First and foremost, we want to wish you well. During these uncertain times, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stay focused on our day-to-day tasks as the world around us changes so dramatically. As a team, we are connecting daily both as producers of youth empowerment work and as individual global citizens who are experiencing this event with all of you.
We want to share that we are feeling the unsteady state of the world right now and want to reiterate that whatever emotional response you have during this time is valid. This is a time to take care of yourself and others and validate that we are all going through this together, but may be experiencing it in different ways. We can all be better served by understanding each other’s worldview during times like this and hold space for each other to feel, express, and react to the events surrounding us.
We wanted to reach out as a source of support for you and your organizations. Even though we have always worked in virtual spaces, YMN is making a few changes to the way we do business. In the midst of our everyday lives changing, we will be launching a series of blog posts and online resources for our chapter networks, youth-serving organizations, TA partners, and collaborators.
As we all try to balance a sense of normalcy in an environment that is pushing urgency, we want to lend our team as a resource. With that in mind, we want you all to know that YMN will continue to provide technical assistance, knowing that it may look different given our current situation. We feel it is our responsibility to assist our network in coming up with creative ways to facilitate youth empowerment in any way that we can. If that means creating online drop-in spaces with chat and video programs, facilitating team meetings virtually, or sharing resources on how to manage stress and anxiety during a global crisis, we want to be there for you. Our TA services are fully open and available, so please feel free to fill out our TA form or contact us directly at [email protected]
Our hope is that together we can find strategies to MOVE forward during this stressful time.
– The Youth MOVE National Team
You guys rock! So appreciate you and really loved today’s blog on tools for working from home. I am the 59 year old Executive Director of Idaho Federation of Families and we are proud to be Idaho Youth Move – but tech-savvy is not my middle name! I have hired a dynamo recently, who at 24 yrs runs circles around me with her social media knowledge, and I am so happy to be connecting her (Jennifer) with NYM and all the resources you offer. I see a bright future for Idaho Youth MOVE despite the crushing reality of closing down our 5 week old teen center (after school hours only to start ) that had had such a successful launch! It is just so important to us to feel connected to a backbone of support and ideas – and you have been that for us, and we need you more than ever! Shout out to Maddie who was instrumental in coaching us through the creation of our teen center program. You are a great team with diverse talents that we appreciate. Thanks for being out there. Stay well!
Ruth – thank you for your message. It is really inspiring to hear how people are staying connected and what work our chapters are doing! Stay tuned, as we have more blogs and social media resources coming that will target ways that chapters and orgs can stay connected to their groups. Feel free to reach out if you want some coaching about ways to connect while a lot of the world is trying to physical distance. Keep up the great work 🙂