Monthly Archives: April 2020

by Jennifer L. Williams | April 9, 2020

Now that the William & Mary community has seen that COVID-19 will affect many things this spring semester, adapting to living and working in the world it has created is next that was the takeaway from the universitys latest community conversation.

Ive described it as were all learning to ride a bicycle in a hurricane, said Peter Atwater '83, founder of Financial Insyghts and adjunct professor of economics, as he described the multiple roles students, faculty and staff have taken on with their many responsibilities at home.

W&M President Katherine A. Rowe led the virtual talk that was broadcast from the Presidents House on April 8 as part of a weekly series featuring different guests and discussion topics on Wednesdays at noon through May 13. She encouraged community members to continue to send questions to leadership as a way to guide future sessions.

Our focus now is on decisions about how we adapt, Rowe said. In the short term how we adapt, and in the longer term, in a way that sustains what we value most about this institution and about our community. So the big question that all of us are grappling with is how to make decisions about the best ways to adapt when our uncertainty is so high and very little seems to be in our own control.

So thats the question that is our focus for today. What happens to how both individuals and communities think when uncertainty is high and control is low?

Marjorie Thomas, dean of students; Eva Wong, director of international students, scholars & programs and Atwater were guests for the discussion.

Rowe summed up from many of their comments that looking out for each other, and giving ones self and others a break, particularly over the next couple of weeks, will be important.

Thomas said she has found solace in reaching out to others, in being more intentional and intimate in her time with other people.

Remember, we are still very much connected, that we still belong, Wong said. And try to find those connections one way or another.

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W&M community conversation turns to living, working adaptation amidst COVID-19 - William & Mary News

W hen Stan Alost and Rebecca Sell handed out the topic assignments for the Soul of Athens project this year, they never expected the challenges theyd face or the overwhelming connection the students would create.

For 13 years, Ohio Universitys visual communication program has provided an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate students to work together on a project where teams of students explore different areas of Athens culture that make up the place students and residents know and love.

Its an opportunity for students not just VisCom students and what we try to do is take what students have been learning and give them the chance in a publication environment to do it, Alost, one of the instructors for Soul of Athens, said, to figure out all the ins and outs of how do you start up this project from scratch, how do you figure out what kind of content to give to the audiences and then how youre going to deliver it.

Alost prides the program on equipping students with skills like team building and time management as well as increasing the complexity of the course each year by integrating new technology and different topics

For all of the students involved, Soul of Athens has been an incredible learning and life-changing experience. But it didnt just appear over night. Building and maintaining the project takes hard work, dedication and a lot of soul.

Building a tradition

Soul of Athens began in 2007 when two visual communication classes decided to join forces and make something great. Synthesis Storytelling for Visual Communication, or VICO 3921, met with the Interactive Capstone: Advanced Interactive Media, or VICO 4188, and Soul of Athens was born.

Though the project is born out of two courses, its a student-run production. The project is guided by Alost and Sell, two professors who help to determine the project topics and assist with questions but mainly gear the lesson toward letting students figure out how to collaborate among themselves.

The projects begin when the students are grouped together by the instructors based on their skill sets. The goal of splitting up the students into groups is to even out the playing field so theres at least one designer, one person who knows how to code and one content provider. Once the groups are arranged as evenly skilled as possible, theyre ready to choose the topics provided by the instructors.

This year, there are five groups with five story focuses: veterans, medical access, intentional communities, lore and religion.

Evann Figueroa, a graduate student, is a part of the religions group. The groups plan was to find people within the community who are involved in different religious faith or spiritual groups and highlight why their religions are important to them and to Athens as a whole. The point is to showcase Athens as a microcosm of religion compared to the surrounding area and how its easy to be accepted within the Athens bubble.

Thats a part of what makes Athens unique, Figueroa said. You can come here, no matter what youre practicing, and be accepted and able to find people similar to you.

The group is now working on expanding the three interviews they obtained before spring break to make an interactive story that highlights each individual faith group of their sources.

Lara Perrin, a senior studying visual communication interactive design, is in the veterans group and has weathered the challenge of taking such a broad topic and narrowing it down for a more effective project.

Her groups story will focus on 9/11 and post-9/11 era veterans because they felt those veterans can be underrepresented.

You think of older people, I think, when you think of vets, so we wanted to focus on the experience of that younger generation and then tying in the resources or lack thereof for veterans in Appalachia, Perrin said.

A lot of their research came from seeking out what Athens provides as resources for veterans, and they found two gentlemen who had served recently and did an individualized story about them in the context of their larger research.

Some students have had such a positive experience with Soul of Athens that theyve taken it multiple times. Nick Bolin, a graduate student, is on his fourth round of taking Soul of Athens. He took the course during his undergraduate degree and is taking it again now in his second year of graduate school.

