DOTSHOCK/SHUTTERSTOCK
(Part 2 of 2)
In 2019, I wrote a chapter called “Rooted in Scarcity and Deficit: Time to Reconsider the Funding Process” for the book “Changemakers! Practitioners Advance Equity and Access in Out-of-School Time Programs.” The chapter focused on challenges faced by youth-serving nonprofits with regard to the grant application process and funding. It offered some suggestions for funders on how to mitigate the challenges.
However, COVID-19 has shined a light on other ways funders can shift how and what they support so that organizations can work through, recover from and thrive post-COVID-19. For small to midsize organizations in particular, which are in some cases hanging by a thread, we don’t have “line items” in our budget for the very necessary things I’m going to discuss.
Rebecca Fabiano
Here’s how to support organizations’ capacity during (and post-) COVID-19:
- Human Resources (HR): Most small to midsize organizations do not have a dedicated HR person, leaving the role to be filled by the executive director. COVID-19 has impacted HR policies in numerous ways: I was getting weekly and sometimes daily updates to local, state and federal policies with regard to time off, family leave, etc. that I had to interpret and then get into our policy manuals and ensure that we and staff understood our rights and our responsibilities.
- Funders who have HR personnel on their board could ask them to volunteer to provide a certain number of hours to grantees over the next six to nine months to help update their policies impacted by COVID-19. Or they could invest funds in hiring a HR generalist to work with a cohort of grantees to help get policies and protocols up to date.
- IT support: Now that we’ve moved to a (mostly) virtual platform we need to buy Chromebooks, iPads and other hardware. And to ensure that investment is well taken care of, we need competent, experienced staff to ensure they are loaded with the correct software, malware protection and also have the highest levels of security to protect our youth and our staff. And then we need those people to be able to troubleshoot when things break, need updates, need to be replaced, etc.
- Funders could also apply the same suggestions above regarding HR to IT. If they have someone on their own staff whose time could be dedicated to supporting grantees for a period of time, that would alleviate a lot of stress and ensure that the investment in the technology does not go to waste because there isn’t a staff person who can repair or update them.
- Speaking of software, organizations need to be given additional funds or have permission to move funds to support all the new subscriptions to Zoom, Mural, Padlet, Trello, Monday.com, Remind.com, DialMyCalls and other project management, learning management system and video conferencing tools that we’re now using to communicate with each other and with participants and their families.
- Keep in mind that new tools are being developed; the preferred app that once worked for videoconferencing may be replaced by something more robust, cheaper or more expensive. Funders should encourage programs to take the time to identify the right tools/subscriptions for them and to also change if that tool/subscription is no longer working.
- Time and money for professional development: Even the most creative and competent youth workers have some learning curves to overcome as they grasp new tools (like the ones mentioned above) to safely move their activities from in-person to virtual environments. Youth development professionals have demonstrated they are extremely dedicated to ensuring that youth are having safe, positive and engaging virtual experiences and they have also expressed a need for (and time for) training.
- Funders could work with organizations that provide professional development to offer various trainings and/or establish professional learning communities for their grantees, where staff from each of their funded organizations come together over an extended period of time to learn together.
- Speaking of paying staff, now would be a good time to join the #fightforfifteen and ensure that youth workers, who should be considered essential workers, are paid a living wage.
- Our field should be out front on this and leading the charge to ensure staff are paid a living wage. They do some of the most important work building caring relationships with children and their families. One of the most common complaints I hear from both programs and funders is high turnover from staff, especially part-time staff. Providing a living wage, enough hours and the time and opportunity to learn (and be paid to do so) may be what it takes to reduce some of the turnover.
- “Butts in seats” (when programs are paid or reimbursed based on attendance data) no longer works as a funding model and funders should work with organizations to imagine and establish new ways to account for youth participation and youth engagement (which are measured differently). Most youth are now expected to be on screens from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for school and then we’re asking them to join us again for another hour or three for their OST activity.
- Funders, together with program administrators, may want to consider accounting for the different ways that staff engage with youth and their families (text messages, calls, postcards, “drive-by” visits, etc.). They may want to use more qualitative data (reports from youth and families) about participant experiences as opposed to, or in addition to, numbers of children on a Zoom video karate lesson.
- Safety supplies: In order for staff to return in part or in total to in-person programming we need the safety tools to do so. This might include masks, cleaning supplies, plexiglass dividers; and maybe even a dedicated staff person or cleaning agency to regularly clean the spaces being used.
- Funders can consider buying some materials in bulk and distributing them among grantees. Or they could invest in a cleaning company (for a period of time) that rotates among grantees sites on a weekly basis, providing a deep clean.
Many of these needs have existed for youth-serving organizations for decades, especially small to midsize ones, long before COVID-19 hit us like a ton of bricks. However, COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to think creatively about so many ways we offer programming, hire and train staff, recruit youth. etc.
We should use this as an opportunity to think creatively about how to strengthen the capacity of youth-serving organizations so they can go on to do the essential work of relationship building, fostering youth development, developing critical skills and expanding children’s horizons.
(Part 1 of 2)
Rebecca Fabiano, master of science in education, is the founder and president of Fab Youth Philly, a values-driven organization that supports youth-serving organizations, connects youth development professionals to networking and professional development and innovates original programming for children and teens.
