2020 has been a year of unexpected challenges for many organizations, communities, and individuals.  One segment of the population that has been highly impacted by the challenges of the current pandemic is the older generation in the US.  We know this pandemic has impacted this group because not only are they at “high-risk” for more severe medical outcomes if they become ill, but also older adults, specifically discussed here grandparents in caregiving roles and their multi-generational families, have been impacted by the economic and social challenges we are facing in unique ways.  In addition to the generational complexities, we know the wide disparities in health outcomes associated with race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors intersect with age to create a higher risk for some individuals and families than others.  In light of Healthy Aging Month in September, we highlight ways in which many individuals in this demographic who often function as formal or informal caregivers have been challenged this year and ways in which we can hope to provide support.

Situational snapshot

We know that the pandemic has had a significant impact on families and specifically multi-generational relationships and households. These households often have members that are considered high-risk, including older individuals.  In cases where grandparents had been formally or informally providing critical support to their children and grandchildren, these months have brought unique challenges and difficult choices.

To get a sense of the scope, over seven million children in the United States live in households headed by grandparents or other relatives. Before the pandemic, over 2.5 million grandparents reported that they were responsible for their grandchildren’s needs. In addition, one out of four children under 5 years old are looked after by grandparents while parents attend work or school.  Out of these grandparent caregivers, one-fifth (21%) live at or below the poverty level. We’ve written about the relationship between the child welfare system and the opioid epidemic in the past, and the strain this has put on the already taxed system as well as individual caregivers.  As might be expected, research from the Census Bureau has also found a correlation between the rise in the opioid crisis and the number of grandparents raising grandchildren.

In recent months, many of these grandparent caregiving roles have shifted significantly. Some families have had to rely on extended family networks, often including grandparents, for caregiving, with school and childcare settings closed for months.  Those that were already providing care have often taken on more challenging roles as the caregiving hours expand from after-school and homework help to full-day caregiving responsibilities, with duties of not only supervision but also homeschooling. Other families have not been able to rely on those supports they counted on previously, out of caution or concern about exposure for those individuals categorized as high-risk.   With that, some grandparents have been isolated from family members, sometimes for months at a time.  The balance of months of trying to achieve social distancing, or at least physical distancing, while being mindful of the significant impact of isolation on mental health has been something that each family has had to navigate as well.  And with back-to-school season upon us, families face the uncertainties of a new school year ahead, trying to balance the challenges and competing needs of the well-being of all family members, with no easy answers. 

It’s critical to note also that this crisis has not impacted all older adults in the same way, but has exacerbated many existing systems of inequality in our society along the lines of age, race, and socioeconomic status.  Not everyone is at equal risk.  The strain that this pandemic has put on older adults and families already struggling with poverty, access to resources, childcare, and opportunity has been exacerbated this year as well.  

What we can do

We know that the challenges are great and, in many ways, unprecedented. Many individuals and organizations have sprung into action, and many may still be asking what they can do.  At an individual level, Generations United has developed a comprehensive COVID-19 Fact Sheet for Grandfamilies and Multigenerational Families that contains relevant resources for grandparents and children, including crisis hotlines, COVID-19 information, and assistance program information.

In response to this crisis, many social service organizations have drastically and rapidly shifted their service delivery in many ways that may have previously been unimaginable. While the social service sector is already taxed in so many ways, organizations have been assisting by repositioning themselves and adapting their service models to support caregivers and families in new ways, including supply assistance, as in the case described here.  Organizations have also in many cases quickly adjusted their service delivery models to provide a higher level of virtual support for caregivers through the use of technology (friendly reminder, COA has standards for that!).

At a macro level, The Center for the Study of Social Policy has published this informative brief that discusses challenges faced by a range of kinship caregivers who may need supports during the pandemic. It offers recommendations for steps we can take to address these challenges at a policy level. 

We know there are many others providing support and resources to those in need.  How has your organization or community responded?  What other resources have you found helpful or are you seeking as an individual or provider to support the well-being of this population? For Healthy Aging Month and Back-to-School season, please share in the comments below as we continue to seek ways to partner with the human and social service community to address these challenging circumstances.

The most vulnerable members of society have also been the hardest hit by the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. The work of nonprofit organizations serving those populations continued largely uninterrupted over the past several months—despite sparse protective gear for staff, thinly-stretched funds, and minimal to no national guidance about how to safely proceed.

Behavioral health centers, foster care services, homeless and women’s shelters, and many other human and social services organizations have not shut down. They have been navigating urgent and rapidly changing issues on the fly to keep their essential staff safe as they deliver critical services.