The semester-long project seemed to be going along swimmingly. Everyone had a handle on their topics and sources, and both Alost and Sell were proud of how everything was progressing.

That is, until they were hit with the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.

Facing challenges

Once the coronavirus shut down in person classes at OU, Alost and Sell had to scramble to figure out an alternative.

It happened right at a point where they really hit their stride as a collaboration. They really understood where they were heading. They had their plans together ... So all of the sudden having to go online and not in person with that has been a big adjustment, Sell said.

The students were already about 10 weeks into their projects, so no one wanted to stop there. They quickly transitioned into online classes, with meetings through virtual services, like Zoom and Microsoft Teams, and working on the projects through Adobe Creative Cloud.

Though some students like Figueroa had sources fall through last minute due to the chaos of the pandemic, most of the groups have been able to take the research and interviews they already had before they left for spring break and expand on them to finish their projects.

All those things that they had figured out: how to work together, how to collaborate, how to communicate, the types of projects and stories they want to tell, those have maintained, Sell said. Ive been so impressed with how theyve held on to that.

Though the pandemic proves to be a challenge with communication, some groups are working to incorporate the pandemic into their projects as a way to make the best of a bad situation. All of the students are working hard to stay communicative and collaborative with their peers, an aspect that Alost and Sell greatly admire.

For undergraduate seniors like Perrin and Nicole Dinan, its been a heartbreaking experience to have to finish the remainder of the project and college in general virtually. However, with all of the progress made on their projects, they know its important that they put their disappointment aside to finish what they started.

Its super disappointing to have the last part of the semester change so drastically, Dinan said in an email. We already put a ton of time and effort into creating these projects, and we all want to see our hard work be rewarded.

Putting their souls into it

Alost, Sell, Bolin and Figueroa agree with Perrin and Dinan that though the semesters end is not as they had anticipated, the tradition of Soul of Athens deserves to be executed as if nothing stood in their way.

I think its a matter of creative problem solving, Figueroa said. I dont think anybody ever thought, This is it. Were not going to finish this semester. I think because of our specific field, theres so many options that there was no way we could have ever been halted completely.

Not only do the professors and students feel its important to continue with the projects, but they also have appreciated having that connection with each other during this chaotic time.

Its really helpful to see peoples reactions and hear their voices, Perrin said. I dont think I really understood how important that was until this situation happened, and now its like, Oh, my God. I cant wait to be back in person with these people.

All of the past projects for Soul of Athens can be found on its website, and all of the 2020 projects will launch on the website on April 21.

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Putting Their Souls Into It - The Post

(Illustration by iStock/sv_sunny)

Amid a disaster like COVID-19, the culprits of some of the worst abuses of power are the very systems and structures that we often turn to for leadership. The abuses can be committed with calculated awareness, such as when US Senators privately sold off millions in stocks while publicly downplaying the threat of the virus. Other times, institutional aid efforts unintentionally create ripple effects that disproportionally and severely affect vulnerable communities. In the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, shelter-in-place policies and the curtailment of public services have devastated families with precarious employment and people without homes.

Whether harm differs by being intentional or structural, it is the same in one critical way: Top-down, centrally managed systems of power can end up creating havoc due to the lack of their understanding of local communities.

In my role as research director with Accountability Counsel, a nonprofit organization that protects communities' human and environmental rights around the globe, and in previous positions, I have witnessed numerous failures of top-down responses to crises. While coordinating international assistance into northern Syria at the Syrian-Turkish border for several years, I observed millions of dollars wasted on ineffective programming, and countless millions more spent on projects that led to increased violence, instability, and suffering for thousands of people. Compounding the problem, a lack of local knowledge and context prevented project designers from seeing the effects of their actions, and even the most destabilizing projects were continually renewed and expanded over time.

Our team at Accountability Counsel has seen the same dynamic play out in Myanmar, where top-down conservation efforts in response to a deforestation crisis have instead paved the way for further environmental exploitation, violated human rights, and threatened the fragile peace in a conflict zone. Without appropriate care and due diligenceand without proper consultation with impacted communitiesit is remarkably easy for a project designed to help people or the environment to instead result in untold harm.

That's just a couple of examples among many. Studies of disasters in New York, Argentina, and other locations have identified myriad ways that relief by outsiders canundermine the recovery it is intended to produce.

In the context of our current global crisis, community-led responses to COVID-19 have a clear advantage over those coming from distant centralized bastions of power, which, intentionally or not, often reflect and reinforce existing inequities.

