The Covid-19 Pandemic is unlike any challenge we’ve faced in recent history. In order to slow the onset of the disease in our community, one of the few tools we have is social distancing. The very idea of distancing presents challenges for our institutions, our congregations, schools and associations, which all value human connection, not distance. As we face the prospect of widespread human suffering, both from the disease itself and the remedy, we need to understand and address what is happening in our community.

Deploying a Relational Response to this Crisis

For decades, One LA-IAF has used the practices and habits of organizing to assert the common good in public life. Over those years, in the midst of addressing serious issues, our best strategies have emerged when we work together. We are employing these same strategies, sometimes with new technological tools, in the Corona virus crisis:

• Listen and caucus:
  Leaders in One LA Institutions are forming teams to listen and learn what is happening with people. Teams are then working with One LA to caucus safely via phone or online and reflect on what they’ve heard.

• Conduct Research Actions:
  To understand this moment and how it is impacting us and our communities, One LA Leaders will meet, online and by telephone, with experts and public officials. 

• Act strategically:
  One LA will act collectively on the local, state and federal level.
  

As One LA leaders and institutions, we are called to maintain the bonds of community and act decisively to respond to the needs of our families and neighbors.