of primarily people of color. Trying to balance that
with the urgency of the work has meant that
some of our timelines move around, maybe more
than they would’ve before the pandemic. That
means that maybe we set up our meetings a little
differently, or just have to rework deliverables
altogether for some projects. It’s taken some
adjustment. Our team stays connected via Google
Chat each day and we hold a weekly staff
meeting; we try to inject some non-work things
into both of those, so we’re both staying
personally connected and as well as connected to
the work.
Do you have any lessons learned of what you all have seen and experienced during this time? Do you
have any takeaways, either positive (obviously, there’s a lot of negative) or otherwise?
It’s almost hard to know, because there’s not been time to sit down and process all of it. Again, I think that
the work through partnerships and being in coalition with people and with other groups that have shared
values has been a reinforced learning for us. It’s something we’ve always valued but has been especially
critical to the little successes we’ve seen over the last couple of months. I think balancing the humanness
of our work with the current political realities (something we always have to contend with in some way in
our advocacy efforts) has been an especially tough thing to do right now, so we’re learning what that
balance is from moment to moment.
How has your time with EmpowerHealth influenced or impacted Georgians for a Health Future’s
response to COVID-19?
In a few ways – one is that we’ve really been looking for the spaces where we can add value at this
moment. That’s definitely something that was a takeaway from Empowerhealth: without duplicating
services or missions, how can we add value in this space where there maybe is already are a lot of work
being done? There’s a ton of work right now on minimizing state budget cuts, but we feel like we can add
value by highlighting a few specific ways that budget cuts would hurt health, and then specific ways that
revenue changes could actually improve health in Georgia. We’re trying to find spaces where we can really
contribute to a larger goal, but can also add specific value. The other way that EmpowerHealth has helped
us in this moment is how we think about the different forms of capital that GHF has; our programmatic
capital (the existing programs and systems that we have in
place); our financial capital; and then our human capital
(being our staff and our board and the relationships that we
all hold). That was something I learned through
EmpowerHealth, and that I’m continuing to think about as
we’re navigating our way through this and looking forward
to what do the next six months or year hold. I’m trying to
make sure we have the supports in place so that we have
sufficient capital in each of those areas. As GHF’s primary
fundraiser, I frequently think about our financial capital, but
I’m trying to spend time developing and supporting each of
the other two areas of capital.
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