In commemoration of Human Trafficking Awareness Day, on Friday, Jan. 10, 2020 Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum and Rebecca Jones Gaston, director of the ODHS Child Welfare Program, honored the efforts of Oregonians who work to prevent human trafficking, including an award honoring an inter-agency team which stopped a trafficking ring in Lane County.

ODHS and DOJ also released new data about human trafficking in Oregon. The State of Oregon identified 746 victims of human trafficking across Oregon in a 12-month period between October 2018 and October 2019. Read more in an ODHS news release or in this feature story from the Daily Emerald.

February marked the first case of COVID-19 in Oregon. On Feb. 28, 2020, Governor Kate Brown convened a Coronavirus Response Team tasked with coordinating state and local agencies and health authorities in preparation for response to the coronavirus. The team was tasked with building on the work of the Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) coronavirus incident management team to prepare Oregon to respond to potential outbreaks of the disease. See the initial plans for combatting COVID-19 in this news release from Governor Kate Brown.

As COVID-19 began to surge, ODHS took action in a number of areas to both prevent outbreaks at ODHS facilities and to help Oregonians were experiencing hardships due to the pandemic. This included designating a licensing oversight team to conduct illness-prevention reviews at care facilities, expanding child care benefits to support families and providers, restricting visitation policies for all licensed long-term care facilities as well as residential group homes, allowing SNAP recipients to purchase groceries online and more.

The Office of Developmental Disabilities Services also created a video to help individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities and their families understand what the COVID-19 pandemic meant for their lives.

Oregon’s interagency facility support team, led by the Oregon Department of Human Services and Oregon Health Authority, began deploying two designated COVID-19 emergency health care centers. The centers were intended to:

• Support long-term care facilities in crisis with rising infections;
• Care for residents of facilities with only a few cases of the virus to reduce the chance that others could be exposed; and,
• Provide hospitalized COVID-19 patients with a place to recover before returning to the long-term care facility where they live.

More information about the centers is in this ODHS news release.

The Oregon Department of Human Services and the Oregon Department of Education announced that Oregon families with children who were eligible for free or reduced-price school meals would get cash benefits for the meals they would have received at school even if they have been accessing meals from schools during the closure.

The USDA Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) authorized ODHS to provide Oregon P-EBT Pandemic School Meal Replacement Benefits to more than 351,000 students receiving free or reduced-price school meals in Oregon, including almost 147,000 students already receiving Nutrition Assistance. Households would receive benefits equivalent to one free lunch and one free breakfast for each eligible child. Learn more about how ODHS and ODE worked together to prevent hunger for children during the pandemic in this ODHS news release.

Oregon was among the first states to join a national initiative, led by ADvancing States, to support ConnectToCareJobs.com - a website designed to help long-term care providers address staffing shortages by connecting job seekers with available career opportunities at Oregon facilities.

Oregon joined Colorado and Washington state as early adopters in supporting the website. There are more than 680 nursing, assisted living and residential care facilities in Oregon in addition to more than 1,400 adult foster homes. Read more about ConnectToCareJobs.com and how it connects long-term care providers with workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

In celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Oregon Disabilities Commission and the Northwest ADA Center hosted weekly Lunch and Learn sessions in July.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we needed to switch from a single large event to four online events. Find out more about the ADA, the sessions and their sponsors in this ODHS news release.

Beginning on August 3, Oregonians who lived in Grants Pass could apply for medical, cash, childcare and food benefits - all in ONE place. This new convenience is a joint effort between the Oregon Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority to upgrade the state’s medical eligibility system, called OregONEligibility, or ONE.

The upgrade is part of a larger project to make it easier and safer for Oregonians to apply for health and human services benefits. The ONE system will continue to be upgraded, in phases, through February 2021. Over the next several months, Oregonians in other parts of the state will gain access to the same conveniences as those in Grants Pass. Visit benefits.oregon.gov to learn more about the upgrade, or listen to this KDRV interview with Kim Fredlund, Project Director.

September saw the onset of unprecedented wildfires across the state. For many people who were already experiencing hardships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wildfires had devastating consequences. ODHS staff, many of whom were impacted by the wildfires themselves, stepped up to help their communities:

• We activated our Agency Operations Center to help us monitor the wildfires and redeployed staff to the state Emergency Coordination Center to aid with sheltering evacuees and meeting food and water needs.
• We and our partners evacuated and relocated older Oregonians and people with disabilities from residential programs and contacted in-home consumers for safety checks and to make sure they had the essential supplies and services they need.
• We checked in on children in foster care, tracking evacuations and mobilizing to meet foster provider needs. 
• We staffed evacuation centers, replacing SNAP benefits for wildfire victims and connecting them with other ODHS services. 
• Staff donated funds to provide needed supplies for people on the Warm Springs Reservation.
• We stood up a wildfire resource webpage to help Oregonians in need find aid available to them.

These are just a few examples of the work we did as an agency in partnership with you. We are so grateful for your support to help Oregonians through multiple, simultaneous crises.

Equity is foundational to our role as a human services agency and we are committed to integrating equity into all we do. We'll know we have achieved equity when all who live in Oregon, regardless of identity or place, can achieve well-being. In October, we were excited to announce the adoption of the Oregon Department of Human Services Equity North Star to guide us toward our vision of an agency free of racism, discrimination and bias. 

We saw first-hand how the pandemic and wildfires disproportionately impacted Black, Oregon Tribal Nations and People of Color, and we've felt the energy driving the widespread movements for racial justice. While advancing equity and inclusion has been a Department priority for several years, the urgency for this work has grown. Learn more about the Equity North Star in this message from Director Fariborz Pakseresht.

Oregon received approval by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) to allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Disaster SNAP recipients in 23 counties to purchase hot or prepared foods from authorized SNAP retailers until Dec. 31, 2020.

Normally, SNAP benefits cannot be used to purchase "hot food products prepared for immediate consumption." This restriction was waived following the severe winds and wildfires that led to the displacement of many residents and left them without access to a kitchen to prepare meals. More information is in an ODHS news release.

Dec. 21, 2020 marked an historic day as long-term care residents and staff began receiving COVID19 vaccinations under a statewide rollout plan that prioritizes Oregonians who have been disproportionally impacted by the pandemic.

Older adults and people with underlying health conditions are more likely to suffer life-threatening health consequences if they contract the virus. Given that the virus is so contagious, the risks are particularly high for those who live in large group settings. Because of this, an estimated 22,425 vaccine doses are planned for nursing facilities, and as the rollout continues, additional doses will be allocated to assisted living and residential care facilities. Find out more about the rollout plan to long-term care facilities in this Oregon COVID-19 Joint Information Center news release.