The Council on Accreditation (COA) discussed the changes and challenges of recent months with eight of our Sponsoring Organizations, which are nonprofit membership bodies comprised of organizations that provide human and social services (many of whom are accredited by COA).  Sponsoring Organizations serve as critical advisors to the COA, helping us understand the accreditation needs of provider agencies, industry trends, and environmental challenges within the human and social service landscape. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, they have played a central role in helping their member agencies figure out how to safely continue operating in unfamiliar terrain.

We wanted to take a moment to recognize their work and highlight the innovation and creativity that emerged during this difficult time. Their stories illustrate best practices in “continuous evolution” and “resilience” that help organizations push through difficult times.

Shifting priorities

High levels of uncertainty have been a constant since March. Every organization has had to re-evaluate priorities and re-direct resources accordingly.

“One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned from the past few months is the concept of truly listening to members. Never has that been more critical,” said Mohini Venkatesh, Vice President of Business Strategy at the National Council for Behavioral Health (National Council). “We had to figure out how to represent the full continuum of experience of our members —from those serving wealthy communities to the underserved—in an environment where everyone’s experience was highly variant and changing fast.”

High-frequency membership surveys and town hall meetings facilitated by the CEO of  National Council helped them keep the biggest challenges facing members front and center. Members’ inability to access to personal protective equipment (PPE) surfaced as a high priority early on. A survey of its members found that nearly 83% of behavioral health organizations did not have enough PPE for two months of operations.

When National Council put out a mass call to its members about PPE, it received requests for roughly 2 million masks within 48 hours. Although completely outside of its normal focus, National Council moved quickly to find a manufacturer and contractor that could fulfill and distribute its’ members PPE order.

The Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (NJHSA) also went into action to provide PPE for its members after hearing safety concerns from agencies that interact with high-risk senior populations and hospice patients. It collaborated with several other organizations to do a group bulk purchase of PPE.

Catholic Charities USA (CCUSA)who serves millions of people per year, has distributed $6.1 million to agencies for COVID-19-related disaster grants and helped providing PPE, delivering almost 2 million face masks, 650 gallons of hand sanitizer, and gloves, masks, shields, and gowns.  Across their network of facilities, they have seen a 50%-70% increase in clients seeking assistance including a broader demographic than low-income and poor households that traditionally walk through their doors including an increase in middle-class families who lost their jobs as the pandemic surged.

Rapid coalition-building

Collaboration was also central to the work of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC), a nonprofit financial counseling organization, as states started to lockdown. With many Americans facing sudden unemployment or a dramatic reduction in work hours, financial stresses were running high – people needed short-term relief from paying credit card bills, mortgages, and other debts.

NFCC recognized that consumers needed an immediate short-term solution, regardless of where they sought counseling. They took a lead role in collaborating with other nonprofit credit counseling agencies, credit card issuers, lenders, and regulators to develop a national emergency payment relief program. The program allowed consumers to skip payments without penalties or damage to their credit rating.

“We experienced five years-worth of progress in a period of five weeks,” said Bruce McClary, Vice President of Marketing for NFCC. “It would have been an impossible goal to achieve if we had not already built strong relationships with key industry stakeholders and developed a solid communication framework.”

Facilitating communication and problem-solving

One of the top priorities for nearly every organization we interviewed was facilitating communications between its members to problem-solve.

The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance), which is comprised of a variety of nonprofit human services organizations and state associations, initiated regular pulse surveys to assess members’ most immediate needs. The lack of guidance about how to deal with rapidly changing COVID-19 developments was a major stress point.

“Being nimble and taking risks with our communication strategies was crucial,” said Lenore Schell, Senior Vice President of Strategic Business Innovation at the Alliance. “Our guiding principal was to act as the facilitators, not the experts. We launched webinars in the early stages of the pandemic knowing we had few answers to provide, but it created an environment of trust for dialogue with and between members.”

The Association of Children’s Residential Centers (ACRC) also positioned itself as a communications hub for its members, which are residential centers for children. They couldn’t close down services and had to quickly figure out how to keep residents and staff safe in a setting where it is nearly impossible to social distance.

“Meeting the needs of behaviorally challenged young people is already tough work. And the COVID-19 pandemic created additional complexity at every level,” said Kari Sisson, Executive Director of the ACRC. “We quickly realized that the field needed a way to safely exchange information to develop policies, procedures, and best practices – and learn from others’ experiences.”

