How does a leader chart a new path forward during a pandemic? It is a daunting but not impossible task.

After the health and social challenges of 2020, the new year has provided much-needed signs of hope, but COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on public health and strain the medical system. Before COVID, not-for-profit organizations deployed an arsenal of tools and strategies proven effective in reaching vulnerable populations, especially children. COVID-19 has handicapped our sector in many ways. Under normal circumstances, an army of community-based practitioners would be on the ground serving the people that need them most. Instead, this force of good has been sidelined by the social distance protocols required to keep everyone safe, unable to provide vital services.

Ronald McDonald House New York’s (RMH-NY) ability to provide families with the emotional and logistical support they need to navigate care for their children has been tested in myriad ways. Our House’s doors have stayed open throughout this pandemic, and the seamless circle of support we offer remains unbroken. The House never faltered in our mission to provide a home away from home for families and their children being treated for cancer and other pediatric illnesses.

The arrival of COVID-19 vaccines is cause for celebration, but we still have a long way to go before vaccinations reach critical mass. Social vulnerabilities, including racial inequity, housing discrimination, lack of access to housing, poverty, and language access limitations, have put individuals and whole communities at an increased disadvantage to surviving crises like COVID-19.

The pandemic has revealed the ongoing challenges to achieving racial equity in healthcare. It is impossible to discuss racial justice without acknowledging that public health initiatives have often ignored people of color. That must change. Our healthcare systems have systematically failed Black, Brown, and Indigenous populations, and the racial equity agenda is incomplete if this issue is not addressed.

Our COVID-19 response must expand in depth and breadth and provide more robust programs for vulnerable children and families. Ronald McDonald House New York is committed to addressing this disenfranchisement through our programming. Through extensive family-centered outreach programs, our unprecedented partnership with the New York City Health + Hospitals (H+H), the largest public healthcare system in the United States, and new partnerships with safety-net hospitals will address the social determinants of health in low income and communities of color across New York City’s five boroughs. 

One of the key lessons we learned in 2020 is the importance of investing in resilience. A new year is not only a practical marker of time but also a powerful opportunity to reflect on the past and recent goals and intentions for the future.

?Reset for resilience, lead with compassion and creativity, and success remains within reach, even during times of crisis.