Community organizations here in the San Francisco Bay Area, such as theArab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), have provided invaluable support to vulnerable families who have been overlooked by official state responses, while tying their relief efforts to broader campaigns of mutual aid, collectivity, and solidarity. AROC explicitly uses its community support work to highlight the importance of health care as a right, anti-racism, climate change activism, and mutual solidarity for women, workers, migrants, incarcerated populations, people with disabilities, and the homeless. Accountability CounselsGood Ally policy aims to support civil society initiatives like AROC's. For example, our research team repurposed a community surveying tool to send SMS and voice messages to farmers across Haiti to help AROC identify vulnerable families in San Francisco.

It is important to remember that the vulnerabilities of these communities existed before the crisis cast them in such stark relief. With COVID-19 sharpening our awareness, we have an opportunity and responsibility to improve our social systems to better support society's most vulnerable not just during this crisis, but after it passes.

Many pathways toward a better world are being laid bare by the altruistic mutual aid efforts arising in cities around the globe. These locally designed and collaboratively built acts of solidaritywhich view the vulnerable as participants in their survival rather than passive consumers of assistanceinform a model of community resilience and collective empowerment with implications far beyond their immediate impact. They reject responses to the pandemic that value political hegemony and expediency over the well-being of the homeless, victims of domestic violence, people with disabilities and many other marginalized members of society.

The coronavirus pandemic has shaken the globe, and it is likely that things will never return to the way they once were.While we fight to mitigate the damage the crisis has wrought, we should learn lessons from the mutual solidarity and community resilience that it has unveiled. It will ensure the world that comes after the crisis is a better one for all.

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Lessons From Mutual Aid During the Coronavirus Crisis - Stanford Social Innovation Review

Communities of color continue to be disproportionately impacted by gun violence across the United States. Unfortunately, communities that are most impacted by gun violence are often plagued by structural inequities that perpetuate this violence. That is why when we look to address gun violence, we must have a holistic conversation to ensure that those most impacted are being centered in this conversation and moved from the margins.

Lauren Footman

To have a holistic conversation, we must address root causes (such as poverty, income inequality, underperforming schools and under-resourced public services) while also advocating for equitable resources for community-based programs and addressing easy access to firearms. Moreover, once we are clear on the solutions, we have to keep the most impacted communities at the forefront of this conversation. This work heavily relies on data and the data shows us who is most impacted, so we must be intentional to prioritize the most impacted communities in our work when setting policy and programmatic agendas.

When discussing data and trends of gun violence, we cannot help but notice the ages of the victims. Data shows us that black youth both females and males are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. Our analysis of CDC data states Black boys and youths aged 0-19 were over 14 times more likely to be killed by firearm homicide than White (non-Latino) boys and youths, while Black men aged 20-34 were nearly 17 times more likely to be killed by firearm homicide than their White (non-Latino) counterparts. Black girls and youths aged 0-19 and Black women aged 20-34 were each nearly 6 times more likely to be killed by firearm homicide than their White (non-Latino) counterparts (5.92 and 5.63 times, respectively).

This data is sobering, but when you hear these stories firsthand in community meetings you are hit with the harsh reality: There are too many young people who do not get to experience lifes milestones, and there are too many families and communities forever changed due to gun violence.

As we think of the stories of those most impacted by gun violence, we must not forget the humanity of the communities we are looking to amplify and support. A huge part of this space must be ensuring that we are not doing harm in our efforts to support communities.

This means that we are building authentic relationships with the communities, and that they are recognized as the experts of their communities and of this work, as often they have been organizing for years unrecognized and unsupported. Outside of building meaningful relationships, it is imperative that we work to position communities and individuals to get the structural support to do violence prevention work, as so much of this work can be volunteer.

In addition, this work entails facilitating intentional relationships to have their work become sustainable, but also making sure state and national organizations are reflective of those most impacted. The only way we can continue to build a robust holistic movement is ensuring this movement is hiring members of the communities that are most impacted.

Gun violence is a multifaceted challenge that demands a holistic set of solutions to stop the cycles of daily gun violence in the most impacted communities. Those who are closest to the pain need to be closest to the power.

At The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence, we recognize that we must engage impacted communities specifically communities of color in our work to reduce gun deaths. We do this by first building genuine relationships with community members. We then use a research-grounded toolkit called Education to Action to turn these relationships into self-sustaining Community Action Networks that advocate for policies to reduce gun violence.

The Community Action Networks are self-sustaining advocacy groups from communities statewide. They advance an evidence-based, holistic approach to tackle gun violence in communities of color by hosting workshops and events that bring together law enforcement, community members, faith leaders and politicians.

They create a space for individuals who were disengaged from the political process to become active leaders within their communities, fighting for policies that will build healthy communities free of violence and inequity. They also act as a forum for skill-building, for instance in public relations and communications, and provide an opportunity for members to collaborate on the development of violence prevention programming.

Lauren Footman is a community engagement coordinator at The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. She has been working in the violence prevention movement for seven years at the intersection of communities and policy.

