Blog

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, America Forward Coalition organizations are working tirelessly to connect students, families, educators, workers, elected leaders, and advocates with critical tools, information, and resources. 

Every week, we’ll be highlighting a few examples of the vitally important work being done by the members of the America Forward Coalition. If your organization has resources, an announcement, or a story that you would like to see included, please send it to america_forward@newprofit.org. 

The Corporation for Supportive Housing: Data for Equity in COVID Relief Policy

As the COVID-19 crisis exposes and exacerbates deeply entrenched racial disparities and inequities, The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) is working to ensure that relief measures are grounded in just and equitable approaches. To help guide these efforts, they have created a Racial Disparities and Disproportionality Index, which “analyzes 16 unique systems and measures whether a racial and/or ethnic group’s representation in a particular public system is proportionate to, over, or below their representation in the overall population (proportionality) and also allows for the examination of systematic differences between groups and geographies (disparities).” By disaggregating data, they argue, we are best equipped to understand who is most impacted – by COVID-19 or otherwise – tackle disparities at their root, and build a more equitable future.

Root Cause: Strategic Support to Help Nonprofit Navigate COVID Uncertainty

Navigating the unpredictability of the COVID-19 crisis remains an urgent task for nonprofit organizations around the country. In an effort to support the strategic decision-making of these organizations, Root Cause is offering a series of free webinars for nonprofits to provide guidance on a variety of topics related to processing, adjusting, and responding to the changes and disruptions caused by COVID-19. The resources cover financial sustainability, human resources, consolidation, program design, and adapting to virtual environments, among other topics.

Nurse Family Partnership: Telehealth Support for Mothers and Children Amidst COVID

The Nurse Family Partnership (NFP), an evidence-based community health program that empowers underserved first-time moms to transform their lives and create better futures for themselves and their babies, understands the drastic physical and emotional toll that COVID-19 is taking on the families they serve across the country. NFP is currently using its telehealth option to connect with moms and children to provide guidance on seeking medical care and connect them with resources. NFP has also curated a list of resources offering guidance and assistance on topics such as nutrition, employment, safety, and more, in order to help families access the information and support they need during and after this crisis. Finally, over 10 percent of the organization’s nurse workforce has also redeployed to hospitals and other sites to help support the COVID-19 medical emergency. 

Aurora Institute: COVID Readiness Assessments and Competency-Based Learning

In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, there is also the opportunity – and a renewed urgency – to examine how our public systems work, and how we can amend them to better help students, families, workers, and communities both respond to and recover from this crisis. In a recent Aurora Institute blog post, educator Ann Hadwen articulates the opportunity COVID-19 presents to strengthen approaches to personalized, competency-based learning that empowers both educators and students, and leads to better outcomes.  The Aurora Institute also recently published a COVID-19 website with a Readiness Assessment for districts and schools, sample district and state continuity of learning plans, policy recommendations and more.

Transforming Education: Trauma-Informed Learning Toolkit for Educators

The profound disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has both created new trauma and compounded existing trauma for children, families, and communities. Transforming Education’s trauma-informed social-emotional learning toolkit provides a 120-minute professional development session aimed at giving educators the research-based tools and knowledge to create safe learning environments for students who “have experienced adversities and trauma,” whether during this crisis or otherwise. 

LEAP Innovations: Webinars on Remote Teaching

As COVID-19 keeps educators and students away from school, distance learning becomes critically important. That’s why LEAP Innovations has introduced the LEAP Learning Series, including the Remote Learning Seminar Series, a progression of six webinars that “will help educators find new strategies for tapping into remote teaching tools, instituting routines and structures into their teaching practices, collaborating with other teachers, attending to students’ social-emotional needs and delivering high-quality, empowering instruction from a distance.”