Voices from the Afterschool Field on Self-Care (Part 2)

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By Sam Piha

We interviewed several afterschool leaders on the importance and benefits of youth worker self-care. Below are their responses. This blog is an excerpt from our recently released briefing paper entitled, "Self-Care for Youth Workers."

Q: What experiences in youth work result in a need for self-care?

(LR): I think youth workers are pushed to their limit with capacity to reduce cost for programs; and especially now, the workforce is strained, so without enough staff, folks are pulling double duty. Beyond this, I think staff experience – at the very least – secondary trauma from the trauma their youth experience. Youth workers care so much about the work they do and the young people in their care, and this can be a heavy weight to carry, considering the challenges many of the youth they serve are grappling with. And, many staff are grappling with their own trauma as well. 

(LP): The issues that youth bring to our staff can be overwhelming and daunting; especially for our younger staff who are closer to the age of some of our older youth. The pandemic created situations in which our younger staff felt they could not provide the support needed, because they felt hopeless in solving complex issues. The older staff would assist and tell the younger staff to take a break, take care of yourself – “we understand this can be overwhelming.” Even our older staff needed time away, because they would give and give to the point, of exhaustion.

 

Q: In your experience, what works? 

(SS): Education, group discussion, assessment, and training. Also, building a nurturing organizational culture that encourages personal self-care and genuinely values and honors one another is essential. An intentionally, caring, educational community naturally promotes personal self-care as a healthy shared practice.

 

(LR): All in all, I think the issues are systemic – so, while I think helping individuals figure out how to navigate these challenges and care for themselves is good, I think helping individuals do self-care without addressing why wellness and mental health is such a major issue in our field is a major miss. We need to be looking at how we’re changing roles and positions and pay that results in sustainable jobs and livable wages if we truly want to see wellness in the field.

(LP): It begins with the depth of relationship with your staff. Have you created a safe, nurturing welcoming environment to help them seek self-care. We focus on an Indigenous worldview of self-care, that we are connected to everything and everything is connected to us. The culture of caring, kindness, and compassion in the Youth Institute is shared with all the staff in the afterschool program to ensure they are connected and in balance. Education and reflection (discussion) is our main strategy for

self-care from an Indigenous worldview.

 

Q: What do you do in your organization to address this topic? 

(SS): EduCare Foundation teaches “Eight Skills for Heartset ® Education” tools for self-care through self-awareness, mindfulness, self-forgiveness, and empathetic listening. When these become our personal baseline, then we can create a kind and compassionate climate at school and at home that impacts, sustains, and elevates ourselves and children. As we develop a deeper positive regard (honoring and caring) for ourselves, then we can have a mindset and a heartset that really sees the best in our children and their aspirations. We can be ones who see the possibilities of their bright future, at times when they don’t even see it for themselves. From our growth heartset, we are compassionate sparks that support and lift both our young people and ourselves.

 

Organizationally, we do our best at EduCare to practice these tools for self-care with and for our staff. There is attention to structuring meetings to start with check-ins and centering activities (e.g.- mindfulness & gratitude), offering communication and self-care workshops, providing ample time off to

allow for nurturing ourselves and our families, and scheduling staff celebrations and acknowledgment activities for supporting one another.

 

(LR): We’ve had a lot of conversations in our organization about self-care over the years. It’s not easy in a small nonprofit, but we are committed to the people in our organization so continue to strive to grow and improve. I think organizationally wellness starts with workload. There is no self-care that will change a sole-crushing, impossible workload. This is probably one of the hardest shifts to make though, because the world outside us, i.e. funders, still expect us to do our work for pennies on the dollar, and staff often pay the price. We are doing our best to get to true cost in our budgets and grant requests, and hold the line with and educate our funders.

 

A couple additional practices:

• We have an annual health and wellness benefit that is essentially a bonus for staff to use to support their wellness. 
• We do a compensation and benefits review every three years to ensure we are paying competitive wages and a living wage to all staff.
• We give the week around Christmas off to the full team, which is beyond vacation and personal time.
• We have been experimenting the past two years with what we’re calling the “July Slowdown”, which means no external communication, no external meetings, just time for the team to slowdown, look inward, get projects done that they haven’t been able to get to (i.e. cleaning up files, clean desk, update curriculum) and work shorter days.
• We hold “flex” rules pretty firmly for salaried staff – if you have to work extra hours, you pay yourself back with time off.
• We spend time and resources accounting for our team relationships and staff culture, as we think this is critical for wellness, and wellness is critical for org success.
• Staff are co-designing these solutions, which I also think is important so that we can ensure needs are being met.

