We’re coming up on four weeks of working from home at BYTE HQ. A whole month, a full moon! One of our staff has borrowed a desk from the office, others have s-l-o-w-l-y converted nooks and rooms as conference/office rooms and so it made sense to write to you a bit of an update about how we’re operating at An Unprecedented Time Like This.
We feel lucky to be able to shift (and continue shifting) our day-to-day operations and having wiggle room in our organizational priorities and deliverables. This includes figuring out new ways to support our community such as volunteering at the Whitehorse Food Bank and working with the Boys and Girls Club of Yukon on a virtual drop-in.
We made the difficult decision to not hire a STEP summer student because the nature of our work continues to change and it feels impossible for us to try to onboard and support a new staff member during this time – especially without clarity around what our IRL (in-real-life) programming will look like in coming weeks and months.
We’re spending a lot more time translating our programming to digital, seeing how we can support teachers and educators during this time, and intend to spend a lot more time working on actual program development. For a few seasons now, we’ve wanted to have a more dynamic evidence-based approach to our offerings and now feels like an opportune time to buckle down on that.
In addition to this, we’ve leaned in on a weekly book club. We are using an excellent discussion guide with our entire staff team to read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report. The readings, questions, and subsequent discussions are not easy or comfortable ones but necessary.
You may be surprised to learn that our staff meets every single day, a combination of our weekly staff meeting, daily short stretches (which also serve as check-ins), Book Club and a happy (half) hour where we virtually share a snack and play a game.
As most other organizations and people, we’re taking week-by-week but as the sign on our office door says, while the office door may be locked we are currently open. So please feel free to reach out, manager@nullyukonyouth.com, to see how we can best support you, especially on the youth front.