The New Profit Community Responds to COVID-19

Leaders in the social sector are having to be more adaptable and innovative than ever at this moment of crisis and uncertainty. Social entrepreneurs in our network and beyond are stepping up in powerful ways to feed and educate our children, create pathways to success in the Future of Work economy, and put resources in the hands of families and communities to weather the storm. Other leaders are leaning in to advocate for the critical needs of communities and nonprofits in fast-moving legislation around COVID-19. We need these fearless problem-solvers more than ever, and they need support from us.

Below you will find a list of resources that New Profit portfolio organizations have created in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Please share these with your network—you never know who could benefit greatly from these resources and services. Have you come across any other great resources? Share them with us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or email us at [email protected]

We will continue to update this post with updates and resources from our current and past grantee-partners; be sure to check in for updates.

Aliento: Guide & Resources for DACA/Undocumented & Mixed Status

“Aliento strives to always host and create spaces where [they] can safely build community. During these times, [Aliento] knows how difficult this can be for immigrant and mixed status families and the harm it can cause to our mental health.”In response, Aliento has compiled a list of resources to help people and families cope with the uncertainty of this time.

Aurora Institute: Continuity of Learning Resources

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates the need to orient our school systems toward anytime, anywhere learning — and to modernize our systems to meet students’ individual needs. Aurora Institute has created a resource page to supply educators, school leaders, and education policymakers at all levels with helpful resources to navigate the challenges, prepare for change, and to focus on the facts to protect public health, mitigate confusion, prevent panic — and continue teaching and learning.

Big Picture Learning: Leaving to Learn in the Age of Coronavirus

As a Big Picture Learning team member wrote,”As an increasing number of schools and school districts are temporarily shutting their doors, we may be provided with a once in a lifetime opportunity to double down on our philosophy of teaching, learning and activism.” Members of the Big Picture Learning team has been sharing reflections on how they’re continuing to advance teaching, learning, and activism during this time and navigating the COVID-19 crisis in their own communities.

Braven: Here’s what has changed at Braven

Braven Founder and CEO Aimée Eubanks Davis recently sent an update on the solutions Braven has been implementing in the last few weeks to meet the needs of Braven Fellows including virtual learning and community engagement efforts for fellows and relevant articles to learn more about how students, universities, and employers are being impacted by COVID-19. Click the link above to see how Braven has adapted their model, how their Fellows are feeling about the shift, the ways in which they’re building community, and more.

Detroit Justice Center: COVID-19 Update

Detroit Justice Center recently shared an update on their work to “ensure that the most vulnerable among us are protected from what are sure to be long-lasting effects” due to the current crisis. Click the link above to view a brief update including resources and news about what they have been working on. Do you have contacts in the Detroit area? Be sure to share these resources with them!

EdLoC: COVID-19 Resources for Schools, Families, Nonprofits, and Businesses

EdLoC has assembled a list of resources to help guide leaders and organizations around best practices as they address COVID-19 and try to do their part to slow the spread of the disease. Click the link above to view resources for schools, parents, nonprofits, and businesses.

Educators for Excellence: COVID-19 Resources for Educators

“Along with presenting unprecedented challenges for educators, students, and families, this crisis has shone a light on the deep inequities already present in our communities: Millions of children do not have access to food or safe places to go without school. Many parents are unable to take time off to care for their children while schools are closed. And, our most vulnerable kids are the least likely to have access to virtual learning opportunities. Educators for Excellence is working to ensure that educators’ voices are heard about how COVID-19 is hitting our highest-need communities the hardest, and what we need to do to change it.”Click the link above to access a list of resources that teacher leaders in their network have shared to help their colleagues navigate distance learning.

Eye to Eye: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources for the LD/ADHD Community

“As the situation surrounding the COVID-19 Coronavirus rapidly unfolds, the safety and well-being of our mentors, mentees, stakeholders and the broader community continues to be top of mind. The current uncertainty and sudden change in routine is difficult for any student, but it is especially challenging for our students with learning differences.”

Eye to Eye has compiled information that may be useful to its community of educators, students, parents, and supporters during this time. They will continue to update this page with new resources as we discover them.

