January 26, 2021

Staying Safe at Home in a Pandemic

The last year has provided us all with many obstacles. Businesses and organizations have had to close multiple times disrupting normal operations for many. It is hard enough for an organization or business where clients come to you, but RTNEO’s work very often has us entering people’s homes.

Normally, our Safe at Home program involves one or more of our RTNEO staff entering a home for extended periods of time to inspect the home and to make minor repairs and modifications. As a precaution, RTNEO pivoted from entering homes for extended periods to a different course of action.

To keep serving our communities, as well as ensuring that RTNEO staff and homeowners are kept as safe as possible, we decided to put together home safety kits for our neighbors in both Cleveland and Akron. The creation and distribution of the Safe at Home kits was made possible due to donations from our partners at Lowe’s Home Improvement and support from the Summit County’s CARES Act fund.

These kits, which are packed into a 12-gallon plastic tote container, contain items hand-picked by our RTNEO staff to address common home safety issues with very simple, easy to use solutions for our neighbors.

Items in these kits included: smoke and CO detectors, sanitization supplies, weather stripping, fire extinguishers, first aid kits, home tool kits, weather radio/flashlight, pest traps, individual room UV air sanitizers, moisture control products, night lights, as well as other products. Even the plastic tote was picked for its functionality.

Since the kits have been passed out, our staff has received multiple phone calls from our neighbors expressing their satisfaction.

“I want to thank [you] once again for the tote full of items. I went through the tote and was just astonished by the amount of things in there and the number of uses for everything. Very valuable items, including the tote itself! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for contacting me and taking the time to bring those things to me. It was an amazing gesture, and the items are so, so helpful. I am grateful, thankful, and appreciative. You all are doing an amazing job!” – Ms. Griggs

This effort was so successful, in such a difficult time, that RTNEO is looking into ways to continue passing out these kits to our neighbors.

We are excited for what 2021 will bring!