Being well together
(EN) Guest blog from Diana Matteson, Director of International Development Youth Advocate Programs, Inc:, Washington, DC USA
Being well together: outdoor greetings from Youth Advocate Programs
For some parts of the world where vaccine rates are increasing and cases of covid decreasing, an emergence begins. Our shared global experience of loss and reckoning merges into a new one of rebuilding; what lessons will we take with us? For Youth Advocate Programs, Inc. (YAP) a global non-profit in 30 states and the District of Columbia with affiliates in Australia, Guatemala, Ireland and Sierra Leone, one wisdom gained is the importance of wellbeing and making sure we are taking care of our staff. By doing so, we’re more empowered to provide community-based services to youth and families as an alternative to youth incarceration and/or out-of-home care, strengthen communities, change systems and champion individual biography change.
Being Well Together is an initiative YAP started in April 2020 to make sure we are taking care of ourselves and each other during the pandemic when a dedicated work group convened to offer virtual wellbeing activities to all staff. Staff working from home sharing Wi-Fi with partners and children taking online classes were considered, so “Bring Your Kids to Wellness” activities were offered. Including family members, the initiative modeled wellbeing for children. Embracing all family members, Bring Your Animals to Wellness was one of the most popular and included cats, dogs, donkeys, pets of all kinds that joined their human loved ones.
Not just participants, children of YAP employees also led activities like the nine-year-old boy in Indiana hosting “Art in the Afternoon” and five-year-old Zoey in Texas hosting “The Great Texas Baking Show,” where she and her mom gave a bread-making class. “Turning Pages with Theresa” was a book club some months and included a writers’ showcases where staff who had authored books offered advice to other aspiring writers and included a story time for a “Bring Your Kids to Wellness” activity. “Game and Trivia Nights,” “Stretch It Out with Stacy” (yoga), and “Art in the Afternoon” offered fun and a chance to pause and reflect. YAP Wellness Café has been a welcoming place for staff with a particular interest to host any topic they want that has to do with how they are practicing wellness. These activities include anything from drumming to meditation to gardening to holiday traditions from the staff member’s country and culture to share during the holidays when family and friend gatherings were not possible. To extend wellness opportunities to staff experiencing higher levels of distress from the pandemic, YAP offers external counseling at no individual cost.
The virtual forum provided an opportunity for staff not only from around the United States but from Ireland and Guatemala to join. The Being Well Together work group has been folded into the YAP Safety & Wellness Committee led by Human Resources Chief Naomi Frazier with a deepened commitment to creating a healthful culture at YAP. At this point with vaccination rates up, number of cases down and restrictions lifting in the US, instead of weekly offerings, sporadic Pop Up Wellness activities are offered. Always, staff are encouraged to work outside if they can, do walking meetings and moving meetings as is appropriate. YAP is delighted to join the global community in this year’s Outdoor Office Day as we encourage staff to work outside, share photos of their outdoor workstations and join us for the outdoor, walking Pop Up Wellness on 27 May. Staff can bring their day to a close with Pop Up Wellness at 4 pm ET US with a virtual Walking Wellness Café to reflect on what the emergence process is like, the markers of that process for each one, feelings associated with it-anxiety, mourning losses, learning how to interact socially again, or experiencing a feeling of excitement as we get ready for another Roaring 20’s. For staff doing direct service with youth, outdoor activities with the youth they are working with are planned.
Community-based work
Guatemala City, Guatemala
YAP Greetings from the DMV
Washington, DC metro area, USA
Ajara Bomah, ED of SLYAP City Hall Roof Top Garden
Freetown, Sierra Leone
At YAP, we pride ourselves on “doing whatever it takes”; we “never give up” for the youth and families we serve, and we do it with a 24/7 service model. That takes a toll on physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. It’s something we always knew, but the events of the past year have made it something that needed more than awareness. Offering virtual wellbeing activities created a sense of a community of support and made wellbeing part of the conversation on an organizational level and an individual one.
Weekly supervision now includes a wellbeing check in. I write this at an outdoor workstation. This morning I did a walking meeting. My colleague in New York has an office pod that walks together every day. Two colleagues in Florida do a virtual meditation from their respective cities. The Executive Director of SLYAP works outside with local partners at the new City Hall Roof Top Garden in Freetown, Sierra Leone. At lunchtime I found a text from a colleague in Kansas with a photo of her tomato plants flourishing in the spring sunshine. A colleague in Ireland sent an affirmation this week. An executive in New Jersey sends weekly wellbeing communications to her team. What we have learned as an organization at YAP is what I suspect you also will take away from the covid chapter-taking care of ourselves and each other is a million little things that we can incorporate into our workdays to be productive, healthy and access the joy around us.
But unhealthy habits can be even easier to build than healthy ones. Outdoor Office Day causes us to pause and think about what daily habits we have, small changes we can make to build up to big benefits to our wellbeing and put those intentions into practice. How many colleagues have I talked to this week who are quietly working outside finding it salubrious and that they are more productive than ever but not sharing the experience? How many co-workers have I spoken with this week and talked about Outdoor Office Day who became inspired to set up an outdoor workstation and marveled at the big impact that small change inspired? And how many conversations have I had about the challenges of working outside and brainstormed solutions together on how to overcome them? I’ll simply say that there is a community emerging, sharing how they are making it work, and it is working for them. Join us!
Learn more about Youth Advocate Programs, Inc: https://www.yapinc.org/
Another of the author’s favorite outdoor workspaces Washington, DC metro region, USA