MARCH 31, 2020 | URSULA WRIGHT
The world is experiencing a series of quakes and tremors caused by a global pandemic. The quakes are the unprecedented shocks and strains we are witnessing in our health, economic, and education systems. Tremors, on the other hand, are far less obvious because their disruptions occur at a much deeper level and during timeframes when the average individual may feel that they have successfully distanced themselves from the more pronounced quake(s). Both earthquakes and tremors have the same cause; both have the potential to create long-lasting damage.
Many within the philanthropic community are concentrating resources to focus on the quakes. While these resources are desperately needed, a collective focus should also be placed on the tremors. For examples of how both can be addressed, let’s take the case of childhood wellbeing. Childhood wellbeing envelops every aspect of a young person’s development—cognitive, emotional, physical, and social—and serves as the platform on which successful academic, health, and other life outcomes rests. However, research shows that childhood wellbeing can be severely impacted by traumatic events like those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Foundations across the country have already begun to address big quakes caused by COVID-19. Pooled city-wide investments are being made in places like Seattle, New York City, Atlanta, and the Mid-South Region to ensure continuity of social sector provisions. These efforts are excellent models for those wishing to indirectly safeguard childhood wellbeing by ensuring that parents and guardians are emotionally and financially stable. More targeted philanthropic efforts have also surfaced for issues like digital equity for public school students, support of the LGBTQ community, and health services provisions to vulnerable populations.
Still more can be done to rapidly buffer the big quakes. For example, U.S. foundations can minimize closures in our nation’s vital early education system. A quality early education has life-long benefits, yet the sector responsible for producing these outcomes is disproportionately comprised of mom-and-pop providers whose tuition scales are typically based on attendance rather than enrollment. These operational factors lead to sector-level vulnerability when families are encouraged to keep young children home as a public health imperative. At this point, some closures of early learning environments will be inevitable, but the philanthropic community can minimize the scale of closures by brokering local public–private partnerships that produce safety net provisions which can be used for the retention of early learning teachers, lease payments, substitute labor for those educators recovering from COVID-19, etc. In fact, foundations may not need to use cash for such a partnership if they are willing to use their balance sheet as collateral.
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