Resilience in Pandemic Times

On March 11th 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the Coronavirus (COVID19) a ‘pandemic.’ As of March 23rd, over 1,038,490 cases have been reported in the United States, with 46,482 of those cases listed in California. Testing in the US has been minimal, leading health officials to estimate that those numbers are much higher. Currently over 6 million (97%) students have been affected across the state of California. As the impact continues to spread, already vulnerable low-income communities in urban environments such as the Bay area will face increased risks as resources will continue to be stretched beyond capacity.

 

Immediately after a Bay Area shelter-in-place order was announced, Mycelium Youth Network reached out to our connections in the educator, youth, medical and therapist fields to create custom content to support our communities for their overall socio-emotional and mental health.  All directly expressed a need for safe spaces that enable them to process the trauma and difficulty they’re currently experiencing, have fun non-academic activities and opportunities for learning, and to connect with either indigenous elders and earth medicine. We launched the program in late March to serve both adults in the community and youth with plans to continue to run it through the end of June.