Community in the Time of Covid-19

This week, I have spent time exploring how to continue my communities online including the track team and my synagogue’s teen group, as well as observing other communities switching online.

The time I spent with the track team was trying to figure out how to both maintain the social aspect of a sports team without diluting the focus on competition and progress. Personally, running on the team is both about spending time with my friends and staying physically in shape to compete, only one of which can continue at this time. We thought through different options that could work such as meeting every day to do a shorter workout to maintain the social aspect and a bit of the physical training, meeting only once a week for a harder workout more similar to what we do during the season, or not meeting at all to be mindful of everyone’s other commitment and the stress of constant zooming. We are still deciding what to do right now by consulting with the other team members. As a senior, I’m at a different place than the juniors and sophomores who have classes on zoom all day, and have another season of LREI running in the future. Therefore, what I want out of track right now is probably different than the other grades. In trying to figure out how to maintain these communities right now, it’s important to consider what factors are important to different people right now and what their needs are.

This week I have also been working with jGirls magazine to figure out different events we can run to help the community be engaged right now. We decided to plan community learning events and spaces where people can create for the magazine together virtually. I am currently planning one for this weekend about gender and race in sports (a variation of the #IHH workshop I co-led this year). I am not completely sure how to run a workshop on zoom but think I will just have to use trial and error to figure it out.

On the other side of this, I sat in on a class my mom led about coping with stress for some teachers in NYC public schools. I heard from them about the struggle of being alone during this time and of having to balance their needs with those of their students. They spoke about finding wellness buddies helpful (pairing up with another teacher to check up on each other) and weekly teacher events. My mom shared about the importance of addressing both physical needs during this time around sickness, and the emotional/mental needs of teachers. These needs include finding ways to cope with frequent crying/sadness/anxiety, fear about jobs, feeling isolated, addiction, and others. She also talked about the importance of teaching during this time because it provides relief for the parents, purpose for the teachers, and normalcy for the students.

I’m looking forward to what else I learn in the coming weeks.