What’s Next for Pandemic Parenting
Dear Pandemic Parenting Community,
As we head into the final months of the year, we’re also heading into what will be the final months of Pandemic Parenting. After more than two years of pursuing our mission to reach parents where they’re at with immediately accessible and relevant science-based resources, it’s time for us to close this chapter.
This was not an easy decision to make. Dr. Amanda Zelechoski, Dr. Lindsay Malloy, and I are so grateful for the guidance and support from the Pandemic Parenting Board of Directors, who helped us make this decision, figure out the logistics involved with wrapping up the organization, and discern how best to share the news with our community.
The Decision-Making Process
Last spring, our Board of Directors and administrative leaders discussed the potential longevity of our organization given the ever-changing state of the pandemic. We tackled some hard questions about how top-of-mind the pandemic is for parents and caregivers, the relevance of our content beyond the pandemic, and what it might look like to transition our organization into something different. We also reflected on some critical internal challenges like the demands of our co-founders’ full time jobs in research and academia, and our team members transitioning into other roles and responsibilities.
The Board and our administrative leadership researched and evaluated alternative plans that would require modifying our program activities, inviting new expert guests, shifting our focus away from the pandemic, and sourcing and leveraging resources in creative new ways. Ultimately, our Board and our administrative leadership agreed in earnest that it was best to dissolve the organization at the end of 2022.
Often, when a start-up nonprofit organization elects to dissolve, it is because of some misfortune like insufficient resources or a lack of leadership or capacity. There was no such misfortune for Pandemic Parenting. Back in the summer of 2020, our co-founders intended to be limited in their scope of crisis response. It was not their intention to indefinitely offer broad parenting and caregiver support. Rather, their intent was to offer resources on topics that are time-bound, crisis-responsive, and specifically related to the COVID-19 pandemic. As our enormous library of resources evidences, we can confidently assert that, indeed, our mission has been accomplished and for that, we celebrate.
Where To Find Pandemic Parenting Resources
While we will not release new content after the end of 2022, we will keep our podcast episodes, videos, infographics, and other digital resources freely available on our website, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts for years to come. The majority of our resources cover topics that transcend the pandemic, so we encourage you to take advantage of them.
Additionally, our companion series, Roadmap to Resilience, will continue to be available at www.roadmaptoresilience.org.
What’s Next?
In the next couple months, we have a few exciting projects we’re still preparing to launch or release, including the Spanish translation of our most popular resources, full-length podcast transcriptions, and digital toolkits for community organizations that package together content around specific topics. Stay tuned!
While saying goodbye is never easy, we remain grateful to you for your support during the last couple of years as we offered timely science-based resources freely available to families during an unprecedented time. We hope that when we meet again, it will never be in the context of a pandemic!
Gratefully, I wish you all the best,
Jennifer Valentine
Executive Director - Pandemic Parenting
Dr. Lindsay Malloy & Dr. Amanda Zelechoski share their reflections on the last two years of Pandemic Parenting