The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped many of IGPA’s efforts since its onset, from faculty engagement to publications and beyond. In April 2020, IGPA launched a COVID-19 Task Force focused on the state’s economic and fiscal health, healthcare workforce, and the resilience of families and communities. IGPA publications, authored by scholars from across the University of Illinois System, are undergirding conversations on the effects of the pandemic and how policymakers can respond. Creative new programming also includes our “Policy from People” series, which brings an interdisciplinary lens to capturing qualitative and quantitative answers about how policy plays out in practice.

Initiatives from this series include the Citizen Scientist COVID-19 Journaling Project, which shared personal pandemic stories from Illinoisans. Our Pandemic Stress Indicator Expert Panel survey and focus groups on access to justice during COVID-19 have further revealed common themes among on-the-ground challenges.

IGPA’s Policy Spotlight series grew out of the work of the task force. Policy Spotlights from the task force include two on the housing crisis spurred by the pandemic: one mining lessons from the 2008 housing market collapse for solutions to the current crisis and another illustrating how women are especially vulnerable to housing insecurity. Policy Spotlights focused on protecting children vulnerable to neglect and abuse, the pandemic’s effects on educators, and the pressing need for families to have access to childcare for economic recovery are also among the task force’s publications.