FIG Times
Friends of Irreducible Grace Foundation, March 2020
As the snow has melted and the clocks have sprung ahead, IGF has kept moving as well. Over the last month we concluded workshops with a girls group home, and are finishing up with District 622 teaching 3rd and 4th grade students breath tools.
We had a very successful kick off to a year-long partnership with The SweatShop a fitness center on Snelling and Selby. The IGF team lead a mini-workshop with roughly 30 participants. The Sweatshop staff is now incorporating the skills they learned into their classes. We are well on our way to the $10,000 goal that Gayle, (SweatShop Owner) set as a goal for 2020. The fundraiser kickoff total was $1,815.
We completed a strategic planning process with Dr. Talaya Tolefree of Koinonia Leadership Academy and Dr. Block of Sankore Consulting, last fall and have been putting their recommendations into action. IGF now has a model of individual and workshop team growth measures! We started rolling out these pieces last week and the young people are excited about it! We call this work “Pillars of Engagement”. Through this process the young people get to pick an area for their individual focus, either Spiritual and Mental Well-Being, Physical Health, Financial Health and Housing, or Cultural Grounding. We will plan our future Self-Care Sundays around these topics, reaching out into the community for expertise to share with our group. We also have our Bethel University Social Work Interns conducting weekly check-ins and support sessions with the young people on their focus area.
Speaking of community, we received a grant from the Catalyst Initiative to expand our health, wellness and healing from trauma work in our community over the next two years. We will begin this work in the coming week by developing curriculum that can be implemented with children as young as six years old. Our hope is to teach them skills to help regulate their nervous systems to respond to emotionally triggering situations in the best way possible. For there to be change in our community around self-care, caring for others and stopping harmful situations we must “teach the babies” as Sam Simmons, of Simmons Consulting, has taught us, to break cycles of inter-generational trauma. We whole-heartily thank the Catalyst Initiative, and especially Suzanne Koepplinger for these funds to expand our work!!!!! If you want more info on the grant please visit the Catalyst Initiative's 2020 grant recipient announcement here.
May the warmth of the sun reach you wherever you are and know that you are in our thoughts!
- Darlene
Self-Care Sunday Update
Submitted by Justin Haughton, Bethel Social Work Intern