At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when schools closed and children began learning remotely, community groups in Brooklyn interceded to assist children and families that needed support.
The Flatbush Development Corporation (FDC) has been serving Flatbush and its neighboring communities since 1975, assisting with housing, immigration, and after-school care needs.
Before the pandemic, the FDC’s after-school programs saw approximately 1000 children, many from disadvantaged neighborhoods. These children would meet at one of the 5 afterschool locations where they would participate in social and academic development exercises and activities and were given a hot snack.
But, after the pandemic hit, the FDC had to pivot how they delivered services to these children as well as families who developed food and housing needs during this season.
The corporation received grants from the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) to create learning labs in two locations “in response to the needs of students and their families during the pandemic.” One of them was located at the Glenwood Community Center.
Cassandra Norman, in charge of running the programs at Glenwood, explained that these labs were needed because though students had city-provided learning devices, a lack of internet access prevented them from completing their daily school requirements. Even further, parents in the neighborhood showed a need for the FDC’s affordable childcare programs.
“[The learning labs] was something that we could provide to the community that would help them out,” said Norman.
Glenwood’s learning labs first began with 10 staff members. As Covid-19 mandates increased and were enforced, staff began to experience burnout from working in person. Once the city updated its unemployment compensation payments, and persons were receiving $600 a week, Glenwood was left with only 3 staff members.
Massiel Felix, the Director of Youth Services for the FDC’s after-school and summer programs believes fear of contracting the virus played a bigger role in causing staff to leave during the pandemic.
“The minute somebody sneezed around you, [you think] you're gonna die,” said Felix. “It was difficult to keep morale up, and have people feel supported.”
Contracting the virus and infecting close family members was also a fear of Norman’s, but as a former FDC after-school program participant, she understood the importance of supporting the program’s participants.
She said, “I've always been the type of person that says you have to lead by example. If I'm sitting here, and I'm taking the easy way out, what am I saying for the staff who were actually sticking with me?”
It did not help that action did not follow the complaints about burnout made by staff members. But according to Norman, there was nothing directors could do to change how staff felt.
“There was no fixing,” said Norman. “Ultimately, it was something that we had to deal with.”
In late 2021, when the world began transitioning to normalcy, and unemployment compensation decreased, some staff returned to the corporation, according to Norman.
As old staff returned, new ones joined the team. Molly Zollo, the now Educational Director of the FDC’s afterschool programs, joined the FDC in 2021.
“I took this position because I love working in non-profits that are youth and family serving. I fell in love with the connections with the students and families that you are able to make…,” said Zollo.
The FDC after-school programs are now fully reopened, and Felix said that while a few staff members are still leaving due to burnout, the turnover has “leveled out” and she now has, what she describes as, an amazing staff.
Felix is working on preventing future burnout and says that she finds great importance in ensuring her staff is “happy and comfortable.”
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