Moving Forward, Some Things Remain Constant

Last week I had a virtual meeting with a colleague at a state agency in VT to discuss a project. By the end of the meeting, her two year old climbed onto her lap and her six year was tapping on her shoulder. “I am not sure how I am supposed to work full time, provide child-care, and homeschool my kids all at the same time!” she declared as we ended the meeting. Clearly, she will only be able to fill the buckets one at a time, and I am confident that she has the resources (mind, body and spirit) to pull it off. She also has a work culture that is supportive, food, water and shelter – the basic necessities of life, upon which we are all reflecting about, more each day. 

I have been thinking a lot about how we will get through this. The logical order of things gets scrambled when the inputs change hourly, therefore, thinking in terms of short, intermediate and long term outcomes is a bit challenging right now. ☺

Some things remain certain:

There are a lot of people doing the best they can. People are working hard to fulfill their responsibilities while making adjustments personally, with their networks, and by interacting with the systems that promise to maintain stability. Our American society is largely observing the guidelines our government is providing, while “COVID-19” and the meaning of pandemic becomes a permanent part of our consciousness. 

CHL thanks everyone who continues to function under this pressure, and for the bonds of community that hold us together as families, organizations, communities, and as a state.  We are thinking of you, and you, and you, during this period of time, especially our partners in healthcare and education, and in community services. We know the difficult decisions people are facing regarding personal and family safety and work responsibilities.  We are thankful that government and legislature continue to do the work they signed up for, and are elected to do.   

CHL is moving our work forward to address priority health issues through health promotion and prevention. The projects we design and carry out address physical, mental/emotional and social health, through systems work. Currently our projects focus on mental health promotion, prevention of mental health issues, substance misuse, and suicide and we are retooling some of this work to meet the needs of these projects.

This pandemic makes us think further about how we carry out CHL’s core values and mission in practice, while we work on the projects, policies and programs that further expose the gaps of resources and weaknesses in systems of services. 

We have made it through another winter in Vermont and there is much to look forward to, even during strange times and in uncharted waters. Spring run-off from the mountains is streaming along the roads as it always does.

Please take heart, take care, ask for resources and help when you need it, and stay in touch.

JoEllen Tarallo, Executive Director, on behalf of the CHL Board and Staff