In response to the pandemic and the challenges that came with it, Eastside Pathways Backbone started convening weekly Zoom video calls in March 2020 to provide East King County community stakeholders the opportunity to connect resources and offerings for children, youth, and families. The participants in the Covid-19 CAN (Collaborative Action Network) of Eastside Pathways self-organized in five focus areas:
- Food
- Housing
- Remote Living & Learning
- Health & Wellbeing
- Funding
2020 meetings and participation
Currently, the participants are in the process of refining their adaptive solutions, as they close the 12-month lifecycle. At this point in the process solidifying roles and relationships to sustainably implement these solutions is critical.
We asked participants for their “progress and process” in this work to help us track their impact and outcomes.
Food
“It provided learning, connection, and focus to address food sovereignty issues. It helped me understand the difference between food security and food sovereignty.”
– Narima Amin, Global Social Business Partners
“Being part of the CAN helped me ask more questions, clarify my goals, gave me more confidence to build a sustainable model for “food access councils” [credit to Helena Stephens for these words], and meet many more people who share my vision. I have also come to recognize that with the support of many, this is my “calling” and how I want my 2nd career in life to move forward. I truly am a life-long learner and passionate about what is to come.”
– Tammy Waddell, Nourishing Networks
Remote Living & Learning
“The process allowed us to dive really deep into one current process step, and then realize we don’t have the B/ART [Boundary of Authority, Role, & Task] to change some of the outcomes.”
– Jamie Bonnett, KidsQuest Children’s Museum
Health & Wellbeing
“The ERS Fish Scale allowed us to examine our process as we develop our strategies and tactics by being able to pull back and zoom in closer as we synthesize a multitude of resources and ongoing work addressing our community goal.”
– Patrick Alina, Bellevue Youth Link