Nikita Goossens, Feedback Labs | April 1, 2022
At the Feedback+Jacksonville Summit in March 2022 we explored the theme ‘Feedback Evolves’ through three sub-themes. One of which was ‘Listening Through Crises,’ which touched on current and past crises we’ve faced as a society, including the current global pandemic. The sessions in this sub-theme definitely gave some food for thought.
Listening Through Crises: our takeaways
We kicked off the first day of Feedback+Jacksonville with an opening plenary ‘Listening in the Face of Crisis’ featuring Ariadna Godreau (Ayuda Legal Puerto Rico), Dr. Diana Greene (Duval County Public Schools) and Melanie Patz (Baptist Health), moderated by Mari Kuraishi (Jessie Ball duPont Fund). The plenary discussed the challenges the pandemic and other crises brought to their work. For everyone in this panel, listening and acting on feedback from the people most impacted by the pandemic was one of the things that helped them adapt during this crisis. In their presentations, they all highlighted how feedback played such an important role in their respective fields.
Dr. Diana Green shared her experience of how she listened to students as Superintendent of Duval County Public Schools since the start of the pandemic. When the virus hit Florida, suddenly the students in Duval County needed to follow classes from home virtually. For many families, adapting to this new situation was not easy at all. Some families did not have laptops for their children to work on at the same time and/or did not have internet access. That is why Duval County Public Schools listened carefully to their needs and acted on them by, for example, installing wifi hotspots where needed. And even though the virus is not that present anymore today as it was in 2020, Green emphasized feedback remains necessary (e.g. to check how comfortable everyone is to return to the classroom, with or without mask…). You can rewatch the entire discussion here.
Diana Greene of Duval County Public Schools discusses the importance of receiving #feedback from school districts to help families in need during the pandemic and effectively make decisions about opening schools. #FBLSummit pic.twitter.com/H8NRrzhXns
— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) March 2, 2022
Each of the panelists also emphasized the need for strong relationships with the people who are at the heart of your work. Especially during crises, it is best if these relationships are already built beforehand. The necessity of strong relationships was also discussed by Paula Liang (Hope Street Advisers), Emily Rasmussen (Grapevine) and Sara Lomelin (Philanthropy Together) in their session ‘Scenes from a pandemic: how Giving Circles, the democracy lab for philanthropy, evolved, pivoted, or did they?’ on the second day of Feedback+Jacksonville.
Speakers @pollamb, @sara_lomelin and Emily Rasmussen at the Scenes from a pandemic session lay out the framework for Giving Circles as a catalyst for equity and justice. #FBLSummit pic.twitter.com/WN2rRYDkDf
— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) March 3, 2022
In this session, the presenters focused on giving circles, which ‘take your mind, talents and financial abilities seriously and make giving a collaborative, social experience’. They also ‘create caring, generous communities of people who act intentionally, thoughtfully and strategically together’.
The necessity of strong connections between people was also addressed in ‘Mending the Mental Health Crisis – Closing Gaps and Building Bridges’ by Sheryl Johnson of Hearts 4 Minds. She, moreover, explained mental health is a priority issue today, but that there is still a gap in access to care as a result of stigma (among others).
Speaker Sheryl Johnson of Hearts 4 Minds at the Mending the Mental Health Crisis session shares innovative ways to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and remove the stigma surrounding these conversations. #FBLSummit pic.twitter.com/u0AyJyG6ho
— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) March 2, 2022
Another session that put the focus on ‘Listening Through Crises’ was ‘Power to the People: Engaging communities to shape humanitarian action’. For this virtual breakout session Nicolas Seris, Kristen Aster, Celia Ojo and Tatjana Andrews of the International Rescue Committee and Alex Ross from Loop explained that globally there is a clear need for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in service delivery, including increasing the power communities have in shaping the decisions and structures that impact their lives. During this session, the two organizations presented how they work with communities affected by a crisis to put this into practice in the US and around the world.
"Building #trust is a long term investment" says Tatjana Andrew of @RESCUEorg at the Power to the People virtual session on #ListeningThroughCrisis and shaping humanitarian action. #FBLSummit
— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) March 2, 2022
One final session that highlighted ‘Listening Through Crises’ was ‘Using Feedback to Amplify Voices’ by Christina Ruhinda of Tanzania Network of Legal Aid Providers (TANLAP) and Geline Fuko of Tangible Initiatives for Local Development Tanzania who joined virtually. This session looked at how these two feedback practitioners amplify Tanzanian voices within the civic space. Geline shared how digital feedback tools have helped promote advocacy for shaping political accountability and citizen participation in the country, while Christina explained the challenges of Tanzanian citizens to access legal aid services.
Speakers @geline_gee and @KMugabile lead an insightful session, Using Feedback to Amplify Voices, sharing success stories on how digital #feedback tools have helped promote advocacy in Tanzania and how #feedback can help build relationships within constituencies. #FBLSummit pic.twitter.com/gcsauNLjWY
— Feedback Labs (@FeedbackLabs) March 3, 2022
In general everyone in the theme of ‘Listening through Crisis’ agreed it is necessary to have already developed great feedback practices before a crisis to handle one effectively. Only more reason to act on feedback right now.
