Looking for resources to help you decide if, when and how to open?
Many of us are holding our breaths until June 5th, when Governor Wolf will be sharing details of his plan to move to a yellow phase for opening up the state. While we're waiting, it might be worth it to take a look at these easy to read resources from the Center for Disease Control, which offers tips for re-opening for schools, summer camps, youth sports, child care programs and also a guide for cleaning & disinfecting.
You'll also find decision trees like this one below (which you can download as a PDF from the website) that may offer some guidance.
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How are your employees holding up?
For a couple of years now, we have made it a priority and a practice to make time to check-in with each other and our feelings when we come together at work. It's one of the ways we practice being trauma informed at Fab Youth Philly.
To be honest, I resisted at first. Talk about feelings in the workplace? No way! But I have to say implementing this check-in (we do modify our check-in questions to keep things fresh) at the start of most of our meetings has enabled us to:
- slow down, take a breath and collect ourselves before jumping in quickly to the task at hand;
- acknowledge there is actually a person sitting across from us (or on the screen in front of us)!
- encourage people to take accountability for how they respond to those feelings (that is what the re-set plan is for- see below for more about that).
When we gather together we ask these five questions (below) of each other and people answer briefly with a word or short sentence; we don't follow up in the moment (though sometimes, we do make time to talk with a colleague after the meeting if it feels necessary).
- How are you feeling today?
- How do you want to feel at the end of the day?
- How will you use your reset plan (if you have one)?
- What is a goal you have for today?
- Who can support or encourage you?
We know that in addition to the regular feelings of stress that some people may experience at work, most of us are experiencing heightened and even new stressors as we cope day to day with a world with Coronavirus.
This resource "How to Cope with Job Stress
and Build Resilience During the COVID-19 Pandemic" also comes from the Center for Disease Control and may be worth sharing with your employees as a way to acknowledge that you recognize people may be experiencing new or heightened stress and also offers resources that your staff may not know about- or may find helpful to share with others/loved ones.
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Creating a "re-set plan", a trauma-informed tool for managing triggers & stress.
A re-set plan, sometimes also called a "safety plan" is something that each individual creates when they go through their on-boarding with us at Fab Youth Philly. Our teens also create re-set plans and helped us rename the tool a re-set plan because safety plan felt a little intense/alarmist and they felt the goal of the tool was to have some strategies they could use to cool down before they actually felt "unsafe".
To create a reset plan make a list of 3-5 things that you can do when you begin to feel triggered or irritated or frustrated at work. They should be things that can be done in a variety of environments (so smoking a cigarette, may not always be an option, even if already outside, or even going for a walk if already outside) and should include at least one person.
We don't ask people to share their entire re-set plan with us, but they are encouraged to share how they will use their re-set plan that day via our check-in. We also encourage people to revisit their reset plans periodically as our conditions, like now, may change and require fresh strategies.
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Signals in my body that I know when I am getting annoyed, irked, stressed or triggered
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1-3 things I can do when I am beginning to feel annoyed, irked, stressed or triggered
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2-3 people I can call on or reach out to when I am feeling annoyed, irked, stressed or triggered
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