Originally posted here:

Communities of Color Must Be Centered in Gun Violence Prevention Movement - Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

In times of turmoil, in which large populations are affected by factors mostly outside of their control, community-wide efforts of keeping the situation in check can take a long-lasting emotional and psychological toll. In this Special Feature, we look at the psychological aspects of disaster management.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the new coronavirus outbreak had become a pandemic, countries around the globe have been working hard at containing the viruss spread at a local level.

Lockdown measures in various countries have included closing down public buildings and institutions from restaurants to gyms to museums and asking people to remain at home and minimize or even wholly relinquish social contact with people outside their household.

Although such measures have helped slow down the spread of the new coronavirus, an increasing sense of isolation and anxiety stemming from the situation have been taking their toll on the mental health of populations around the world.

Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.

As the coronavirus pandemic rapidly sweeps across the world, it is inducing a considerable degree of fear, worry, and concern in the population at large, WHO officials have noted.

In this Special Feature, we will be looking at the psychology of disaster management and offering an overview of the impact of disaster management techniques on the mental and emotional health of populations affected by disaster. We also look at strategies that research has suggested could help mitigate this impact.

According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), disaster management can be defined as the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all humanitarian aspects of emergencies, in particular preparedness, response and recovery in order to lessen the impact of disasters.

Preparedness refers to policies and resources that different countries and organizations put in place in case of a disaster.

Response refers to the actions they take to address the impact of a disaster once it does occur.

Finally, recovery refers to the process of healing that takes place after the event. This involves long-term programs, which go beyond the provision of immediate relief, as per the IFRC.

All of these aspects of disaster management should include provisions for safeguarding physical health, access to primary care and resources, and economic support.

But there is one more issue that plans for preparedness, response, and recovery must take into account: the psychological impact of disasters.

It comes as a given that disasters whether of natural origins, such as earthquakes and floods, created by humans, such as wars, or due to a pandemic will have a profound psychological impact on communities globally.

A systematic review published in Psychological Medicine in 2008 looked at different types of disasters that occurred over almost 3 decades from 1980 to 2008. The review suggested that many people experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The evidence suggests that the burden of PTSD among populations exposed to disasters is substantial, the authors of the review conclude.

A study published in 2015 in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine, indicates that the prevalence of mental health problems among people from communities affected by disasters is two to three times higher than in the general population.

Another systematic review, published in 2017 in Health Psychology Open, may explain why disasters take such a huge emotional and mental health toll on communities, despite the presence of contingency plans in countries around the world.

This review concludes that, based on existing documentation, a significant number of countries lack appropriate preparedness in terms of preventing or responding to the mental health issues that may arise following a disaster.

While most research shows that disaster mental health consequences and disorders have been taken into consideration in many countries, the review warns that the available studies about disaster mental health preparedness are few, and the number of the documents related to mental health preparedness programs, models, or tools has not increased significantly in recent years.

Among the countries most likely to be hit by natural disasters, very few Thailand and Myanmar are examples have developed mental health preparedness programs.

The researchers who conducted the 2017 review also noted a particular lack of informational material aimed at the groups that are most likely to experience mental health issues in the case of a disaster.

[W]e found a lack of information on vulnerable groups, such as children, women, people living with disabilities, and the elderly, the researchers write.

They also note that there is not enough support for the people who would become first-line workers in the case of a disaster, such as healthcare professionals.

The importance of this brief note, in particular, becomes apparent now that current studies are emphasizing the mental and emotional strain under which doctors and nurses find themselves as they frontline the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most important factor required to prevent or mitigate the mental health impact of a disaster as it unfolds is access to accurate, helpful information.

As part of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO have repeatedly advised those from affected communities to seek information only from trusted sources [] so that you can take practical steps to prepare your plans and protect yourself and loved ones.

Reducing the amount of stigma around seeking mental health support is also an important step.

Research published in BMC Psychology in 2019 shows that first-line responders in the United Kingdom often avoid seeking mental health support because they fear being ostracized due to the stigma associated with mental health issues.

And stigma can also be relevant in other crucial ways. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO have stressed that people experiencing possible symptoms of the disease may avoid reporting their health status and seeking care because they are apprehensive that their communities may reject them.

Since the emergence of COVID-19, we have seen instances of public stigmatization among specific populations, and the rise of harmful stereotypes, WHO officials have noted.

[Stigmatization] means that people are being labeled, stereotyped, separated, and [may be experiencing] loss of status and discrimination because of a potential negative affiliation with the disease, they warn. They add:

Governments, citizens, media, key influencers, and communities have an important role to play in preventing and stopping stigma. We all need to be intentional and thoughtful when communicating on social media and other communication platforms, showing supportive behaviors around COVID-19.

Finally, in an official briefing, the United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) emphasize that individuals must seek mental health support and provide solidarity to their peers. It is also vital for governments and organizations to strengthen mental health supports at every level.

