Youth-serving organizations have been forced to close their doors, suspend or digitally transform their services in a swift turn. More staff are experiencing furloughs and lay offs as organizational revenues drop. In this incredibly challenging time of stress and uncertainty, how do you support your team?

Leaders are doing their best to retain their teams in some capacity, but need to ensure staff are “doing something” they can pay them for. Of course, staff are not working with youth as they have always done. They are not providing the in-person trainings they’d scheduled. The once-pressing project deadlines have been put on hold.

Having no guide for this situation, no way to know what staff expectations are reasonable, leaders revert to pre-COVID-19 administrative tasks to “justify” paying their teams: asking staff to attend meetings, meet deadlines and participate in professional development.

While attempting to maintain a sense of normalcy can be an effective coping strategy, this global pandemic has shifted our work into a totally different context; our world is actually turned upside-down. That means it’s time to make adjustments to normal operations. Now is not the time to focus on productivity; it is the time to build the security of our home teams.

Humans cannot meaningfully contribute in meetings or actually learn anything from professional development without having their foundational needs met first—Maslow’s Hierarchy, right? First, you can support your team’s personal stability by ensuring they will be paid, will have access to healthcare and will have flexible time to care for family members.

Then, you can support your team through daily operations by structuring their work to align with their lives—which, incidentally, will support their future work with youth. Combine current staff needs with best practices and research from our field to support them now and strengthen them for the future.

• Need to connect with people + Emotional intelligence. Isolation is extremely difficult especially for our people, people who are used to interacting with other humans every day. And you already know that the emotional intelligence (EQ) of adults supports the social-emotional learning of the youth they serve. Use this time to intentionally build the EQ of your team and deepen their relationships.  Build collaboration and mutual understanding by establishing that peer mentorship program you’ve been meaning to start. What if the primary objectives of your staff meetings were to support each other and help everyone feel connected rather than accomplishing a list of tasks? How would you approach the meeting differently? How could you structure in opportunities to practice social skills, empathy, self-awareness?

• Need to care for family + Youth development approach. Many staff are now homeschooling their own children. They are already researching strategies and activities to keep themselves sane. And you already know that a youth development approach provides youth with, among other things, challenging and engaging learning experiences. Create the opportunity for staff to learn more about positive youth development. How could their research support the curriculum your organization is writing? Or what if staff could take online professional development that supports them in lesson planning, behavior management strategies, or project-based learning? All things they could use right now with their own children, but will certainly benefit their work with youth when they see them again.

• Need for information + Family engagement. Staff, like all of us, are inundated with information right now, but we’re also looking for trustworthy, clear information. Your organization is already focused on engaging and supporting families. You know the importance of communication. Invite staff to talk about what it is like to be the family that is awaiting and receiving communication. What family engagement policies and practices can your organization create or revise based on staff’s personal experiences? What communication practices or channels can you reconsider or improve?

• Need for self care + Trauma-resilient informed principles. Getting groceries, wearing a mask, caring for the sick, losing a relative—there is stress. There is global trauma. Your organization has already started understanding ACEs and adopting approaches to support young people with trauma-resilient informed practices. Now is the time to put some of these principles in place with your team. In your interactions with staff, encourage safety, transparency and trustworthiness by being authentic and vulnerable yourself.  Acknowledge where you and your team are in the acceptance of this new normal. Name the grief you are experiencing for loss of your current programming and nebulous future. This process will help you adapt to the new conditions and become resilient.

• Need for exercise + Brain research. Since the gym is closed, it can be difficult for staff to feel motivated to exercise. You already know the benefits of physical activity for youth—not only to support healthy bodies, but also healthy minds. Encourage physical activity, mindfulness and deep breathing. Tell staff to take a walk while you are meeting. There is no rule that says work only counts if you’re seated at a desk in front of a computer.

By re-framing the purpose of each meeting, project and professional development to center the needs of the individuals and the team, you have the ability to fundamentally shift how your organization works. While still overwhelming, this crisis provides an opportunity to support and strengthen the heart of your organization—your team. And who knows? Maybe the adjustments you make now will not only carry us all through this, but will deepen and enrich our work moving forward.