Robert Ambrogi Blog
Last month, I wrote about the launch by SixFifty, the technology subsidiary of the law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, of the Return-to-Work Toolset, a tool to help U.S. businesses safely transition their employees back to work as COVID-19 stay-at-home orders expire.
Now, SixFifty is releasing another tool in a similar vein, only this one is designed to help religious leaders evaluate whether they are prepared to safely resume in-person meetings and services with their members.
Available free for use by church leaders, the new Return-to-Worship Readiness Assessment walks them through a series of 25 questions related to the steps they should take to prepare to safely meet again in person with their members.
Based on the answers provided, the system generates and emails the user a readiness assessment that a place of work can use to judge whether it is prepared for in-person meetings and services.
The assessment also provides links to all federal and state coronavirus guidelines that apply to faith communities.
As with other SixFifty products, the questionnaire and assessment is developed in consultation with attorneys at Wilson Sonsini and based on their legal expertise.
“We noticed that many places of worship were not taking the same precautions to protect their members that businesses were to protect their employees,” said Kimball Dean Parker, SixFifty CEO. “So we decided to try and help.”
Among the questions the assessment asks religious leaders are whether they have considered surveying members before having them return, whether they have reviewed all applicable government guidelines, whether they should create their own written guidelines for their members, and whether they should employ screening measures.
Depending on the answers provided, the assessment offers suggestions for how to handle certain issues, such as how to survey members or how to instruct members about screening themselves before attending services.
In addition to the Return-to-Worship Readiness Assessment, SixFifty has released other free tools that help people address issues related to the coronavirus crisis, including one that helps them delay paying their mortgage under the federal stimulus (www.hellolender.org) and another that helps renters communicate their rights under the federal stimulus to their landlords (www.hellolandlord.org).