It is not possible to predict when we will put the pandemic behind us. However, when we ultimately celebrate these tidings and declare our relief, there must be a new commitment on how to the ongoing needs of children and families.
There has been a bright light in the darkness and misery of the pandemic. Facing a decline in financial support as the economy cratered, America’s nonprofits have called upon every resource and volunteer hour they could muster. The positive results are compelling. Food banks are serving 55% more people than they were before the pandemic, making possible 6.5 billion meals in 2021. Countless nonprofit community health programs have provided vaccinations in underserved communities. Other nonprofits have provided shelter, rental assistance, or have been the critical link to isolated senior citizens. Nonprofits have provided the glue that has held together many a community.
Delivering services in troubled times and with limited resources has brought lessons. Three seem especially compelling.
First, the closing of schools and reliance on distance learning has exacerbated America’s education gap. The gaps cannot be separated from emotional trauma, and they are more extensive than those that have emerged after schools are closed due to natural disaster. Researchers have found that gaps in math alone have stretched to nine months, and even longer for students of color. What will be required is a heavily individualized approach to student learning, and much greater support of families.
Second, even in smaller communities, it has been difficult to identify, reach and assist underserved older Americans, many over 80. Providers always knew that seniors could slip between the cracks, especially those who are not adept in using the changing tools of the digital age. Post pandemic, nonprofits will need to partner to find the disconnected and increase or adjust their services to meet their needs. Separate services must be better integrated to the onus will not be on the senior citizen to sort them out, which can be a bewildering task.
Third, our population has developed all new mental health problems that are not going to go away automatically or magically. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 4 in 10 U.S. adults have reported systems of anxiety or depressive disorder, up from 1 in 10 the previous year! Few nonprofits are fully equipped to meet these new needs, which will not automatically vanish as the pandemic wanes.
Our pride in how our nonprofit organizations have met the current crisis should inspire us to further strengthen their resilience and broaden their ability to respond to change. Older Americans can be on the front lines in helping to get those things done. Many of us receive discounts for transportation, restaurant dining and entertainment that we do not need to count upon. We can use Boomerang Giving to pass on those discounts to the nonprofits that keep our families and their communities strong,
Discounts that are “Boomeranged” support organizations that provide a boost to kids whose future is being shaped right now, or a hand-up to people in need. Together, we can do all this with resources that are already in our purses and pockets, the few dollars we get each week in senior discounts.
Boomerang Giving helps us redirect this “found money” that many of us do not need. As we redirect our discounts to help others, we will be a generation known by the way we “give back”. If we can afford it, we do not want to be let off the hook. What we can do together with our discounts adds up to many millions of dollars that can help boost children and families find their way back from the pandemic.