Family Independence Initiative (FII): Immediate Help During COVID-19

FII is collaborating with the Stand Together Foundation to launch #GiveTogetherNow, a national campaign to raise money that will go directly to workers and families suffering financially in the wake of COVID-19. Not only have they joined together to raise money, but they are leveraging FII’s UpTogether platform as the means for families to apply for, and receive cash payments quickly.

FoodCorps: How FoodCorps is Responding to COVID-19

“FoodCorps’ mission is to connect kids to healthy food at school. What happens when the school communities [they] serve are shuttered?”

The public health crisis unfolding around COVID-19 has triggered an atmosphere of stress, uncertainty, and fear for all of us. While emergency responses like school and business closures are necessary to keep communities healthy, they will have disproportionate ramifications for Americans who already struggle to make ends meet. This crisis has exposed what we’ve known for years: that there are deep-seated structural inequities in our education and public health systems.” Click the link above to read more about how FoodCorps is dedicating its resources in new and different ways to support kids, schools, and communities through this challenging time.

Generation USA:

Resources and Support: Generation USA is running online classes in five cities to support people in accessing life-changing careers and has created a resource hub on their website to help students, alumni, and partners navigate these challenging times. From virtual learning tips to personal finance and supporting children at home, Generation USA staff is working to support the holistic needs of its community at this time.

Generation Talks: “Generation Talks is Generation USA’s Facebook Live series. In each episode, they discuss timely and relevant advice, resources, and more!” Two recent episodes of the show deal with issues that are top of mind for many of us right now.

• Children and Families: If you find yourself having to stay home with children during the coronavirus pandemic, you don’t want to miss this episode where Generation USA’s Regional Partnership Lead, Roshni – who is currently working from home with a toddler – shares family resources and activities you can utilize during this time.
• Mental Health and Wellness: On this episode Generation USA’s Program Lead and experienced child and family therapist, Rachel, talks all about our mental health and wellness during the time of coronavirus.

GirlTrek: GirlTrek on the Coronavirus Pandemic: What Black Grandmothers Taught Us

“GirlTrek is inspired by Black women throughout history who left us a blueprint for survival,” said co-founder, Vanessa Garrison. As the largest health movement and nonprofit for Black women and girls in the country, GirlTrek has been rapidly adapting to the ever-changing conditions resulting from COVID-19 to help its half-million members stay physically active, healthy, and safe during this crisis.

Highlander Institute: Planning for Distance Learning: 4 Key Considerations

“As an organization supporting states, districts, schools, and classrooms during this time of distance learning, we have observed many educators pushing forward on instruction, curriculum, and assessment prior to ensuring the health, safety, and emotional well-being of students and families. As we brace for a longer engagement with distance learning, we want all leaders, coaches, and teachers to think through four key considerations that will help ensure greater equity, scale, and sustainability during this time of national crisis and compassion.” Click the link above to read more about the 4 considerations.

Instruction Partners:

The 74: ‘We’re Doing School in a Different Way’: One Nonprofit Took Early Lead in Preparing Districts for Distance Learning During Pandemic: Emily Freitag, CEO of Instruction Partners, saw how drastically the current health crisis would affect our schools early on. Recently, The 74 highlighted Instruction Partners response including Freitag’s tips for educators trying to make distance learning work during the pandemic.

COVID-19 School Resource Hub: “The COVID-19 Schools Resource Hub provides school and system leaders a starting point to support student care and continued learning during extended school closures. You’ll find nine categories of tools and resources, with an acknowledgment that some areas are outside of our organizational expertise but critical to supporting students and staff.” This resource is updated and a daily basis so be sure to check back in!

JVS: Job Search Workshops

JVS, another Postsecondary Innovation for Equity (PIE) initiative cohort member, has responded to this crisis by transforming into a digital agency that provides remote programs to help people build in-demand skills and find good jobs at a time when the country is experiencing a significant wave of layoffs and a rapid increase in job losses. Its virtual offerings include sector-based Career Pathways training in healthcare, technology, and utilities; corporate volunteer events; and a Job Search Accelerator program. JVS is also actively advocating for stimulus funding that provides significant investments in holistic workforce supports, including emergency supports for job seekers, job search support, and skills-based training.

