“We Couldn’t Keep Doing Things the Way We’d Done Them” – University and County Human Service Agency Experiences of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Strategies for the Future, March 2023
Over the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged universities and county human service agencies in unprecedented ways while magnifying existing inequities across the globe. Students, faculty, staff, and clients experienced profound losses and disruptions to daily life while continuing to provide critical services, care for loved ones, and engage in online and hybrid learning.
In California, concurrent climate-fueled heatwaves and devastating fires have swept across the state, requiring many residents to manage rolling power outages, evacuations, and community loss. In the summer of 2020, the police murder of George Floyd catalyzed widespread racial justice protests in tandem with the Movement for Black Lives.
The increased national focus on longstanding racial injustices within the United States changed the ways universities and agencies approached conversations regarding Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), and pushed many sectors to examine their own roles in upholding and perpetuating systemic racism.
Individuals and communities continued to grapple with the impact of racialized violence, mass shootings, and loss in the midst of the ongoing impacts of the pandemic on health and well-being. In addition, the far-reaching economic impacts of the pandemic coupled with the large-scale shift to remote work began to create cultural shifts in the organization of labor relations in the national economy. These interwoven experiences have served to intensify and complicate the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in California and across the world.
In the midst of these upheavals, all sectors have navigated complex, and sometimes conflicting, community priorities and needs while faced with incomplete and rapidly shifting public health information. While the sustained impact on individuals and communities cannot be understated, the pandemic has necessitated flexibility, cooperation, and rapid innovation throughout all sectors.
Across California and within the Bay Area, university and agency partners involved with the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC) and the Bay Area Social Services Consortium (BASSC) met frequently to share their experiences, co-create strategies to meet community needs, and engage in constructive dialogue regarding existing practices and future directions.
This report is an effort to synthesize information from these sessions, including lessons learned, remaining questions, and potential strategies for
the future.