Affinity groups that were created before the pandemic served as a critical information-exchange for members. An affinity group that served kids with autism and severe brain injuries was able to learn a great deal from an agency in Massachusetts that was hit hard by COVID-19 – it helped peers think through how to plan for adjustments to family visit polices, establishing isolation units, and other safety issues.

Providing opportunities for peer collaboration became an immediate focal point for the Child Welfare League of America as well; it is comprised of agencies that serve vulnerable children and families. In the early stages of the pandemic, they gathered a small group of agencies from the hardest-hit states including New York and Washington to discuss challenges and lessons learned. CWLA also initiated “open mic” weekly conversations to let all member agencies voice their struggles and exchange information about what was working.

“We became a funnel for information for the industry, helping members navigate how to put new policies and protocols into place,” said Julie Collins, Vice President of Practice Excellence for CWLA. “We are still receiving daily inquiries from agencies about how others are dealing with specific issues.”

CWLA shared the intelligence from its various forums with its entire network of members via webinars and best practice newsletters. Topics spanned a wide range of issues from helping foster parents manage e-learning to guidance on recruiting and training staff virtually to establishing protocols for an employee that tests positive for COVID-19. They also arranged for Congressional representatives to hear directly from small agencies about their concerns.

Advocating change 

As the COVID-19 lockdown hit different parts of the U.S., health and human service agencies had to abruptly transition as much as possible to virtual mode, often with little warning. Telehealth services suddenly became the norm instead of the exception.

“Initially, the government and insurance providers were only allowing telehealth services that used both video and audio capabilities. We had to help our agencies fight for allowing telephone-only services,” said Reuben Rotman, CEO and President of Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (NJHSA). “There are big segments of the population that don’t have access to a computer or the internet, or they simply don’t know how to use it.”

For example, one of the agencies under NJHSA was working with a patient suffering from agoraphobia who had not left her house for nearly a year. Her therapist was able to counsel her via Zoom sessions – a more relaxing environment for the patient – and actively workshop steps that reduced her anxiety about getting into her car.

Although shifting to telehealth so quickly presented numerous challenges, it is also brought to light the effectiveness of alternative approaches.

“Telehealth is helping agencies live the true value of person-centered care – delivering treatment remotely to those who prefer that option,” said Venkatesh of National Council. “While many questions linger, the rapid deregulation of telehealth opened the flood gates. It’s clear that virtual services have great value, and we’ll need to help regulators understand the need for a hybrid model moving forward.”

Nancy Ronquillo, CEO of Children’s Home Society of America, the oldest network of child-welfare agencies in the U.S., said that their members expressed similar sentiments about shifting to virtual visits and counseling with families. “For some families, doing a 15-minute phone call a few times per week instead of a one-hour home visit with an agency worked much better,” said Ronquillo. “When agencies were freed from their traditional boundaries, it helped them test and realize how alternative strategies can work better for some kids and families.”

Acting quickly

Health and human service agencies were overwhelmed with the logistics of managing day-to-day operations, leaving little room for them to process new developments. Many of the organizations we interviewed took on this “processing” role, serving as a source of clarity on fast-moving critical issues.

When the U.S. Small Business Administration announced details about the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, Children’s Home Society of America provided immediate guidance to its members so they could quickly plug into the application process. They also facilitated one-on-one calls between CEOs of its member agencies to troubleshoot the nuts and bolts of working with banks on the loans.

At (CCUSA), they have continued to push throughout the pandemic for the availability of stimulus funds and increased funding for programs like the Emergency Food and Shelter Program to support the most vulnerable of populations. 

The Alliance sent communications about PPP almost daily, highlighting key details about eligibility, deadlines, and how the process worked. Many of the Alliance’s members said that without those communications, they would have missed out on the PPP loans.

Looking ahead

Uncertainty continues to linger for the foreseeable future. Short-term changes are putting long-running challenges into sharp focus, giving nonprofit organizations a chance to think more creatively about how they deliver value to those they serve. We are inspired by the spirit of collaboration and resilience within the nonprofit world to continue to serve while tackling unforeseen challenges.

COA’s President and CEO, Jody Levison-Johnson recognizes that COVID-19 has been and will continue to be a game changing experience. “COA is continuing to evolve to ensure that our standards and processes provide the greatest impact on the people and communities served by human and social service organizations.  We thank the entire COA community for all of the work being done during these challenging times to ensure the continuity and quality of service delivery to the most vulnerable of populations.” 

