Community was a major theme that students discussed in all sections of the survey— it has shaped their past, is showing up in their present circumstances, and they imagine it will impact the future. Students discussed many forms of community: family, friends, colleagues, and clients.

When asked to rank the role that community played in their resilience, the most common answer from Silberman students was “absolutely”. 

39% of students discussed the role of community when asked to reflect on what they learned about their own resilience from a past experience.

“I learned that you do not have to be resilient on your own, in fact it is okay and encouraged to ask for help!”

“With a support system I can do anything.”

We found that community support varied depending on the nature of people’s past experiences. People who had experienced sexual assault, bullying, or social hostility reported that community played a varied role. In comparison, people who had experienced the death of a loved one or a large-scale disaster ranked the role of community more highly and mentioned it more often in their short answers. This may point to the idea that as a society, we have been socialized to come together for some events but not others.

We found a pattern between the role of community and the quality of the words people used to describe the way they felt in the moment. People who ranked community as having a larger role used either positive (i.e., “proud) or generative (i.e., “optimistic”) words 30% of the time. People who ranked community as having a smaller role used words that reflected anxiety and fear 100% of the time, words such as “devastated,” “exhausted,” and “overwhelmed.” 

Some of the questions referred to a person’s already existent community prior to the pandemic. Under the different factors, 2 factors stood out that related to the community theme: caring for a loved one and social connectedness.   

Caring for a loved one: Caring for a loved one is a person’s role in their community whether it is a family member, family friend or community member. Overall 46% of people saw caring for a loved one as both a strength and a challenge, while 8.5% saw it as a strength, and 15% saw it as a challenge. This shows how students have all different experiences and feelings about taking care of a loved one and that there were varied feelings.

When asked if anything else was affecting their present experience, 33% of people (6/18) specifically talked about the health and wellbeing of their families, clients, coworkers, and roommates. People exist within many communities, and it is important to remember that the wellbeing of the people around them takes a great toll on their own wellbeing.

We asked students to imagine different resiliency factors and  the ones that stood out to us as fitting under the theme of community were:  support from friends and family, community building, connecting with other tenants in my building, civic engagement, & ask/accept help. 

1) Support from friends & family: We found that 76% of students felt that getting support from friends and family would be a resiliency skill that they would use in the future based on their experience with it in the present.

2) Connecting with other tenants in my building: We found that 2% of students shared a unique resiliency factor that they learned they could use in the future 

3) Civic engagement – We also found that 32% of students felt that civic engagement was a resiliency skill that they would use in the future. 

4) Community building – Additionally, we found that 43% of students found resilience in community building and they would use this skill they learned in the future. 

5) Ask/accept help – 61% of students also found that asking for help and accepting help was a strength or resiliency factor they learned or had known about themselves. This factor they will carry with them into other hard situations they face. 

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We were trying to and understand what priorities have changed for social workers based on how they saw the pandemic and different institutions react. 

We noticed that 8.5% of students recognized they had positive feelings of social workers building resiliency in professional and personal communities through skills or knowledge that they previously had.

• 6.3% spoke about social workers or agencies adapting, “Everything has gone remote. Still able to provide counseling services.”
• 2% spoke about how working with clients has more meaning, “working with clients during this time deeply meaningful and also deeply challenging.”
• 2% expressed what the pandemic taught them about social work, “the pandemic has taught me how resilient social workers are in the field because we never stopped serving communities and clients in need”

12% of students spoke to how the pandemic has intensified inequalities and that there is a big need for social change. The need for social change and equality comes from communities of color not getting the resources they need during the pandemic.

“There just isn’t enough resources being allocated to the communities that need it most and each day you really see how little they value the lives of the poor and people of color.” 

“It’s intensified the transparency of how broken our systems are and I see opportunity in that to push harder with organizing around healthcare and housing that I’ve already been a part of.” 

“We need to change the oppressive ways of education and government.” 

We found that 8.5% of students felt positive in witnessing communities, stakeholder, the government, and healthcare institutions coming together. 

“To have many minds across organizations working to help communities transition to this new/temporary/changing reality has been extremely motivating.”

“I see now in real time how communities are pulling together effectively and willingly.” 

“I work with a network of domestic workers and I am amazed by their resilience and their willingness to support their communities.” 

“I have been able to use my organizing techniques by being able to help with grassroots organization to help my community.”