Springboard to Opportunities (MS)

Springboard seeks to not only support families during difficult times but also help inform policies and create new models of support. While there have been many articles, toolkits, and think pieces on social distancing and how to take care of oneself during the pandemic, almost all of these rely on middle-class frameworks that assume readers have space in their homes to spread out, access to technology, and a supportive social network to connect with. Many of these strategies rely on disposable incomes and disposable time, which are luxuries that those potentially working multiple “essential” jobs are unable to afford. Furthermore, they almost never address the important fact that the trauma most low-income families are facing during this pandemic is just one piece of a long line of traumas they have experienced due to racist, classist, and sexist systems in our country. As the organization attempts to operationalize family prosperity within the current reality of COVID-19, we want to ensure that trauma-informed, mental health support is an essential part of the conversation.