3 Shifts from Scarcity to Abundance By Michaela Anang and Lisa Sargent

At Mirror Group, we emphasize bringing our full selves to the work. This means engaging other practitioners in thinking about their personal, positional, and organizational access to resources and how they can move into a place of abundance in their professional practice while serving their communities.

On October 28, 2020, we were invited to facilitate a 1-hour roundtable for the Maryland Community Action Partnership (MCAP) 2020 Conference. COVID-19 has made us all hyper-aware of the unwavering need for open and accessible community resources. When these resources seem depleted and capacity has been stretched thin, how do service-based organizations best navigate ways to care for members and communities? Using the guiding questions below and one of *our* favorite interactive resources (Google Jamboard) to build virtual community and spark collaboration, we dove into this query with human service professionals from the DMV area.

How are you being resourced in your personal space? 

In order to best show up for the communities we serve, we have to make sure our personal capacities are full and replenished. One of the best ways to do this is taking inventory of the resources we have available in our personal lives. With a shift to working from home, attendees named exercise, mindfulnessful, rest and relationship maintenance as a few of the practices that are currently sustaining them during this pandemic. 

How is my role uniquely positioned and resourced to leverage change for my community?

With a variety of roles we step into in our organizations, we each are tasked with responsibility with the resources available to us. For administrators and executives, practices and prioritization in service of equity have come to the fore amidst pandemic and protest this year. We loved that practitioners said that working while managing the challenges and opportunities of 2020 has highlighted how within Human Services organizations, all those who contribute to serving their community are essential, from Assistants to Associates, from Sanitization staff to CEOs. 

How is my organization embodying principles that center community? 

Increasingly amidst pandemic, we are able to see how our organizations are not separate from our communities. From advocating for language justice to addressing the need for accessible tech across age, ability, and economic status, the roundtable surfaced keeping equity in mind in how they engage this important shift.

#mirrorgroupllc #equity #community #organizationalchange #MCAP2020 #resilience #scarcitytoabundance

Michaela Anang is a past Research & Evaluation Associate Assistant at Mirror Group LLC. 

Lisa Sargent is a past Communications, Research & Evaluation Fellow at Mirror Group LLC.