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

Source: 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: 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).