If we can be of any assistance, please let us know how we can help. 

Over the past few months, COVID-19 has forced many challenges and changes to the forefront. Our ability to meet them depends on the strength of our community.  

In that spirit, COA reached out to our Sponsoring Organizations to cover something that hasn’t been in the news as much lately: how those in the human and social service community have been navigating the pandemic. The resulting article includes a wealth of information, inspiration, and lessons learned. From how agencies navigated shifting priorities to how they formed coalitions, from how they facilitated communication to how they are advocating for change, you can read all about it here.  

We want to offer huge thanks to those who participated—the National Council for Behavioral Health, the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, the Association of Children’s Residential Centers, Child Welfare League of America, and Children’s Home Society. It is inspiring to see that spite of all the uncertainty, many in the human and social services community have come together to continue to support those in need. After all, the most vulnerable members of society have also been the hardest hit by the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

What have you learned in your community? What resources have been or would be helpful? What challenges still lie ahead? Share it with us here.  

Thank you for all that you do and continue to do during these challenging times. 

The Council on Accreditation (COA) realizes that the current COVID-19 environment has presented organizations with a myriad of operational challenges as they continue to operate and provide services in this new environment.  This is even more pronounced for those organizations seeking accreditation to meet the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) mandate deadlines.

To help alleviate some of the burden that organizations are currently facing, COA is providing a new Phased Accreditation option for new organizations seeking accreditation under the FFPSA mandate.  This new option will allow organizations to first achieve QRTP accreditation in advance of achieving full-organizational accreditation.

What is Phased Accreditation?

COA’s Phased Accreditation provides an organization the opportunity to accredit the mandated QRTP service area first, based on a mutually agreed upon timetable and focused standards.  The organization will then immediately proceed to its pursuit of full-organizational accreditation, in keeping with COA’s philosophy on accreditation.

Who is eligible?

New Private organizations seeking accreditation under the FFPSA mandate.

How do organizations benefit?

The Phased Accreditation option allows organizations to expedite the timeline to accredit the mandated service area while allowing the organization additional time to complete full-organizational accreditation.  This approach allows organizations to achieve QRTP Accreditation in approximately 6-8 months.

Upon successful completion of the QRTP accreditation, the organization’s program will be accredited for four years. If the organization’s remaining services are accredited within a year of the QRTP accreditation, the organization will be accredited for four years from the decision date of the organization-wide accreditation (up to 5 years).

What are the Accreditation and Site Visit fees?

Our standard Private Accreditation and Site Visit fees apply.  Members of our Sponsoring Organizations still receive the 25% discount on their Accreditation fee.  There will be an additional Site Visit and fee of $2,200 per reviewer for the QRTP portion of the Phased Accreditation. The initial Phased Accreditation Site Visit will most likely be comprised of a single Peer Reviewer. 

To learn more about our Phased Accreditation approach, please reach out to Joe Perrow.

Virtual Review Options for Organizations

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and out of an abundance of caution, COA has postponed all scheduled Site Visits through June 30, 2020.  This is not a decision we made lightly, as the safety and well-being of our volunteers and organizations is not something we would ever waver on. 

Effective July 2020, COA will offer organizations pursuing accreditation, new virtual review options to complete their Site Visit requirements, a foundational part of the accreditation process.

Incorporating feedback from our volunteers and organizations, the new options will allow organizations to move forward with completing their accreditation requirements, prioritizes the safety and health of our volunteers, organizations, and the individuals they serve, while maintaining the integrity and rigor of our accreditation process.

The virtual review options range from conducting reviews virtually, in whole or part, and some reviews with limited on-site presence. Eligibility for the virtual review options is dependent on the operational and situational environment of an organization and will remain in effect until further notice.

Virtual Reviews will occur using HIPAA compliant platform(s) and are inclusive of:

Organizations with Site Visits immediately impacted will be contacted directly by the assigned Accreditation Coordinator.

Should you have any questions regarding these options, please reach out to Ruby Goyal-Carkeek, Vice President of Accreditation at rgoyal-carkeek@coanet.org.

Recent events are inviting and requiring organizations to engage in change at a pace previously regarded as impossible. Leaders and teams are faced with creating an array of strategies that are creative, represent innovation, and will result in sustainability and survival. For some (generally the minority), environmentally-imposed rapid change offers a necessary and exciting opportunity to innovate and iterate without some of the barriers or restrictions that were previously assumed. For others, change is challenging and can result in feelings of uncertainty and distress. Both views, and the gray in-between, are accurate and real. Knowing that people’s comfort can rest at these two poles or the infinite space between is critical when engaging in the change required to address the continued inequities and disparities in our society.

