This series of webinars were created with child welfare workers in mind to support wellness in the workplace.
Explore concepts of building resilient teams and create plans to address individual and team-oriented plans for cultivating resilience in this interactive series of video workshops. You will encounter mindfulness, cognitive, and body-based practices intended to expand what’s available to you, your teams and the families you serve in times of strain.
Part One: Sharing and Listening to the Needs and Experiences of Child Welfare Workers
The series began with a ‘Listening Session.’ We wanted to hear from you! During this facilitated conversation and exploration, you were invited to share your experiences and concerns around compassion fatigue, burnout, and self-care. This interactive webinar also provided an opportunity for you to connect with and hear from fellow child welfare workers across the state of Minnesota. Input will be used to inform the development of future webinars and resources.
Part Two: Filling our Cups
A common phrase in the world of mindfulness is, “You cannot pour from an empty cup.” We focused on filling our own cups together in this workshop. How do you cultivate your resilience? What practices are a part of your life, so you have a reserve of wellness to ride out stressful situations as they inevitably arise? We focused on:
- Identifying personal signs of burnout, compassion fatigue and satisfaction
- Developing and discuss personal resiliency plan that evolves as stressful situations and insight emerge
- Enhancing awareness and sense of empowerment around where your attention and energy are mindfully spent
Part Three: The Sanctuary Model
The essence of the Sanctuary Model is that to provide trauma-informed care, people must also work in a trauma-informed way together as an agency or organization. Many of us can likely think of times when a sour interaction with a colleague spilled over into time with a client, family member, or friend. In part three we brought our relationships with one another into focus. This workshop experience was followed by practices and discussion intended to:
- Bring your attention to unconscious cognitive leaps can influence relationships
- Enhance insight into how your own interpretations can interfere with healthy relationships
- Observe how gratitude influences you and others
- Commit to a practice rooted in a commitment of the Sanctuary Model to promote safe, non-judgmental team dynamics
Part Four: Resilience in a Sea of Systems
We cannot avoid the challenges of working amongst various systems that provide services for people. As someone serving caregivers experiencing substance use disorders you see how these systems can be confusing and at times misaligned or even unjust. In turn we can experience our own cascade of reactions to interacting with these systems ranging from positive to neutral to negative.
Our workshop experiences included practices and discussion intended to:
- Build awareness of your embodied experience of coming up against a systemic barrier
- Increase your sense of compassion for yourself and others interacting with these systems
- Promote skillful advocacy for yourself, your team, clients, or viewpoint
Rejuvenating Resources for Child Welfare Workers
- Professional Quality of Life Measure: ProQOL.org | Provides theory, information, tools, and presentation aids on burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue. Particularly notable is the free ProQOL Scale.
- Spotlight on Secondary Trauma and Professionals’ Well-Being | Children’s Bureau Express (CBX)
- Resources for Trauma-Informed Practice | Child Welfare Information Gateway (CWIG)
