Voices from the Frontline: Self-Care
“To be honest, the work is beautiful. It’s fulfilling, it carves a well within you, it makes you a whole, fuller, better person.” – Duane Hall, Spoke N’ Heard
When we first started working together, we were most excited about finding creative and meaningful ways for us to highlight the stories and experiences of frontline youth workers and organizers. To us, these are the people who are at the heart of the youth sector, and who truly inform our work at YouthREX.
Self-care is a topic we heard, and still continue to hear about, over and over again in our conversations with youth sector stakeholders – especially among frontline youth workers and organizers. While we often think of self-care as an individual responsibility, we know that if we, as a sector, are honest, there is much work to be done in our organizations, in our communities, and in our systems to really make frontline work a healthy and thriving career path.
This podcast gave us the opportunity to connect with and hear from four frontline youth workers/organizers who represent a broad spectrum in age, experience, and perspectives on this topic. We gave each of them a recorder and some prompt questions on self-care, and asked them to record their reflections twice a day over the span of a week. Hearing the raw tape from each of them was inspiring. We heard voices of passion and dedication to this work, stories of resilience and acceptance, honest feelings of frustration, and a resolute will to keep pushing forward.
We hope you take time to listen to this podcast and hear reflections on self-care from Tyler Pennock, Duane Hall, Aisha Addo, and Tim Greenwood, who all graciously took time to participate in this project.
xx
Yumi & Anita
YouthREX Communications Team
PS: Please share your thoughts with us by tweeting us @REXforYouth or e-mailing us at info@youthrex.com. We would love to hear your reactions to this podcast!
Podcast Credits:
Directed by Yumi Numata and Anita Sekharan, YouthREX.
Edited and produced by Angela Shackel, Accounts & Records.
Music: YEYEY – Lovely Lonely (Instrumental) //
Tonality Star – Dream 1 //
Tonality Star – Dream 2 //
Tonality Star – Dream 3 //
Tonality Star – Dream 4 //
Tonality Star – Dream 6 //
Tonality Star – Dream 7 //
Mesmerists – Strength //
Cory Gray – Nothing More than Something