In their briefing, which focusses on the context of the current pandemic, the OCHA note that:

And for the WHO, the management of mental health conditions counts as an essential health service and is included in the operational guidelines recently published by the agency.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

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What is the psycholgy of disaster management? - Medical News Today

As the coronavirus continues to spread, epidemiologists like me are starting to field a remarkable question: Would people be better off if they just contracted the virus and got it over with? Ive heard rumblings about people avoiding physical distancing or hosting a version of chickenpox parties, where noninfected people mingle with an infected person in an effort to catch the virus.

For some, it is part of a herd immunity strategy to build population immunity by infecting younger people who seem to have mild cases of Covid-19. Others are frustrated with staying home. There are also those who hope they could better protect their loved ones, serve their communities or return to work if they could develop immunity.

While frustration, fear and solution-seeking are normal responses to this new global risk, there are seven clear reasons choosing to get intentionally infected would be a really horrible idea right now.

It is all about how much we just dont know yet.

We have not yet established that those who recover from this infection indeed develop long-term immunity. Herd immunity projections depend completely on such a sustained immune response, and we havent found out whether that even exists. We all sincerely hope it does, but we wont know for certain until we study recovered patients over time.

There are documented cases where people who appear to recover from the virus test positive again, which calls even short-term immunity into question. These apparent cases of reinfection may actually be remission and relapse, or false test results. However, researchers need more time to figure out what is happening with these patients, and the implications.

Whats more, even if it is determined that reinfection cannot occur shortly after recovery, it could still happen later if immunity is only seasonal. If reinfection is indeed possible, we need to know whether it will result in disease that is milder or more severe. While antibodies to a previous infection generally reduce risk the second time around, for some viruses, such as dengue fever, they can lead to severe and even fatal disease.

We dont know that recovered patients actually clear the virus from their bodies. Many viruses can remain in reservoirs, parts of the body where they hang out quietly, and re-emerge to cause disease later in life. For example, chickenpox can come back as shingles, and hepatitis B can lead to liver cancer years later. We now know that in some patients, detectable virus can be found in feces and even blood after apparent recovery. Does the coronavirus remain in the body, or are these just residual bits of virus?

Hospital beds and equipment are urgently needed right now for Covid-19 patients. People shouldnt kid themselves that because they are young they will not be hospitalized if infected. In the United States, the C.D.C. has estimated that about one in every five or six people aged 20 to 44 with confirmed Covid-19 has required hospitalization. Avoidable hospitalizations take valuable resources away from others who were not able to avoid infection.

While early reports focused almost exclusively on the risk of death, we do not yet fully understand the other effects of Covid-19. We do know that previously healthy people are being left with potentially long-term lung and heart damage.

As more patients recount enduring painful coughing, disorientation and difficulties breathing, people are coming to understand that the 80 percent to 85 percent of cases considered mild are not necessarily mild in its usual sense. Researchers and health care professionals use the term mild to describe Covid-19 cases not requiring hospitalization. While mild can be truly mild, it can also include pneumonia, and be brutal and scary.

Herd immunity requires a high proportion of a population to be immune (the actual percentage varies for different infections), but we want to get there slowly or, ideally, through vaccines. Right now, too many people are getting sick through non-intentional spread, burdening hospitals and leading to severe illness and death. It is far too early to think about intentional infection as a strategy.

Slowing down the spread of the coronavirus wont just save lives in the coming few months; it also gives us time to study treatments, and to expand or reconfigure hospital services for Covid-19 patients. This means that those who get sick later may benefit from better care, including effective medications. Of course, it also gives us more time to improve testing accuracy and capacity, and to develop a vaccine.

We need to keep in mind that the science is moving fast right now. It is unprecedented to see such an intensive effort internationally being put into studying one disease.

While it is hard to be patient, the best way out of this will likely be much clearer to us in a month or two than it is now. In the meantime, it is important that we dont take unnecessary risks with unknown consequences. If we can avoid infection, we need to do exactly that.

Greta Bauer is an epidemiologist and a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Western University in London, Ontario.

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Please, Don't Intentionally Infect Yourself With Coronavirus - The New York Times

Hello everybody; I wanted to drop aquick note to you and your family, and be the first to wish you an eventfulHoly Week and Happy Easter. Hopefully everyone is healthy and safe, whilemaking the best of our time together at home. While most of us are shelteringin place, lets remember those that are still working daily and are doing theirbest to help all of us get through this time of uncertainty. I know that I havecome to appreciate my friends in the medical field greatly; their selflessnessduring these days should not go unnoticed.