There is no shortage of leadership and change management theories to use when working within an organization or system.  Critical in effecting change is understanding who you are as an organization and what approaches, actions, and activities are most congruent with both who you strive to be and what your organization intends to achieve. Working to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion must be infused into all of our efforts.

From my perspective, successful change efforts require a leader. Being “the leader” may be legitimized by role and positional authority, or it can be a designated or assumed role. While there is variability in environments, I believe that all people can be “the leader” and lead in place. While the scope and sphere may vary, every person can have self-determination, take responsibility, and assume ownership for effecting positive change. Every person can be forward thinking, aspirational, and inspirational – all required when working on change. Cynthia McCauley, Senior Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership says that “there isn’t ‘a’ leader making leadership happen” (2014, p. 6). Similarly, I would argue that there isn’t “a” leader who will make change happen.  Change is a collaborative process. Incumbent upon the authorized or designated leader of change is to inspire those around them and to make space for change to occur.  Only through an adaptive, authentic, and inclusive process is change likely to be adopted and sustained. We must lean in to these opportunities and to contribute to evolving the systems and structures that impede our society.

Leaders of change are educators and facilitators. They must help people see and become energized by the big picture. They must share information honestly to build collective understanding. They must create a culture where ownership is shared, intended outcomes are agreed to and known, and the ability to make an impact is distributed.  Change is not about one person; it is about a process and outcomes which are enhanced by the creative tension that occurs when diverse perspectives are engaged around a common issue.  It is incumbent upon the leader to create the space for inclusivity to flourish and where new thinking can emerge.

Safe discomfort

Effective change requires that leaders create safe discomfort as a place for change. Renown leadership theorist Ronald Heifetz refers to this as the  productive zone of disequilibrium, “Your goals should be to keep the temperature within what we call the productive zone of disequilibrium (PZD): enough heat generated by your intervention to gain attention, engagement and forward motion, but not so much that the organization (or your part of it) explodes” (Heifetz et al., 2009, p. 29).  This is similar to what Jon Wergin (2020), author of Deep Learning in a Disorienting World, refers to as constructive disorientation, which he describes as “a space just beyond our comfort zone that motivates us to explore new ways of thinking and being. While uncomfortable, this level of disorientation is necessary for us to see our environment and our relationship with it in new ways.” While change can be anxiety-provoking, it is also a time when people can be energized. It can be a truly exciting time that results in increased cohesion and a stronger sense of direction, alignment, and commitment–three critical areas noted by McCauley.

Allowing people to feel disquieted while not being immobilized by fear is what I believe leads to profound change.  Over two decades ago, as a crisis clinician, I often talked about the concept of viewing crisis as opportunity.  The leader must create a manageable crisis, one which produces feelings of unease and manages and attends to potential feelings of loss.  In this space, the impossible becomes possible and alternative ways of knowing and doing emerge. While the current pandemic and events surrounding the death of George Floyd may not feel like it is a “manageable crisis,” it is nonetheless a time that requires us to come together and to think and act differently.

Shared visions (and histories)

Kouzes and Posner have suggested the importance of a shared vision: “Every organization, every social movement, begins with a dream.  The dream, or vision, is the force that creates the future” (2012, p. 18).  Generally speaking, in human and social service environments, mission and vision alignment exists. However, there may be variability in how people understand the future direction and how it will be reached. Whenever possible, co-creating the future state is encouraged. In today’s environment, this may not be possible, but few will not support the mutually held vision of promoting a just and equitable society, of being of highest service to one’s customers – however that is defined – and of organizational survival, even if both look somewhat different than previously imagined.

Change efforts must also reflect a respect for history. While the social and human service sector has continued to evolve, there are many who have contributed tremendously for decades.  For survival, it is essential for people to accept new ideas and allow them to take hold.  At the same time, it is critically important to honor and respect the past and not thoughtlessly eliminate the traditions that people, organizations, and systems hold dear.  Organizations can be prisoners of their own experience, particularly in times of uncertainty, “… when we don’t know what to do, we do more of what we know.  We construct our own psychic prisons and then lock ourselves in” (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 7).  In this way leaders must help others to think differently and see things through new lenses, “Because innovation and change involve experimenting and taking risks, your major contribution will be to create a climate of experimentation in which there is recognition of good ideas, support of those ideas, and the willingness to challenge the system” (Kouzes & Posner, 2012, p. 20). 

