New Guide Outlines A Roadmap to Resilience During COVID-19 Pandemic

We all recognize we are living in unprecedented times. We also know there is not a roadmap to guide us through the times we are facing as a country. This is truly a moment we all have to come together with our different expertise and perspectives to move forward beyond the COVID-19 crisis and the other challenges we are facing as a nation.

A new guide, “Thriving Together: A Springboard for Equitable Recovery & Resilience in Communities Across America,” released by the Well Being Trust (WBT) is aiming to do just that. The plan, developed with funding from the CDC Foundation, includes the views and opinions of more than 100 contributors and highlights actions that communities, organizations, businesses, governments and funders can turn to in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.

The Springboard is a practical resource for everyone who wants to help America heal and secure the vital conditions that all people need to thrive, including basic needs for health and safety, humane housing, meaningful work and wealth, lifelong learning, reliable transportation, and more.

The Springboard contains three sections to help encourage action and make an impact on our current economic conditions:

  1. Changing Course Summaries—brief chapters focused on the vital conditions and selected topics, featuring “pivotal moves” that stand out as high priorities for quick action.
  2. Paths to Renewal—point to larger and long-term ways of renewing Civic Life; Economic Life; and Social, Economic, and Spiritual Life, and feature key “trend benders” that could play out over the next decade.
  3. Advancing a Thriving Movement—reminds us of the momentum already underway in America to create thriving communities in a way that fits local culture and context.

The guide provides a description of America’s current situation and what people can do, together, to emerge from the compounding crises of 2020 with greater resilience, humanity, and direction. It highlights dozens of prospective actions, including (among many others): emergency funding, organizing local recovery and resilience accountability councils, upholding civil and human rights, focusing on early childhood development, making housing affordable, creating outdoor classrooms, and assuring equitable access to parks and open spaces.

The goal is to help us open a new chapter in America’s road to recovery and a hopeful return to normalcy. This Springboard, created in just eight weeks, is an evolving contribution during these unprecedented times in our efforts to recognize that working together, we can move forward. The CDC Foundation is pleased to support this important effort.



Turquoise Sidibe
Turquoise Sidibe, MPH, is the associate vice president for emergency response for the CDC Foundation.