COVID's Impact on the Nonprofit Sector and Social Services

Way back at the beginning of the pandemic I had a blog post about how many graduate dissertations were going to be written about the impacts of the pandemic on just about every aspect of our society. That certainly is happening already. And beyond academic dissertations, reports are starting to flow as well. 

See this report that comes to us from FEMA Region III: COVID-19’s Impact on the Human and Social Services Sector.

The report is introduced in part this way: 

"The human and social services sector has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for services has grown dramatically, at the same time as revenue losses and staff layoffs threaten the safety net so vital to those hardest hit by the economic downturn.

"The authors of this report are Laura Olson, Ph.D. – COVID-19 Recovery Advisor for Mental Health and Social Services / FEMA Region 3 Interagency Recovery Coordination Task Force and Alessandra Jerolleman, Ph.D, CFM, MPA – COVID-19 Recovery Advisor for Economic Stabilization/ Both work with the FEMA Region 3 Interagency Recovery Coordination Task Force.

"This report raises awareness about the challenges facing this sector that are critical to the safety and wellbeing of our citizens and the survival of the organizations that serve them. Summarizing existing and available research and analysis, the report highlights the situation in Region 3, but also provides data on the situation for the nation. The nonprofit sector has lost 8% of all employees nationwide since February 2020, while in critical fields the losses have been more severe – with 11% unemployment in educational services and 12% in social assistance."