At Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights (ANR) and the ANR Foundation, we have been taking proactive steps to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in line with recommendations and guidelines issued by health experts to maintain our critical services while implementing every precaution to reduce the risk of exposure to our team, grantees, and the general public.
As of March 13, ANR/F implemented the following business continuity plan:
- Suspending all work-related travel by ANR Foundation staff and consultants.
- Transitioning to telecommuting with temporary closure of the office. We still have access to email and our office voicemail, and many have mobile phones where we can be reached.
- Transitioning trainings, workshops, and meetings to Zoom and other virtual platforms.
- Supporting local, state, and Tribal partners, coalitions, and grantees to use our online systems in lieu of in-person meetings to the extent feasible so that work can move forward.
- Postponing spring in-person events, including our March 22 Smokefree Music Cities awareness event.
- We are still planning for Clearing the Air Institute to be held in Atlanta on August 23-26, 2020. We encourage interested applicants to apply. If the event needs to be canceled due to COVID-19, refunds will be provided. For more information and our event cancellation contingency language, visit Clearing The Air.
Our team is committed to staying in touch with one another, to prevent any consequences from social isolation during this important period of social distancing, and with our partners to continue our work to protect everyone from the health hazards of secondhand smoke exposure. In addition, the tobacco industry has not ceased its lobbying in the state legislatures that are still operating at this point in time, so we will continue to monitor new bills that would preempt local control or threaten to roll back smokefree protections.
At present, our home office in Berkeley, CA, is under a Shelter-in-Place rule until April 7 and will be operating under the above principles until that time. We will send further updates on the status of our operations and services as the situation evolves. It is our intention to continue our services during this time, albeit more through virtual contact. Please contact us via email at anr@no-smoke.org if you have a question. We will do our very best to respond to you as quickly as we can.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Take care, be well, and stay in touch.
~ Cynthia and everyone at Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights
