Youth Program Covid-19 Safety Guidelines
We are excited to be able to invite you to Powell House for an in-person youth conference! As we continue to live with the reality of the Covid Pandemic we have some rules and guidelines in place which allow us to gather together in a way that honors each other’s safety and comfort. We are grateful to have a loving community that cares deeply for one another. Thanks to these guidelines and our strong community, we have never had a case of Covid at a Powell House Youth Conference.
All participants at youth conferences must be prepared to follow these guidelines while they are at Powell House. Your feedback is extremely valuable to us, so please reach out at sarahandmartin@powellhouse.org if you have questions or concerns.
We Have New Guidelines!
We are excited to announce our new Masking Decision-Making Process. Be sure to read about it and reach out to us at sarahandmartin@powellhouse.org with questions or concerns.
Before coming to Powell House:
Check in with how you are feeling. If you are not feeling well, or if you have any symptoms of illness that are not normal for you, please stay home.
Everyone is required to take a Rapid Antigen Test before attending a Powell House Youth Conference.
If possible, take a Rapid Antigen Test at home no more than 24 hours before you arrive at Powell House. If you test positive do not come to Powell House.
If you are not able to take a rapid test before you arrive at Powell House we will have one for you to take at check in.
Friday Night Masking Decision-Making Process:
Everyone will be asked to wear a mask on the Friday night of the conference.
During our first session on Friday night everyone will participate in a Masking Decision-Making Process to determine weather the group wants masking to be optional or required for the remainder of the weekend.
Marty or Sarah will announce the group’s decision first thing on Saturday morning.
Our default policy will be to wear masks indoors. In order to change this policy for a conference every person present must consent to that change; this means we need consensus among the group that masks can be optional for that weekend.
If we reach consensus in our group that it is okay to take off masks, then masking will be optional for the remainder of the conference.
If the group does not reach consensus that masks can be optional then masks will be required for the weekend, attenders will observe the following:
Wear a mask whenever you are inside a building.
You may take your mask off when you are in your own assigned room, when sleeping, when showering or brushing teeth, and during meals
Whenever you are not wearing a mask please try to maintain 6 foot social distancing.
Attenders at Youth Conferences will always be expected to:
Respect other people’s boundaries.
If someone asks you to wear a mask around them, even if masking is optional, please do so.
Actively participate in building a culture of consent and communication:
Be Kind: Treat each other lovingly, with an open heart and an open mind. Remember that we’ve all been through a difficult time in our own ways.
Be Aware: Make an effort to notice and adapt accordingly to the comfort level of the people around you.
Be Curious: Meet people with curiosity as you learn about each other’s perspective and comfort level. Ask questions to yourself and others as you seek to understand what is best for the safety of the group.
Be Brave: Recognize and honor your boundaries, as well as the boundaries of others. Stand up for yourself and each other if those boundaries are crossed.
As always, ask yourself the 3 nurture questions: does it nurture me? Does it nurture the group? Does it nurture the wider Powell House community?
What is our Masking Decision-Making Process?
Every Friday Night we will ask everyone to participate in this process to determine whether masking is optional or required for that weekend. Here’s what the process will look like:
The whole group will sit together in a circle during our Friday Night Session.
Each person will be given three tokens: Red “N”, Green “Y”, and Yellow (no letter)
The Youth Directors will ask the question “Do you want masks to be required indoors this weekend?”
Attenders will secretly choose the token that corresponds to their answer: Red for “No”, Green for “Yes”, or Yellow for “I don’t care”.
The Youth Directors will pass around a closed “Answers Box” with opaque sides and a slit in the top. Attenders will drop the token that corresponds to their answer into the Answers Box.
Then, the Youth Directors will pass around a second closed box with opaque sides and instruct the group to drop the other two tokens that do not correspond to their answer into the second box.
These boxes will be set aside in the office for the rest of the evening. The Youth Directors will ensure that all attenders participate, even those who may arrive late and miss Friday Night Session.
After the group has gone to bed, the Youth Directors will look in the Answers Box:
If there are no Green “Y” tokens in the box, the Youth Directors will announce on Saturday morning that masks are now optional for the rest of the weekend.
If there are any Green “Y” tokens in the box, the Youth Directors will announce on Saturday morning that we will continue to wear masks indoors for the rest of the weekend.
FAQ:
Why do we Still wear masks at Powell House?
Wearing masks is an effective safety measure against the spread of Covid, and it’s one way that we as a community can take action to protect the most vulnerable people in our group from Covid infection. We recognize that one-way masking is not effective in an environment like a weekend-long Conference at Powell House.
Wearing masks also makes a lot of people in our community feel safe and at ease when they are at Powell House. It is important that everyone can feel welcome and safe at Youth Conferences.
We know that rapid tests are not always accurate, so wearing masks is another easy thing that most of us can do to prevent the spread of Covid and other illnesses.
We have also found that wearing masks, for the most part, does not get in the way of what we do together at Powell House; it doesn’t take away from our experience of being together in community.
It may feel odd to have to wear a mask at Powell House when you are not required to wear one in many other places. We encourage everyone to try masking anyway because it’s really important to some people in our group. If masking feels emotionally difficult for you we encourage you to talk to a friend about how you’re feeling, or talk to Sarah or Marty - it’s important to us to do everything we can to make everyone feel comfortable and safe.
If you have a legitimate medical reason that makes wearing a mask difficult or impossible, please reach out to us before the conference. We do not want this requirement to exclude anyone.
Why are we doing the Masking Decision-Making Process? If only one person wants to wear masks, why do we all have to?
As Quakers, we use consensus because we believe that voting is not a fair or just method of decision making. “Majority rule” does not value the voices of the minority, and in the case of masking, the minority may be the people who are most at risk.
This process is designed to take everyone’s perspective into account, and to protect and support those individuals in our community who are at high risk of serious illness from Covid.
It is not fair to place the burden on the disabled members of our community to always have to speak up and ask other people to wear masks. It’s also not fair to expect any one person to be brave enough in the moment to speak up in front of the whole group if they are uncomfortable with unmasking. We believe that this process will protect and support those individuals by requiring everyone to participate, and by keeping all answers anonymous.
We acknowledge that one-way masking is not an effective way to prevent Covid infection at a Youth Conference. This is why we will all be required to wear masks if anyone in the group requests that we continue masking.
Do I need to be vaccinated for Covid to come to a youth conference?
No, we do not require vaccination to attend Youth Program Conferences