Looking to the future

Change can be unsettling, and it is generally disruptive. Today’s world requires it. Attending to people’s feelings, communicating frequently and as transparently as possible, and helping people to understand “the why” – including the intended outcomes – are all critically important. Doing all of these things does not guarantee the success of your effort; nor does it mean that everyone will agree. Engaging in change work requires each of us to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. Deep change does not always make you popular, but if grounded in your values, guided by a clearly articulated vision, and done for the greater good, those around you are more likely to at least understand it and potentially embrace it.

References

Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2013).  Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (5th ed.).  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 

Heifetz, R.A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M.  (2009).  The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world.  Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press.

Kouzes, J.M., & Posner, B.Z.  (2012).  The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations (5th ed.  ed.).  San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

McCauley, C.D.  (2014).  Making leadership happen.  Retrieved from http://insights.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/MakingLeadershipHappen.pdf.

Wergin, J. (2020). Managing disorientation in a pandemic. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@jwergin/managing-disorientation-in-a-pandemic-310b49d5a03c.

Since we began taking huge societal steps to flatten the curve and address our current public health crisis, my inbox has been flooded with emails from what seems like every retailer and  restaurant I have ever visited. Are they reaching out to alert me of the latest sales or entice me with a great deal? No. These businesses are reaching out to inform me about their individual response to the spread of COVID-19. These communications have included how they are adhering to state-specific closure orders, enhancing their hygienic practices, supporting the health and safety of staff, and pretty much anything related to changes brought on by measures to combat the spread of COVID-19.  

Social service providing organizations, whether classified as essential or nonessential during this time, are no different in that they must strive to communicate with their stakeholders about how they are addressing COVID-19 as an organization. Across a single social service program, stakeholders can include clients, family members of clients, staff, volunteers, community members, funders, and board members. All of these stakeholders can be impacted in different ways by your COVID-19 response measures. Communicating clearly and specifically to individual groups of stakeholders will show them that your organization is taking the crisis and its role in protecting the community seriously.  

COA has put together a list of references to assist your organization in navigating communication with your stakeholders during this time. We’ve organized the information below by:  

Our Interpretation blog is meant, first and foremost, to be a resource for the COA community. We are continually evolving its content to meet the needs of our COA network. If you have a resource, article, or tool that you’d like to see posted, we’d love to hear from you! Reach out to us by email at PublicPolicy@coanet.org.    

Developing a communication strategy

The abrupt transitions required by COVID-19 has forced for-profit and nonprofits alike to rapidly address a myriad of issues, including communication with their stakeholders. Taking the time to develop a planned communication approach will ensure there is continuity and comprehensive information in your communications and will likely prevent time spent later answering questions. Harvard Business Review  has published some helpful tips in developing your communication approach, beginning with the creation of the standing Pandemic Leadership Team. They have also examined the emergency communication responses of companies that have experienced crises previously.  

Staff outreach

Whether your agency staff are considered essential or non-essential workers, it’s important to understand that they are impacted both professionally and personally by this crisis. Communications to staff should be sensitive to this by providing clear, concise, and accurate information. In addition, ensure staff are given a supportive and facilitative environment to ask questions and seek clarification. Workers are dealing with a myriad of concerns as a result of COVID-19. They’ll expect clear information regarding everything from individual health insurance coverage to expectations in work-from-home policies.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created tools to assist employers in communicating about COVID-19 with their staff.  In addition, Forbes has put together a survival guide to caring for staff in a remote environment that can help you craft internal communications during this time. How you communicate with staff during this crisis will dictate the office culture when you return.  

Funding, media, and advocacy outreach

Addressing the global public health crisis has led to an unprecedented global financial crisis. Legislators at the state and federal level are working hard to determine how best to support the economy while maintaining needed social distancing precautions.

The first federal stimulus package, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, provided some of the financial aid needed by businesses and individuals. It is expected to be followed up with subsequent stimulus bills to continue providing meaningful aid. This means there will be additional opportunities for service providing agencies to advocate for inclusion in future relief packages. It is important that agencies are using any and all tools and connections they have to advocate for their stakeholders and raise awareness of the importance of their specific services in their community.  

The Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (also known as the Alliance) has created a toolkit for their network to raise awareness about the importance of community-based human services organizations, which become even more vital in times of crisis. To also assist you in raising critical funds, this toolkit includes a national fundraising campaign with graphics and sample posts, as well as media outreach templates. Use these tools to leverage your visibility as part of the national Alliance network and raise awareness for your specific community impact and financial needs. 