Match Education: COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates

Match Education has created a page on their website providing access to all of their recent communications about the current health crisis as well as resources for families adjusting to remote learning environments including meal resources for families, remote learning support for students, free educational resources for parents and students, and more.

PAVE DC: COVID-19 Updates and Resources

Parents Amplifying Voices in Education (PAVE) will constantly be updating this set of helpful resources for families in the DC area including information about where families can access meals and consistent updates from the Mayor. Be sure to check in frequently!

Peace First: Peace First Launches Rapid Response Grants to Address COVID-19

“Peace First is launching a rapid response grant process to help young people around the world lead projects that address community impacts of COVID-19, from providing meals to elderly neighbors to launching digital mental health campaigns to support youth feeling isolated. Rapid response grants are open to young people between the ages of 13-25, anywhere in the world, starting today. Learn more and apply here.”

PowerMyLearning: Free Family Playlists® for Schools and Districts Impacted by COVID-19

PowerMyLearning is offering their Family Playlists program completely free of charge to all schools and districts impacted by COVID-19 from now through the end of the school year. Family Playlists are mobile-friendly, multilingual learning assignments that have students “teach” their families a concept by completing a fun, collaborative activity together.

Prison Scholar Fund: Food Boxes for our Formerly Incarcerated Neighbors

If you are, or you know someone who is, formerly incarcerated in Washington State and in need of a food box click the link above. Prison Scholar Fund has partnered with NW Harvest to supply food boxes to the system-impacted community in Washington State.

Project QUEST:

Business Continuation Plan: Project QUEST is modifying its operational approach and implementing the Project QUEST Business Continuation Plan (PQBCP). The plan enables Project QUEST to continue its daily operations with minimal impact to their partners and the people that they serve.

A Message from the President of Project QUEST: David Zammiello, President of Project QUEST, shared a message about COVID-19 with their community. “I realize many of us will be touched by the COVID-19 virus in many different ways. We will all be changed forever. During this difficult moment in time, I encourage all of us to focus on the three F’s: Faith, Family, and Friends. Together, we will overcome this adversity and be better in the long-run.”

Springboard Collaborative:

Check out Springboard’s three-phase response to the crisis:

• Relief: Springboard launched a free resource portal. The parent page features a four-week learn-at-home plan with weekly strategies (by video), daily lessons, and e-books. We’re also giving families free access to Springboard Connect (its app with personalized support) as well as virtual workshops hosted on Facebook Live.
• Recovery: As the dust settles, districts are looking toward the summer as an opportunity to make up the learning lost due to coronavirus while preventing further regression. The Springboard team did a design sprint to build Springboard Learning Accelerator, and is ready to deploy it on a large scale this summer.
• Reform: Seldom in the modern history of our education system has the importance of family engagement been more apparent. If there’s a silver lining in the way that the COVID-19 pandemic brought schools to a grinding halt, it’s that it has provided us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reset the relationships between schools and low-income families. Read Alejandro Gib De Gac’s op-ed on this topic in the NY Daily News, Reinventing Distance Learning Means Enlisting Low-Income Parents: Giving Out Laptops Isn’t Enough.

Recent thought leadership:

• Pew: Learning Requires Family
• TFA: Rushing to Fill the Gaps the Coronavirus Has Widened
• Distance Learning: A Superintendent’s Perspective
• Building Virtual Community
• The Digital Divide During COVID-19
• An Interview with Dr. Devin Dillon

The Learning Accelerator:

Always Ready for Learning Network: The Learning Accelerator (TLA) has launched a national, philanthropically-supported initiative to ensure K-12 school systems leaders receive pro bono, urgent, and customized guidance on how to successfully shift to remote learning and prepare for instruction in the fall and beyond. The Always Ready for Learning Network is a coalition of leading education organizations providing timely, targeted, and sustained coaching to help leaders tackle the challenges most relevant to their communities and goals.

