visits. At this time, we unfortunately can not provide information on allowing visits or relaxing the visit restrictions. We are monitoring the Illinois COVID-19 cases day by day. We feel that we are still in the “surge”. We know for most; this is not welcomed news. However, we promise to provide consistent updates and when we feel the surge is over, we can relax some of the restrictions. These restrictions are in place to help keep the individuals and our staff safe. Also, to keep our workforce as strong as possible. If COVID-19 spreads through our agency, our workforce could be depleted for that period of time. 

In other good news, we have a new mandate of no vaccine exemptions. All Rimland employees and contractors must be fully vaccinated. We also now have the capability to provide on-site PCR testing for the individuals we support and staff. 

We hope everyone is doing well! 

Thank you, 

The Rimland Team  

COVID-19 Update 1.7.22

Dear Rimland Community,

The Evanston Department of Health and Human Services recently published a letter in regard to the surge of COVID-19 cases and the necessary steps we as a community must take to protect our loved ones. Please read the letter below and help us stop the spread of COVID-19!

Thank you

-The Rimland Team

COVID-19 Update 8.24.21

Dear Families,

As a follow up to last week’s email, with the numbers of COVID-19 cases going back up, we will make the following changes. Please note, we will re-evaluate in 30 days and make modifications (hopefully the number of cases will have gone down).

We are suspending home-visits that are less than two weeks. To schedule a two week home visit or longer, please contact our Health and Wellness Department. We ask that you do not take your loved one to restaurants, family gatherings, etc.

Of course, we still cannot have visitors in the Rimland homes, but if you want to take your loved one for a walk near their home, we very much encourage you to do so. In advance, please contact the Associate Executive Director of your home to schedule. Attached is their contact information per home.

We are not having visits at the CDS Program at this time. We will be using our resources to take homes on van rides throughout the day and do not have the resources for transportation.

Homes will be coming into our CDS Program with their cohort, for activities. We will not have anyone going to outside day programs at this time (Tina Jones will be contacting those families)

This information is effective immediately. Thank you for understanding. We welcome questions and this information will be re-evaluated in 30 days.

The Rimland Team

COVID-19 Update 8.21.21

Dear Rimland Families,

It is hard to believe that we are only a couple of weeks away from the end of summer and we are now being faced with another COVID-19 threat (the Delta variant). Rimland is very concerned and tracking breakthrough cases (none at Rimland) through the CDC and the Evanston Health Department. Also, Rimland is closely following the process of getting the vaccine boosters with our partners, the Evanston Health Department and CVS. In the event that the state of COVID-19 gets worse, we will be taking the following steps to mitigate a breakout/cases at Rimland:

A temporary shutdown of our CDS program and all outings held from Residential such as van rides and backyard activities. 

A temporary suspension of home visits and onsite visits at our CDS program 

This would be temporary until the COVID-19 booster is received and/or COVID-19 case numbers go back down.

We will keep you informed over the next few weeks. 

The Rimland Team 

Thank You, Niles Township!

We are thrilled to announce that Rimland received a $10,000 Niles Township Grant this year to fund activities that are safe to do during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Niles Township has been very generous over the years and has provided consistent funding to help us enrich our programming. This has been especially valuable to Rimland this year, as we have directed much of our funding to COVID-19 safety measures. Past grants have been awarded for physical and mental health initiatives, music and art lessons, nutritional programs, and more. This year’s funding will go towards purchasing educational, art, and outdoor activities. Our overall goal with these purchases is to provide wellness opportunities that are COVID-19 safe, provide mental and physical engagement, and can be done indoors and outdoors. These activities are also a long-term investment that can be used after the pandemic has passed.  We are extremely grateful for the support of the Niles Township government and look forward to many more years of continued partnership for the overall success of our residents!

COVID-19 Update 3.17.21

Hello All – 

Exciting news! Due to where we are with the COVID-19 vaccination, we are able to relax the visitation restrictions. However, we are still very concerned with the variant strains of COVID-19. As of March 31, we will not have restrictions on the time length of the visits. You can also pick up your loved one and/or drop them off at group home. However, we CANNOT have any guardians, visitors, etc. in the homes. Guardians cannot go in the homes when they drop off their loved ones. Additionally, no visits can take place in the homes. You can pick up your loved ones from the group home for a home visit or take them out for a walk, ride, etc. If your loved one is going on a home visit, please schedule a visit with Barbara Cooper or Samina Rahim: bcooper@rimland.org or srahim@rimland.org. 

We will also start doing visits at the main office, starting March 31. Those visits can be held as we did a few months ago. They can be 10am – 3pm Monday – Friday for an hour. Please schedule a visit with Barbara Cooper or Samina Rahim: bcooper@rimland.org or srahim@rimland.org. Visitors are subject to be tested for COVID-19.

Again, the restriction is that we cannot have any visits in the group homes. This restriction still applies to guardians who are vaccinated.  We are concerned about the new variants of COVID-19. We also have to look out for our staff members; we cannot deplete our workforce. We have a few individuals who’s family decided not to get their loved ones vaccinated; those individuals can go on home visits but it must be a two week minimum. Please still keep gatherings small (recommended by the CDC) when you take your loved one on a home visit. 

Thank you for everything and we are happy to answer any questions!!

The Rimland Team

COVID-19 Update 2.5.21

Dear Rimland Community,

President Biden recently rolled out his pandemic strategy, which emphasizes better support & vaccine access for individuals with disabilities. You can read all about it below!

-The Rimland Team