The COVID-19 pandemic creates a special set of challenges for nonprofits, Gov. Charlie Baker said at a virtual conference that he said should inspire participants.
In video message during Monday’s Massachusetts Nonprofit Network’s annual conference, Baker said he hoped the event would provide “a little bit of optimism about the go-forward, because let’s face it, the look-back has been pretty rough, and I think we’re all hoping that with what we’ve learned and what we’ve been able to do together, the go-forward will be a little better.”
Nonprofits have faced funding strains and increased demand for services during the public health and economic crisis, and have had to adapt for social distancing.
Brockton Area Arc Executive Director Jay Lynch — who, along with Clementina Chery of the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, received one of two 2020 lifetime achievement awards during the conference — said his organization had to close its doors on March 15 and initially expected the shutdown to last about a week.
As it stretched on until a gradual reopening began in August, staff made wellness calls to families, trained for telehealth and remote programming, and provided iPads to about 50 people to stay connected.
“It was all new and every day there were more questions than answers,” Lynch said of the early closure period. Baker said the nonprofit sector “provides resilience and possibility and opportunity to so many people here in Massachusetts.”
“We are all going through what I would describe as some of the most challenging times, ever,” Baker said. “And I say that as somebody who’s been working for over 40 years and I can tell you in my 40 years I’ve never seen anything quite like this, and it’s forced us all to rethink and reconsider practically everything we do and how we do it.”
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