Individually, we are all going to beaffected by COVID-19 in one way or another. Whether its sickness, loss ofwork, struggling to make ends meet or frustration that your local market hashorrendously long lines and are out of your selective food or personal items weare all in this together. For many the frustration is everywhere and negativitylooms. To get through these times, we need to turn this frustrating mindset ofdifficulty around. There arent problems in this world, only situations. Again,everyone is being affected by this EVERYONE! Individually, we are beingaffected differently, some health, some financial, some family, but everyone isaffected. This hard time is temporary, it will pass; I promise. Again, thereare no problems, only situations. Situations create opportunity. Let me repeatthat: Situations create opportunity. It is how you respond to this opportunitythat needs to draw your focus. If you are chasing and hoping that the normalof last month is right around the corner, or will come back any day now Imsorry that normal is not coming back Ever! And that is just fine. Wheredoes it say a new normal cant be better? Why cant our households be better?Why cant our communities be better? The opportunity you are searching for, isin the ways you are handling your current situations. Are you continuing togrow? Are we being intentional with our activities and interactions? Purposefuldays? Purposeful acts? Are we taking our problems and looking at them assituations and creating opportunities to make your life, household, and world abetter place? Are you taking advantage of this opportunity to make an impact?Creating new habits? Or are you still chasing last months idea of normal?

Personally, for us, it has been quiteinteresting to say the least. Like many, we have had to adjust to distancelearning for school, new routines and the horrible thought of no socialphysical interaction for an extended period of time. Its hard for me not toshake hands, pat someone on the back or give hugs; its something I have had toovercome. But I encourage all to spend this time wisely. Slow down. Appreciatesome of the down time. Restore your principles in the family unit. Play gamestogether. Pray together. Eat together growing up, I learned more with my feetunder the table and breaking bread than I did in any classroom. I feel we needto re-focus and restore our personal principles in our own inner circles. Dontlet this time of uncertainty weigh you down, leverage this time to takeadvantage of your situations and make the most to restore your faith, yourmindset and your love for your family. Mother Teresa once said, If you want tochange the world, go home and love your family.

Create new habits. Habits that promotegrowth, wellness and connection. Meditate on the old daily habits that werenegative or detrimental to you, your family and business. Negative habits thatwere developed way before March of 2020 and that need to stay there, in thepast. Because when this ends and it will end each of us needs to be betterthan the person we were in early March. Cultivate, nurture and grow: we need todo this daily, and this time of uncertainty can be made certain in one aspectof your life, simply by controlling your reactions to your current situation.Have faith, trust the process of new positive habits in your life and moveforward. This too shall pass

I wish you and your family a HappyEaster. Please enter Holy Week with a pure heart, pray with your family, andprepare yourselves for a joyful Easter.

NicholasA. Nick Caton is a longtime local resident and Realtor; this was submitted asa special guest column and the opinions expressed are those of the author.

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Sending Community Wishes For Safe And Joyful Easter - Escalon Times

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are. With our nation in crisis, this adage has taken on new meaning for the investors, developers, and small business owners I work with, many of whom are transforming complex operations almost overnight to meet rapidly evolving demands. Fallout from the coronavirus has wreaked havoc on the most vulnerable people and laid bare our economic disparities, but it has also illuminated the power of local businesses to both serve and strengthen communities, if they are willing to be creative and redeploy their valuable assets.

Thousands of low income communities already faced fragile economies, underfunded support systems, and little investment before this current crisis. Indeed, this is the focus of work driving positive social impact in opportunity zones. Millions of families across the country have lived one everyday disaster away from financial catastrophe for years. These same vulnerable communities are poised to be hardest hit as business shutters and unemployment surges at record rates. Without creative solutions, the inequalities between affluent and low income communities will deepen, therefore jeopardizing our shared economic future in this country.

While the relief legislation passed by Congress offers us a vital lifeline, the intentional collective action of local businesses is desperately needed. By redeploying their unique assets, whether capital, manpower, property, or infrastructure, local businesses can meet urgent community needs in the short term and enable an inclusive economic recovery in the long term. If you are rolling your eyes, I understand because local businesses helping their communities seems simple in theory yet complex in practice.

The Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation based at Georgetown University has developed a network of investors and local businesses that prove this thinking can be implemented in the real world. In response to the coronavirus, they are throwing out the existing playbook and being creative with their valuable resources to meet community needs.

Hotel Revival in Baltimore is repurposing nearly every resource it has. It is providing free hotel rooms for health workers. It is offering kitchens and spaces to displaced chefs and entrepreneurs to their operations running. It built up the infrastructure to provide care packages and free lunches to service workers and those in need, already distributing more than 1,000 with Coastal Sunbelt Produce and Hungry Harvest last week alone.

As cities close dine in services at restaurants and bars, Think Food Group has turned the otherwise dormant kitchens of its popular restaurants into community kitchens, serving hundreds of affordable or free to go meals daily for those in need. Local Initiatives Support Corporation, one of the largest social enterprises in the nation, has partnered with Verizon to give grants to small businesses facing immediate financial threat. It is focused on entrepreneurs of color, businesses owned by women, and enterprises in historically underserved areas that do not have access to capital.

