Last month our Executive Director, Jules Kelty, and our Associate Director of Strategic Initiatives, Mayra Aviña, attended the Strengthening Colorado Families & Communities Conference in Keystone! They co-facilitated a session on how they support Focus Points’ workplace culture through accountability groups and collaborated with professionals from all over the state to further their knowledge on public health and child welfare.
Accountability Groups and Fostering Community
Accountability groups are bi-weekly meetings of employees from varying departments within the organization. They are a place where members can set personal workplace goals and receive reassurance and guidance on how they can be executed. By defining these goals and sharing them out loud, employees can check-in with themselves and track their growth. These groups also encourage communication between teams as a place to share any important updates happening within each department. Since groups are randomized, employees are often having conversations with coworkers that they wouldn’t typically interact with, which builds a stronger, more well-connected organization as a whole.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for Focus Points to share a best practice” said Kelty. “Creating these groups help us to stay accountable with each other, supporters, and partners. It has improved organizational wellness and brought us closer as a team. (and it was fun to present with Mayra!)”
Supporting Employees in High-Stakes Fields
In addition to sharing this presentation, Aviña attended the Steady in the Storm session which focused on grounding and co-regulation techniques for workers and families. As the manager of our Family Support Services team she understands that sustainability for employees is important now more than ever, especially in the high-stakes fields of child-welfare, home visitation, and public health.
“Our roles are supervisors are to remind our team and ourselves of easy, low-lift self-care practices,” said Aviña. “It is something we must practice every day and consistently to drop burnout and compassion fatigue.’’
During this session, presenters Alison Harris and Mary Alex Dill from Colorado Office of School Safety walked through how regulation and grounding can help a team member or case worker before providing support and de-escalation in an appointment. Some examples of these techniques are somatic breaks (rhythmic movement and controlled breathing), field anchors (stomping on the ground or tapping on shoulders), and dashboard transition script (taking a minute to ground and self-talk).
“This session bridged the gap between staff retention and family success by teaching the art and science of co-regulation, guiding participants through the physiological why behind grounding followed by hands-on practice with specific, evidence-based somatic techniques.’’ said Aviña. “By mastering these concrete skills, workers protect their own mental health while modeling the Parental Resilience and Social-Emotional Competence we seek to build in Colorado families.”
Attending conferences like Strengthening Colorado Families is one of the many ways that leadership at Focus Points prioritizes the needs of employees in order to provide the best services and assistance to the GES community. Just as Focus Points believes that a strong family is built from thriving individuals, we believe that a strong organization is built from thriving employees.
