The sun is shining here today in Portland, and the sounds of birds chirping, the (very) occasional car passing, and one of my kids yelling at the Xbox is in the air. While on a Zoom meeting with our team, Stefanie’s (our founder’s) son sneaks up behind her and makes bunny ears to the laughter of our group. We’ve washed our hands, wear masks to the grocery store and socially distance like pros. Living and working out of our homes, wondering out loud what day it is, and trying to be productive with (many) distractions is our new normal.
In Oregon, we’ve been on a stay at home order since mid-March when the schools closed, as many of you have been. Our small-but-mighty team was pretty new when all of this started, with just under 2 months of regular face to face time before we had to figure out how to work together from our respective homes. We’re learning to take one day at a time as well as be grateful for being safe and healthy. Here’s what else we’ve learned:
Set a regular schedule for team meetings.
Using Zoom on a regular basis for our team meetings has helped us keep our priority tasks, projects, and communication from getting lost. Although we communicate all day long using Slack (which we highly recommend for getting away from back and forth emails), having a set time that we know we’ll have each other’s (mostly) undivided attention is key.
We also recommend having a way to track the conversations in your meetings along with any issues or outstanding “to-do’s” with something like Trello, a simple shared Google document or a communication note in SAM. You can get an account and download Trello’s board designed for meetings for free.
Check-in on how your team members are holding up.
This is an unprecedented time for all of us. We’re learning day by day how to live in this new reality, and the stress on our co-workers, families, clients, and communities is exponentially higher. What a lot of us are feeling is the stress of uncertainty which means that it’s more important than ever to be mindful of the level of stress and anxiety among our team members.
This article from Psychology Today states that ambiguity is a stressor to employees in the best of times and that our focus now should be transparency and open and honest communication.
Our team has regular Zoom meetings to not only update each other on the progress of our daily tasks and projects but also to connect. We all feel a bit cut off from the world and from each other. Meeting “face to face” over video chat is the best way we’ve found so far to communicate how we’re doing, catch up on how each of us is coping at home, ask for help, and share a laugh or two (or ten in our case).
Use technology (including SAM!) to keep things moving forward
We understand how important it is for you to not only be able to easily communicate with your team during this time but also with your foster families, adoptive families, and other partners. Moving as many processes in your programs online as possible will ensure that your agency is equipped to handle whatever comes your way.
One tool we recommend is using the free app Adobe Scan to scan documents for uploading to SAM. You and your families can download the app to your phone then use it to scan documents as PDFs to upload into SAM. No scanner needed!
Did you know that you can use dictation to add case notes and communications in SAM? Read more about dictation here. Finding a quiet spot in the house right now might be a challenge, so take a look at Dragon Speak for accurate dictation, web searching and more even with background noise.
SAM’s online database with public forms, checklists and the family portal is the perfect solution to keep your programs moving forward. Spending some time setting up a public form for your application and home study process and setting up checklists for team members and clients will help keep your programs running smoothly. As a SAM user, you have access to a variety of webinars and calls to help setup your public forms.
Our team is here to support yours during this time and for years to come. We know how important the work that you do is and are dedicated to making sure you can continue to help children and families in your community. We’ll be continuing to offer training and support specific to the challenges of working remotely. If you or your team would like to see more detailed information on a particular topic or feature in SAM, just reach out and let us know.