The Challenges and Opportunities of Sustaining Academia-Sponsored Community Service Programs for Latinx Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has widely affected existing academia-sponsored community service initiatives. Little is known about the strategies to sustain these initiatives during a public health crisis and the potential effects on community well-being and education. In this case study, we describe the impact of the pandemic on service partnerships between our medical school and the Latinx community, discuss the challenges and opportunities of transitioning to a virtual community service model, and offer solutions and considerations.

Digital and virtual strategies to advance community stakeholder engagement in research during COVID-19 pandemic

“…The stakeholders in many other community engagement partnerships locally in the United States, in other countries, and across countries and continents commended the openness to virtual engagement which became more apparent during COVID-19 pandemic. [18][19][20][21] Some of the additional benefits of virtual engagement pointed out by those stakeholders are the flexibility, avoidance of travel costs, bypassing geographical inaccessibility, reducing travel burden for people with physical disabilities, and options to record the meetings for people who cannot attend synchronically.…”

“…These findings are consistent with the report of the virtual program developed by Galiatsatos and colleagues [17], who within a period of 2 months, conducted 12 community calls of approximately 125 participants each with community members, leaders of community-based organizations and religious leaders during COVID-19 pandemic. The stakeholders in many other community engagement partnerships locally in the United States, in other countries, and across countries and continents commended the openness to virtual engagement which became more apparent during COVID-19 pandemic [18][19][20][21]. Some of the additional benefits of virtual engagement pointed out by those stakeholders are the flexibility, avoidance of travel costs, bypassing geographical inaccessibility, reducing travel burden for people with physical disabilities, and options to record the meetings for people who cannot attend synchronically.…”

Developing Equitable and Mutually Beneficial Virtual Community-Engaged Learning Opportunities

“…Consistent with empirical findings (Francom et al, 2021;Frank et al, 2021;Kiebler & Stewart, 2021;Lai & Widmar, 2020;Sanders & Scanlon, 2021), the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated existing inequities in community-engaged learning, particularly with unequal access to technology within the home. Structural inequality in access to technology, including computer ownership and high-speed internet access, disproportionately affects low-income households and minoritized ethnic-racial groups (Kim et al, 2021;Sanders & Scanlon, 2021), thereby affecting the nature and quality of participation for community partners, instructors, and students. For example, K-12 teachers in Mississippi and South Dakota reported difficulties related to unreliable internet and computer access, difficulty contacting and communicating with students, and limited knowledge of strategies for online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic (Francom et al, 2021), and these types of difficulties disproportionately affect under-resourced schools (Ma, 2021).…”

“…Certain populations, particularly minoritized, low-income, and/or rural households, are the most impacted with the least access to their own devices and broadband internet (e.g., Frank et al, 2021;Sanders & Scanlon, 2021). While children in more affluent areas had ready access to technology to make the transition smoother, other children experienced long delays in accessing technology and resuming instruction (see Kim et al, 2021). Now in the later stages of the pandemic, community partners (even those providing essential services) are limiting face-to-face interaction with the public to varying degrees, relying on virtual or hybrid modalities.…”

Волонтерское Участие Молодежи В Период Пандемии: Портрет Героя Сложного Времени

“…Исследователи отмечают, что в сложившихся условиях ограничений волон терская работа студентов во благо местных сообществ развернулась к модели виртуальных общественных услуг [Kim, Silverman, Cortes, 2020], рекреационное взаимодействие ряда молодежных групп трансформировалось в общественно по лезную деятельность, во многих странах в противостоянии вызовам пандемии была мобилизована именно студенческая молодежь [Boutebal, Benkhelifa, Azzeddine, 2020]. Молодых людей, которые привлекались в качестве волонтеров в период локдауна, отличают эмоциональная вовлеченность, чувство гордости за то, что они делают, ориентация на решение поставленных перед ними целей, специальные знания и подготовка, осуществляемая профессионалами [Garg, Sam, 2020].…”