This intentional and collective thinking about how to redeploy what local businesses have to help their communities is exactly what is required to meet the urgent need of this moment and place our country on a path to inclusive economic recovery. This will look different across the spectrum. Small businesses are also among the hardest hit and may need to address their own urgent needs before focusing on community impact. Thoughtful collaboration with communities can also take lots of time and effort.

The idea is to be creative and leverage partnerships to maximize what is possible. Local businesses must not be immobilized by uncertainty. They should lean into it and start small, but also think expansively about who else to involve. They might be surprised to discover unexpected partners. They should think about returns with a long term lens, act on immediate needs, and share what is working so everyone can be more effective.

While the crisis our nation confronts is challenging, it is also a powerful opportunity for visionary leadership to prevail and for local businesses to reimagine community impact. They can be creative and think about the unique resources or manpower they can redeploy to meet an immediate need for their fellow neighbors and contribute to an inclusive economic recovery. Our shared economic future in this country depends on it.

Jennifer Collins is a fellow in residence with the Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation based at Georgetown University in Washington.

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How local business can drive the coronavirus economic recovery | TheHill - The Hill

Just Transition Advisory Committee members made clear in a town hall meeting in Craig last month that the communities who weather a transition from coal to alternative industries are those that take control of the process themselves. The committee wont be providing the plan for economic viability, but rather the support for the community to organize itself and define a vision and strategy.

The Committee was established as a result of House Bill 1314. The bills primary goal is to provide transition assistance to workers and communities impacted by Colorados move away from coal-based electrical generation by 2030.

If Just Transition is going to be an effective partner with Craig and Hayden and other communities facing this transition, it will first be because those communities are leading the way and driving the process internally, said Wade Buchanan, Director of the Office of Just Transition housed under the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment.

Craig City Councilor Ryan Hess fears that a common problem in rural America is a dependency upon outside resources to fix things and a lack of experience within communities to diversify the economy until its an emergency.

I think well hide and wait to see what the state and federal government do before we take local action, Hess said. We cant wait until we hear a plan we dont like to be angry; we need to come up with a plan locally right now. Brainstorming how to take our out-of-place workers and repurpose them locally is more beneficial than brainstorming who can come save us.

Still, some communities naturally transition more easily than others.

Mark Haggerty of Headwaters Economics who leads the teams research in tax policy, rural economic development and community planning around energy and economic transitions was quick to point out that communities who transition successfully have a distinct set of advantages that not every place has. Outside of major airports, universities and national parks, there are precious few examples of places that have successfully transitioned.

The ability of a community to come together around a common vision and a strategy to implement that vision is critical, and thats really difficult for a lot of these coal communities to come around to, he said. Theres an immediate reaction to want to defend what you have because the future is scarier.

The strategy and vision has to come locally. If there isnt one, theres nothing that the state or the committee is going to do to help. Once you have that strategy and vision in place, theres a lot that the state can do to help.

Developing big industry ideas without an investment in people and local institutions as well as policy reform could see Moffat County build the proverbial bridge to nowhere.

Hess sees things similarly with a vision that there should be a focal person whose day-to-day task is looking for grant money, making sure that economic development efforts are all in alignment and whose role is to bring thought groups together.

We cant take on ideas and delegate them to a bunch of people who already have full-time jobs; we need one person who wakes up in the morning whose mission in life is to find economic stability and then growth, Hess said.

Reinventing the industry that can drive Moffat Countys economic engine as well as unemployment and the loss of a strong skilled work force have been a focus of the conversation related to Just Transition, but driving fiscal policy change is a critical component of long term success, too.

Experts who have seen similar transitions both successful and unsuccessful in other communities recognize that the viability of towns like Craig depend on the health of critical infrastructure, which is a unique struggle when transitioning from coal-based industry. Big mines and power plants have paid the bills for a long time, and a transition to renewable energy simply doesnt provide the same kind of financial returns.

An important piece in Colorado is reviewing the incentives around renewable energy. If you replace a coal-fired power plant with a solar or wind energy facility of the same size, youre going to get substantially less revenue from it and its because the state has made a conscious decision to incentivize renewable energy and the way that they incentivize it is by giving them property tax breaks, said Haggerty So the state has essentially given local government money away to meet a state priority and it doesnt work for these communities. We have to change that. If the state wants to incentivize it, great. But dont take it out of local governments budgets.

According to Craig City Manager Peter Brixius, efforts are underway in Moffat County to gather public information, explore new industries and get input from local businesses, though there is not a formally organized group or communication channel as of yet.

