Quarantine diaries: The power of caring for one another

CBCQuebec wants to know how you are living these days. What are you doing differently? Have you learned, realized or observed anything?

Here is the next instalment of our series, Quarantine diaries: Life in the time of COVID-19, written by Richenda Grazette, the director of development and communications at non-profit organization Head & Hands.

I work at Head & Hands, a non-profit in NDG that prioritizes working with youth. With the pandemic, every facet of our work has expanded and shifted, and every day brings a new change.

My daily routine is largely unchanged, but Communauto has replaced my Metro commute. The six of us who rotate in the office wear masks and face shields (causing me to wear more eye makeup to compensate). In addition to our regular work, we spend days making sanitization kits to distribute to our community partners and to underhoused folks, or we pack food baskets for the recently unemployed.

With the bulk of my colleagues working from home, we hold weekly digital staff meetings about the challenges presented by quarantine: how to manage providing emotional support remotely, running deliveries of hot meals and activities for children to young families, responding to the increased instability of many of our clients.

As hard as it is, and as scary as it can be, there is power in carrying and caring for each other. I feel so privileged to be one of the many frontline workers still able to support my community during this time.

-Richenda Grazette