A PRODUCTIVE AND HAPPY LIFE
IS NOT SOMETHING YOU FIND;
IT IS SOMETHING YOU MAKE.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
HEALING OUR HEALERS
In 2021, we identified the critical need to prioritize staff health and wellness. We must heal our healers. Thanks to a grant from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, we created our Behavioral Health and Wellness initiative.
This essential program has a dual purpose:
-
Increase staff wellness and resiliency against the impact of trauma, which will in turn,
-
Increase staff’s capacity to provide in-house behavioral health and wellness services directly to participants.
We strive to heal our courageous staff as they faithfully work to heal others.
People can go on a very long time appearing to be well when they are very broken inside. We need to be cognizant of that as people are being immersed in violence.
Selwyn O. Rogers, M.D., Nonviolence Chicago Board Co-Vice Chair
SUPPORTED BY RESEARCH
Why do we focus so much on the health and wellness of our frontline staff?
CVI plays an essential role in Chicago’s public safety strategy, yet the work of building safer communities is risky and often traumatic. CVIs identify individuals most at risk for gun violence involvement and victimization and provide them tailored interventions. CVI efforts rely heavily on the credibility of violence intervention workers who foster deep relationships with program participants, communities and groups at the center of conflicts to broker and maintain peace.
As the CVI field expands, commitment to worker wellbeing must remain a core principle. Integrating staff wellness into the broader CVI infrastructure will both support individual practitioners and ensure the long-term sustainability of a field increasingly necessary for our collective public safety.
Our Staff Wellness Initiative offers one approach to prioritizing wellbeing and responding to support and infrastructure gaps in the CVI field. Read lessons from the Center for Neighborhood Engaged Research and Science’s (CORNERS) three-year process evaluation partnership with our Staff Wellness Initiative.
CREATING A CULTURE OF WELLNESS
The best thing we can do to reduce violence is to take better care of our staff. The healthier they are, the more effective they can be. And it’s the right thing
to do.
Kelly Carroll, Associate Director of Behavioral Health & Wellness
Our Behavioral Health and Wellness team as well as our internal Wellness Committee champion staff wellness at all levels of the organization. To reduce the impact of trauma, they promote safe spaces and create a culture of wellness through education, support, and advocacy.
The Wellness Committee, comprised of staff from all departments and roles, is responsible for researching and vetting various therapeutic resources and coordinating wellness events, such as Wellness Fairs and retreats. They have introduced staff and participants to yoga, massage, Reiki, music, art, and aroma therapy, advice from medical and health experts, and more. The Committee also acts as an advisor and driver of policy changes and organizational interventions that prioritize staff wellness and trauma-informed care.
Wellness Fairs
HEALING WITH COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTIONS (CBI)
Cognitive behavioral intervention (CBI) is an organizational resource that helps address staff and participants’ immediate mental health needs.
In late 2022, we started CBI for Nonviolence. This intervention fuses coping and trauma resiliency skills with the principles of Nonviolence which guide our organizational mission. It utilizes supportive relationships as a source of healing while equipping individuals with specific skills to build resiliency against anxiety, stress, trauma, and depression. Staff are then able to teach this skillset to participants.
CBI has been added to all our program curriculums teaching participants how to identify triggers, better manage emotions, and change behaviors.
Participants attribute positive relationship changes and their ability to choose peace over violence directly to CBI.
WHAT
PARTICIPANTS
ARE
LEARNING
FROM
CBI
Our behavioral health and wellness program is very ambitious, and we know change takes time, but our staff, our healers, and our city are worth it.
SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR WELLNESS PARTNERS