Prioritizing Human Connection When Social Distancing is the New Norm: As part of EdSurge’s series “Navigating Uncertain Times: How Schools Can Cope with Coronavirus,” The Learning Accelerator published a piece focused on the question “how will we ensure continued interpersonal and emotional connection across our learning communities?” In this article The Learning Accelerator provides insight into how to do just that between learners and teachers, between learners themselves, and between teachers. Connection and community is key!

GetSetup for Remote Learning: Teachers shifting to remote learning are navigating a lot of challenges, including for many of them learning how to use certain technology tools for the first time. TLA partnered with GetSetUp to provide free educator-to-educator training on the tools teachers need to plan, connect, and provide instruction and support for students. Educators can sign up to join free group classes taught by other teachers on how to use tools like Zoom, Google Hangout Meets, YouTube for streaming classes, and various screencasting tools, as well as online teaching platforms.

Today’s One Thing: A just launched a blog series called which is a teacher-driven series on remote learning. There are so many awesome resources and toolkits being shared right now, but teachers have reported that they feel awash. TLA has been polling teachers across the country and based on those results are releasing a weekly guide to help teachers focus on just one important idea or strategy at a time.

OPINION: What will we do when everyone comes back to school? Beth Rabbitt, CEO of The Learning Accelerator, recently penned a piece for The Hechinger Report sharing five steps toward developing resilient education systems. “Beyond technical challenges, school closures have surfaced big vulnerabilities in our educational systems. Some are obvious, such as inequities in access to resources needed to continue learning at home. Others, such as our reliance on ‘seat time’ as a measure of progress, will be more evident over time — we need to quickly understand and orient around actual mastery of skills and knowledge to meet individuals where they are rather than where we’d predict them to be. To address these vulnerabilities, district administrators, school leaders and teachers are going to need to adapt and develop approaches that are more flexible and personalized than ever before. Systems will need to be redesigned with resilience in mind to ensure that schools and districts can serve every child with rigor and equity, now and into the future.”

Think of Us: Foster Care COVID-19 Command Center

Think of Us has received hundreds of inquiries from foster youth and those who serve them related to COVID-19, and we are working quickly to post accurate, actionable information on a new Foster Care COVID-19 Command Center website.

Third Sector: Five Principles for Government Agency Emergency Procurement

Third Sector has released a new hub on their website providing five principles for government agency emergency procurement. Their goal is to provide simple, practical guidance that agencies can implement with existing processes and systems – without adding to workloads in the midst of crisis response.

Transcend:

Three Jobs that Matter for School Communities Navigating A COVID World: Trancend’s synthesis (to date) of many conversations with schools, systems, educators, supporters, students, and families across the nation. They observe that COVID has revealed profound and inequitable design flaws in our education system, as well as tremendous innovation capacity inherent in educators. Three jobs matter for school communities looking to seize the potential of this moment: responding, recovering, and reinventing. The way communities navigate recovery in the coming months will profoundly affect their trajectories.

Leading During Coronavirus: Transcend and the Association of School Administrators, the nation’s oldest and largest educational leaders organization, have joined together to highlight inspiring and actionable stories of leadership from across our education system: young people, families, educators, principals, superintendents and other system leaders, non-profits, business, policy-makers, and more.

School Closure Resource Hub: Transcend has been speaking with school communities around the country that are in a state of uncertainty due to school closures. In response, they are curating resources around some of then needs mentioned in these conversations. As they said, “We hope these resources provide some help during this challenging time.”

Valor Collegiate Academies: COVID-19 Updates

Valor Collegiate Academies shares updates on how they and their community are responding to COVID-19, including a new Valor Distance Learning website that went live on Sunday, March 29th, a list of places where families can access food during this time, and more.

Zearn: Distance Learning with Zearn Math
“Zearn is a nonprofit on a mission to help all kids love learning math. Their entire K-5 math program – including 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and supportive remediation – is available for free, thanks to donations from the community. Kids, teachers, parents, and caregivers can directly access all of their top-rated content 24/7, outside of school, including paper-based materials that can be used without a device. They’ve also created extensive distance learning resources to support educators and parents/caregivers in getting started quickly and are offering webinars, video tutorials, and step-by-step guides on their Distance learning Center.”