Since the announcement in January, the state has been tremendous in the amount of attention this part of the state has received, said Craig City Manager, Peter Brixius. Senator Rankin has especially been involved with the community and has tried to initiate various meetings with a good cross-section of the pubic and private partners and educational institutions. We are trying to define what our priorities would be if there are allocated resources.

By all accounts, this is an urgent issue, but its not immediate.

We expect that coal is on its way out in the whole region, but the only timeline we really have is the one that Tri-State has given us, and were five years out from the first closure, Buchanan said. This first year is really about both the state and the communities trying to come together to develop the framework we need to put in place.

Memorial Regional Health is a critical infrastructure in Moffat County and with the introduction of COVID-19 to an already stressed system, the importance of industry that can sustain community healthcare is even more important today.

Healthcare is part of the backbone and fiber of a community. Were going to need to be here no matter what, said Jennifer Riley, Vice President of Operations at MRH.

Tax base erosion and the erosion of a strong employer base will mean a bigger switch from commercially insured to uninsured or Medicare/Medicaid.

What a benefit it is to have time and to know whats coming and to be prepared for it and to plan for it, Buchanan said. Lets not squander that.

Its not all gloom and doom.

There are potentially advantages for communities based on their costs and quality of life to attract different kinds of businesses, Haggerty said. They will need infrastructure broadband, access to markets, skilled labor force. And that doesnt happen over night. If you have an intentional policy to get there with support from the state, you can start putting those pieces together.

Its not just Colorado thats experiencing the transition. Colorado has some advantages that other states such as Montana and Wyoming dont have, Haggerty said. Colorados economy is not dependent on coal. Youve got the political capital and attention of the legislature and the governor.

Haggerty believes that its not too big an ask for the state to provide some short-term assistance in terms of planning support so that communities have the time and the resources to gather information and learn from their peers.

If I had my magic wand, there would be someone in the area that networked across county and state governments and their goals would be: economic growth and development, preparing for economic correction, transition from one economy to the next and create ways to find full-time skilled jobs, Hess said.

Transition?

The coal transition has galvanized a rhetoric and a commitment thats kind of unique. These communities have quite a bit of resources at their disposal if they know how to ask for it, he said. And its usually not a lack of money thats the problem. Its a lack of strategy and vision.

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Success of Just Transition in community's hands - Craig Daily Press

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A Waukesha man on March 10 stabbed four of his family members, killing two of them, includinghis wife,in a violent outburst linked to his obsessiveconcern overthe growing coronavirus pandemic, according to a criminal complaint.

Adam Roth, 36, wascharged Wednesday in Waukesha County Circuit Courtwith two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide, one count of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, and one count of mistreatment of animals/causing death by use of a dangerous weapon.

The two victims who died from their injuries were Adam Roth's wife, Dominique Roth, 34, and his sister-in-law Deidre Popanda, 26, according to a news release from the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department.

Desiree Popanda, 36, and Gilane Popanda, 62, suffered"significant injuries" in the stabbing, according toTown of Waukesha Fire Chief Dan Buchholtz, and were transported to area hospitals.

According to the complaint:

Gilane Popanda said her son-in-law, Adam Roth, had been "acting obsessive" over the coronavirus for several weeks leading up to the incident.

At 5 a.m. March 10, she said he woke everyonein the houseup to tell them he loved them and was sorry for everything he had said and done to them.

Gilane said her daughter, Dominique, and Adam were in the kitchen eating later that day when he began stabbing her. When Gilane and her other daughters,Desiree andDeidre, told him to stop, he "turned on everybody," includingDesiree's 9-year-old son. The child escaped with his mom and ran to a neighbor's house.

Around 6:45 p.m. March 10, a caller told dispatchers"her brother-in-law was going crazy and was trying to stab her sisters."

When a deputy arrived on-scene, he spoke withDesiree and Gilane Popanda, who were outside "covered in blood," and later transported to the hospital.

When the deputy entered the home, he immediately heard screaming.

The deputysaid Adam Roth had a large knife in his hand and was also"covered in blood." After the deputy pointed his rifle atRoth and told him twice to drop his weapon, Roth obeyed and said, "All right, I am done now."

When police found Dominique Roth, she said "Why did he do this?"and "Please help me" before succumbing to 19 stab wounds.

Police found Deidre Popanda and a family dog dead on scene.

Whena detective interviewed Roth at the hospital the day after the stabbing, Roth said "it (coronavirus)was coming andI had to save them."

Roth made his initial appearance in court via Zoom video April 8. Hiscash bond was set at $500,000, according to online court records.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 17.

Sophie Carson contributed to this report.

Contact Hannah Kirby at hannah.kirby@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HannahHopeKirby.

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A Waukesha man murdered his wife and sister-in-law to 'save' them from the coronavirus, complaint says - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel