What do we do now?

My daughter's words of encouragement to the neighbors on their many, many walks during quarantine

All of us are navigating a situation that we were woefully unprepared for--as a nation, as communities, as families, and as organizations. Speaking for myself, I suddenly have two full-time students to monitor (though I would never characterize what I am doing as "homeschooling", since their teachers are doing the hard part), a partner with whom to share my much-better-for-one-person-than-two workspace, and a puppy who is overjoyed that we are all here and just wants to play all day. We've got it easy in contrast to the majority of people in the world who are battling low or no financial income, inadequate housing and health care, high risk of exposure due to their jobs, and inflexible work situations that make working and parenting at home impossible.

COVID19 has upended us, including organizations and groups who have been working for justice. It has created a whole new layer of complexity to already complex issues. It has shone a light on the million holes in America's safety net. It makes all of the intersectional work that we do more challenging, and more important. Race disparities, living wages, human rights, access to health care, rural economies, domestic violence, educational infrastructure, distribution of resources, immigration---these issues and more are being reshaped by the pandemic. Organizations are scrambling to find ways to respond to this crisis.

The Center for Community Investment has created an exceptional tool for thinking strategically about what organizations need to do in order to respond effectively to COVID19 in the context of their existing organizational commitments and strategies. The tool has everything you need to think systematically about your approach without getting bogged down in it. That said, if you could use a guiding hand to facilitate these discussions, I'd love to help. Check out the tool here: https://centerforcommunityinvestment.org/blog/reimagining-strategy-context-covid-19-crisis-triage-tool

Stay safe, stay home, stay radically hopeful.

a.