Materials

Communicating accurate and helpful information is the duty of all organizations addressing COVID-19 in their community. On-site, this can mean having materials available to service recipients. The CDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) have published a number of free resources for all businesses to use, including fact sheets, guidance, videos, and posters. By using the latest materials published by the CDC, you will ensure the information you are communicating is in accordance with current public health announcements and guidance. In addition, check your state’s public health and human service department’s departments websites to see if materials specific to your state are available to you. Below are links to current communication tools and resources available for use and distribution.  

Guidance on reducing stigma

Stigma affects the emotional and mental health of those that the stigma is directed against.  Stopping stigma is an important part of making communities and community members resilient during public health emergencies. Even if we are not personally involved with the stigmatized groups, it’s important to stay vigilant and address it when issues arise.  

We hope you find these resources useful! Check out our other posts on COVID-19—COVID-19 Resources (Extended Version) and Preparing for Response to COVID-19,—for additional information.  

What other helpful resources for managing communication during the COVID-19 outbreak have you seen? Share yours in the comments below! 

Protect your clients, protect your staff, protect your organization, protect your community.

As the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on our lives, accredited and in-process organizations have asked us how the standards can help them be ready and respond.  In this post we will make a few big-picture recommendations about where to start with your preparations, then point out the key standards that might inform your response.

A few quick recommendations

Before we look at specific standards, we have a few recommendations.  First, pull your senior staff and members of your governing body together to think about what your organization needs to do be prepared for and respond to the virus.  We strongly recommend that you review the CDC’s Interim Guidance for Administrators and Leaders of Community- and Faith-Based Organizations to Plan, Prepare, and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).  This resource is the single best resource we have seen to help you prepare your organization for the inevitable arrival of the coronavirus in your community.  The guidance provided is specific and clear and is continually updated as new information emerges.

Second, review and update your emergency preparedness plan and other relevant polices and procedures.  COA has several standards that address key preparedness and response issues that accredited organizations will already have in place.  These fall under the broad standards categories of human resources management, safety and security, and emergency preparedness.  More about these below.

With regard to service delivery: Depending on the types of services you provide and the populations you serve, you are very likely to get multiple communications from federal, state, and county oversight entities, as well as others with specific directives and/or guidance that will directly effect your work at the program level.  You will want to merge these varying sources of guidance– some of these will be mandatory–into a form that staff can understand and follow. 

It is important also to make this information easily accessible. One organization that serves the homeless mentally ill in upstate New York has been receiving updated virus-related directives from multiple sources almost every other day.  Every time one of these is received, the CEO merges the new information into updated procedures and then walks around and replaces the old documents, which have been posted all over the facility, with the newest version.  Staff are very busy and aren’t always able to stop what they are doing and check their email to see if new updates have been made to the online procedure manual.  So put such critical information right in front of them.

Third, communicate clearly and openly with the people you serve, your staff, and the public.  The situation in your locale may be changing quickly.  Your clients and staff will be looking to you for guidance.  Wild Apricot has a very good blog entry titled How to Create a Crisis Communications Plan for Your Nonprofit that you may find useful.

Communication also includes ensuring that staff know who to go to for answers in rapidly evolving situations.  Anticipate that some staff who have decision making authority may become sick. Plan for that eventuality, and make sure that staff know who to go to in their place. This is especially important in larger, multiservice organizations who may provide a variety of different services in multiple locations.

Now lets take a look at some of the key COA standards.  Currently accredited organizations will have policies and procedures related to these standards already in place.  For these organizations, your task it to review these and update them where necessary. 

Review and update your emergency response plan and procedures

Pull out your emergency response plan and procedures (ASE 6.01, ASE 6.02, ASE 6.03) and review them with COVID-19 in mind.  If you are like many other organizations, you may not have anticipated a fast-moving pandemic when your plan was developed.  Emergency response plans and procedures for multiservice organizations and those providing services at different sites may need to include location-specific guidance for each program site. 

Things to consider:

Review and update safety and security measures

The standards in ASE 5: Safety and Security address the safety and security of your staff and persons served at your program and administrative sites.  Review your most recent safety assessment and any measures that were implemented to address identified issues.  Then conduct a new COVID-19 assessment if time permits. 

