Team Care Is Self-Care at Our Nonprofit

 

 

Throughout my decades of work with nonprofits serving victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence, as well as working with BIPOC, immigrant, and refugee populations, I have come to recognize the importance of centering self-care as part of an organization’s work culture and programming. Those of us working with people in need are often drawn to this work because we have also experienced similar situations.

The nonprofit world has come to recognize the toll that hearing people’s stories, and championing their rights and needs, has taken on advocates. “Vicarious trauma,” “compassion fatigue,” and “vicarious resilience” are terms that attempt to define the impact our work has on us.

As the executive director of the Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment in Saint Paul, I have been intentional in centering self-care in our daily work environment — implementing policy and training, as well as setting aside resources and time for practicing new methods of self-care. At our agency, staff are encouraged to use their sick leave to take a mental health day before they need a mental health day. As their supervisor, I do not need to know why they are taking the day, nor do I require them to go through an approval process. They just need to let me know they are taking a mental health day.

 

 

Every quarter we schedule an all-day self-care retreat. Two rotating staff members choose the theme, and design and facilitate the activities. Recent themes have been:

• “Intimacy is not just a luxury (but a necessity),” which examined the 12 areas of intimacy that support health, wellness, and mental health
• “New beginnings (start of new year)”
• “Transformation (personal and professional)”

Every fall we host a staff retreat that starts with breakfast at Caribou Coffee before arriving in Duluth for lunch. Activities are held on the lake shore, and we take time to walk onto the pier or along the beach. The trip ends with a visit to Betty’s Pies.

Activities vary for each retreat, but always include hands-on tasks that involve art and sharing each other’s dreams, experiences, or goals. We try to bring new ideas and exercises to each retreat that can be used in our personal and professional life, such as Vision Bingo. This activity prompted us to each make a bingo card with our personal aspirations for the coming year, challenging us to rewrite self-limiting beliefs for encouragement, replace self-limiting beliefs with messages of hope and positivity, or identify ways to support an abundance mindset in a world and culture that often focus on scarcity and competition for resources.

Engaging all of our senses in self-care is another way to reinforce themes and experiences. Our activities have included making scented lip balm, painting a ceramic object that decorates our individual offices and reminds us of our time at the retreat, practicing guided yoga with a yogi master who spoke about healing, selecting an empowering playlist for the trip up and back, and having delicious food.

Important to the many immigrant and refugee cultures of our staff is the act of coming together to share a meal. Sharing stories is also a very important aspect of our cultures’ resilience, learning, and hope for the future.

Supporting self-care in a work setting is done through team-building, transparency, and open communication. I believe that we need to come from a place of love when we are working together. If I see you drowning and simply say, “You’ve got this,” instead of asking how I can help, that is not loving. If I see you struggling in your position, the loving thing to do is to work with you to determine whether you need more training, discuss if you are happy in the position, and listen to your perspective. That might include offering to guide you in identifying barriers to success or helping you examine whether the job is a good fit for you, with no judgment or shame.

Self-care cannot be an afterthought, or something that we cram in between other duties.