And of course, we have a bunch of mental health and wellness curriculum which incorporates wellness for youth but also for adults:  https://www.calsac.org/virtual-training#mh&w

(LP): We stressed with our staff that you need to be in a healthy mind and spirit before you help others, because the youth are counting on you to help them. Encouraging them to practice weekly self-care; by going outside, taking a walk, going to the gym, meditating, learn a new skill (non-work related).

Voices from the Afterschool Field on Self-Care (Part 1)

Source: All photos from www.pexels.com

By Sam Piha

We interviewed several afterschool leaders on the importance and benefits of youth worker self-care. Below are their responses. This blog is an excerpt from our recently released briefing paper entitled, "Self-Care for Youth Workers."

Q: Why should youth workers engage in self-care?

(AB): Positive relationships are key to health, school-engagement, and community. As youth workers and educators, we take care of the needs of students and families every day, but we often overlook our own self-care in the process. Additionally, there are many stressors in life that can be experienced on a daily basis, and it is well-known that stress can also be seen as contagious, if I’m having a bad day, my mood can contribute to you also having a bad day. Therefore, engaging in self-care in order to combat the effects of stress by releasing the stress in order to reset the body by engaging in self-care, it’s a way in order to refill your own cup! 



(SS): In order to give to others in healthy ways, youth workers need to remember to give first to ourselves. Only then can we give from the overflow. We take care of ourselves so we can take care of each other.

As we take good care of ourselves and fill our own cup, giving becomes an expression or act of compassionate service. We can give of the natural overflow. Acts of service to others, it has been said, are the highest form of loving. It is the nature of the unconditionally loving heart, a growth heartset,

to give. The joy of giving is a wonderful gift youth workers give ourselves. It starts however with a genuine necessity to taking care of ourselves. Self-care, rather than being a self-centered or indulgent practice, is truly the essential ingredient that supports our mental health and resilience allowing us to be more fully available for our young people.

 

As healthy, authentic role models, youth workers then can deeply assist our students as they navigate and strengthen their positive emotional and mental health. Our attention to our self-care is at the core.

 

(LR): Everyone needs self-care. We live in a society that expects us to push so hard with a disregard for ourselves, and this has so many negative results – i.e. mental health challenges, physical health issues, etc. Stress (unmanaged) is a major killer.

(LP): The pandemic elevated internal and external stresses that have increased mental health issues among our youth and peers. During this crisis, youth workers where on the front lines providing comprehensive services to meet the diverse needs of the communities and youth they serve. This created undo stress on youth workers, causing many to seek help for themselves. In our afterschool program, we mobilized our resources to ensure that staff had opportunities to step away and take care of themselves. We established extended lunches by eating outside to share and reflect on what issues and concerns that they needed assistance with. Staff become their support group through the pandemic.

 

Q: What have you seen are the benefits of self-care?

(AB): Self-care is the practice of taking action to preserve or improve one's own health. Since a lot of us may have experienced some form of trauma, there are great benefits to identifying trauma and dealing with it through self-care techniques. For example, simply taking the time to participate in an artistic pursuit can be seen as self-care and make the heart rejoice! Self-care can help to combat anxiety, hopelessness or lack of motivation. There is indeed an interconnectedness of stress, self-care, and well-being. 

 

(SS): Educators and youth workers, as did many, went through a tremendously tough time during and post pandemic. The trauma, that they personally experienced along with the secondary trauma from working with their students who in turn were traumatized, caused great stress. It impacted their lives and their ability to truly give to their students in ways that the most wanted to. Self-care was a key ingredient for healing themselves and restoring their resiliency, fortitude, and commitment.

 

(LR): In our society, self-care is often branded as getting a mani-pedi or something like that. And while this is nice and all, I think self-care with depth are things like therapy, boundaries, self-reflection, etc...things that can help us navigate our lives and the world around us better – this is where I’ve personally experienced a true release and recovery. And with that in mind, these types of practices – and even things like exercise and healthy eating, are ways that we take time to invest in ourselves with the intention of a more restorative and balanced life. When we are making shifts like this – major shifts in habits/perspective, the results are transformative. We are able to engage in the world differently, feel differently in our day to day, and are able to support others better.

(LP): Staff are centered, rested, and focused to engage with youth. In many Indigenous communities, self-care is part of being “connected” – to self, to nature and to your community. We follow that same philosophy with our staff about being connected and understanding that we are related to everything, like a web. If one strand of the web breaks if effects everything else – it becomes unbalanced, you lose your way (focus). Self-care is a part of that balance of being connected.