Things to consider:

Review and update human resource management policies

By the time you read this, many of you will already be under restrictions mandating the closure of all non-essential businesses.  Although most of our accredited organizations will be not be subject to those restrictions, most have staff that do not necessarily need to be on-site to perform their jobs.  Many of you are scrambling to put human resource policies in place to reflect this new reality.  The standard HR 3.02 broadly addresses what may go into an HR policies and procedure manual.

Things to consider:

Again, the CDC has good, comprehensive, practical guidance for employers:  Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Review and update technology and information security for remote working

Remote working is as much a technological issue as it is a human resources management issue.  The policies and procedures required for RPM 4: Technology and Information Management, and RPM 5: Security of Information should be reviewed and updated if you will be requiring some of your staff to work at home. 

Things to consider:

Review and update policies and procedures for technology-based service delivery

The coronavirus has rapidly pushed technology-based service delivery from the periphery to becoming a core intervention modality for many kinds of social and human services.  If you are already employing technology-based interventions, take this time to review new rules and guidance coming for the federal government on its use.  Then review the standards in PRG 4: Technology-based Service Delivery to ensure that your current practices continue to meet the requirements of the standards. 

If you are thinking about employing technology-based interventions for the first time, you need to understand that there are many important factors to consider, including confidentially, security, data collection and  transmission, acceptable technologies, licensure, how to work with clients through electronic means, and more.  A review of the standards in PRG 4 will give you a frame of reference for what such services look like.

We hope this post helps to bring some of the most important questions into focus for you as you prepare for the coronavirus.  The function of accreditation is to build organization’s capacity and resilience through a careful and thorough review of its administration and service-delivery practices.  It does this by having you look at what you are doing and how you are doing it, thinking about how you can do things better, and, finally looking ahead so you can be ready for what is coming, both seen and unforeseen. 

Be safe.

In light of the ongoing coronavirus crisis, we wanted to highlight some of the resources that we provide on our website, and to provide additional ones, as well. Stay up-to-date on everything happening with COA during the pandemic here.

No matter what role you occupy in the social service delivery continuum, chances are that precautions in the face of COVID-19 have drastically changed the way you work in just a few short weeks. This rapid transition in our lifestyles has led to a deluge of information about how to cope and behave during this time, both personally and professionally. COA has put together a list of references to assist you and your colleagues in navigating all of this news and guidance. We’ve organized the information below by topic: 

The Interpretation blog is meant, first and foremost, to be a resource for the COA community. We are continually evolving our blog content to meet the needs of our COA network. If you have a resource, article, or tool that you’d like to see posted, we’d love to hear from you! Reach out to us by email at PublicPolicy@coanet.org.

General guidance from government agencies

It’s important to educate yourself on and follow the guidance of international, national, and local health organizations. The following organizations maintain a collection of resources and information on the spread of COVID-19. COA recommends locating the health agency of your state or territory to find information that is specific to your local community. In addition, make sure that you are signing up for available subscription/distribution lists, where information may be disseminated on an ongoing basis. 

Guidance for child welfare providers

The US Children’s Bureau shared this letter with the agencies they oversee the in child welfare system. In addition to this letter, the Children’s Bureau is maintaining this webpage with resources related to COVID-19.

Organizations leading the field in child welfare practice and policy have also created resources to assist agencies in navigating service delivery during this time: 

In addition, The Chronicle of Social Change (now The Imprint) has redirected their reporting to focus on COVID-19 and have posted a number of stories on developments in the child welfare space. We recommend starting with Coronavirus: What Child Welfare Systems Need to Think About.

Guidance for childcare providers

Childcare providers have been deemed essential workers across many regions, even areas with the strictest social distancing regulations in place. This is because we need to ensure childcare is accessible to other essential workers during this time.

Guidance for businesses and employers

There is no doubt that concerns about and restrictions around COVID-19 are impacting how businesses are run. We’ve seen some guidance on how to bear out these changes here:

Guidance for healthcare professionals

Healthcare facilities are on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. Find resources to help manage resources and protect yourself and your staff below.

Guidance for community organizations

Community-based organizations will be integral to ensuring the infrastructure of community needs are able to be met during this time. Fortunately, there are COVID-19 tools available for organizations that serve vulnerable populations:

The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans also has resources specific to each type of services provider they oversee:

Guidance on reducing stigma

Stigma affects the emotional and mental health of those that the stigma is directed against. Stopping stigma is an important part of making communities and community members resilient during public health emergencies. Even if we are not personally involved with the stigmatized groups, our voice can have an impact.

What other helpful resources for managing the COVID-19 outbreak have you seen? Share yours in the comments below.