In this day-long session, we will get specific about the challenges of supporting staff over the last three years while underscoring the importance of human-centered, identity-inclusive, and nuanced supervisory practices as a long-term commitment. One that existed before and will continue beyond COVID-19 and recent racial and economic reckonings. The mental health of managers and supervisors will be a through line — offering insight into caring for oneself while caring for others. We all know that when the reserves are empty it is harder to show up as your authentic and engaged self.
This Spotlight is oriented to nonprofit managers, supervisors, and human resource and operations specialists working to build their capacity for addressing mental and emotional health within their organizations.
Spotlights are day-long virtual trainings, offering four to five 60-minute sessions, each exploring a different aspect of a specific topic. Each session will be led by experienced nonprofit leaders and subject-matter experts. Spotlights are designed to offer practical information that can be applied immediately along with larger-picture questions and possibilities to consider for the long-term. Breaks will be incorporated throughout.
Topics to be covered:
- Building individual consciousness around intersecting identities to better support people outside of your own experience who are moving through mental and emotional stress
- Deciphering what one can and cannot ask/do if they witness an employee/colleague struggling
- Creating internal policies, procedures, and expectations with a mental health lens
- Protecting yourself while you care for others
- Supporting liberation and healing through affirming unapologetic authenticity at work
Full descriptions of each session coming soon.
9-10 a.m. CT - Sarah Edstrom
Building individual consciousness around intersecting identities to better support people outside of your own experience who are moving through mental and emotional stress.
Sarah was a Sexual Assault Advocate at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center for 11 of her 36 years of being alive. Sarah has spent 0 of her 36 years of being alive being Native American. Despite being an outsider, she ended up being trusted and effective at working in the Native community. Sarah will share her experiences of working in a community that rightfully mistrusts outsiders as a way of discussing the complexity of human identity and how it does and does not impact the work that we do, specifically in nonprofits. Learn from Sarah's mistakes and her successes to gain insight into how one can provide support in a culture/community that is not their own. During this kick-off session participants will:
- Learn about how to provide guidance to staff from outside of the community they serve.
- Learn why emphasizing “understanding” and “relating” can be problematic.
- Learn how radical acceptance can improve staff experience and the work that they do.
10:30-11:30 a.m. CT - Ollin Rodriguez Lopez & Marvin Webb
Creating internal policies, procedures, and expectations with a mental health stability at the center.
The Human Resources team at Funders for LGBTQ Issues is making an effort to move away from resilience and towards long-term mental stability. As the pandemic, racial uprising(s), wars, recession, and a myriad of other conflicts impact employees' lives, urgent long-term mental health needs come to light. As a result, we are working on a global approach to employees’ mental health and wellness.
In this session, we will discuss and share the details of our global approach, which includes HR professionals taking care of themselves while taking care of their employees.
Questions we will work to answer:
What does that look like in specificity?
Where’s the justice in that frame?
What is the limit for the HR professional?
What is the limit for the employees?
12-1 p.m. CT - Joan Bibelhausen
Initiating conversations with colleagues on mental health that acknowledge situational and structural fatigue and take your own trauma into account.
1:30-2:30 p.m. CT - Marit Appeldoorn
Protecting yourself while you care for others. As supervisors, we are asked to absorb, process, and address multiple layers of stress within organizations, staff, and the populations we serve. This has only been amplified in recent years by an ongoing pandemic and social trauma and unrest, and many of us feel strained to capacity. “Self care” can feel like an empty, misguided concept in times like these! However, simple and intentional practices based in neuroscience have the transformative power to protect and recharge our nervous systems from stress and to enhance our ability to provide ongoing support to our staff.
Participants will have the opportunity to discuss:
- Layers of stress unique to the supervisory role
- Basic principles of neurobiologically informed self care
- The “check and reset” approach which uses easy, effective strategies to target different categories of work-related stress responses
3- 4 p.m. CT - Ashley Oolman
Supporting liberation and healing through affirming unapologetic authenticity at work.
As society shifts its focus towards more conversations about disability, mental health, and neurodivergence, how do folks with intersecting identities navigate the mainstream's new demand for authenticity? This session will take time to explore how factors like risk, harm, power, and privilege play a major part in who gets to be “real” and how it feels in real time. Come to understand how good intentions to increase inclusion are more complicated than they may seem on the surface. Together we will uncover how to navigate these moments specifically as a neurodivergent person, and how to center the experiences of folks most impacted as allies. Together we will learn how to:
- Confront the danger of good intentions.
- Unpack “authentic self” expectations.
- Learn to center folks that are most impacted.
Event Details
This virtual event will take place on the Zoom platform. Your access link will be emailed to you the day before the event after 12 p.m.
This session will be recorded. The recording will be made available to registrants after the live event.
Captioning is provided automatically through Zoom. For information on requesting CART, ASL, or another accommodation, please visit our Registration Policies page.
To learn more about events, registration, and payment, visit our Event & Registration FAQ page.
State Association Partners
This event is presented in partnership with Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits, Common Good Vermont, Kentucky Nonprofit Network, Maine Association of Nonprofits, Nonprofit Connect, Oklahoma Center for Nonprofits, and West Virginia Nonprofit Association.
Speaker Information
Sarah Edstrom was a Sexual Assault Advocate at the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center for 11 years. She co-produced the award-winning documentary “Dodging Bullets: Stories from Survivors of Historical Trauma.” She facilitated the "Indigi-Nerd Comic Book Lovers Group" through Hennepin County Library.
Ollin Rodriguez Lopez has a decade of experience as an organizer and administrator in food justice, LGBTQ liberation and economic justice movements. Before joining the team at Funders for LGBTQ Issues, they worked at the National Domestic Workers Alliance as an event planner and operations aficionado. While at NDWA, he spearheaded the infrastructure and distribution of $30 million COVID relief fund to domestic workers. Ollin is thrilled to join Funders for LGBTQ Issues and to develop HR policies and resources that center racial, economic, disability, and gender justice. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts with a focus on Race and Ethnicity Studies from The New School. Ollin was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and now lives in Atlanta, GA with his partner and tender Pisces son. In his free time, they love collecting Janet Jackson records.
Marvin Webb joined Funders for LGBTQ Issues in May 2010 and currently holds the role of Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration. By mixing business efficiency and insights in analytical prowess, he’s been at the helm of the organization’s profitable growth. As a strategic thought-partner, he has created four focused pillars that guide the human resource work of Funders for LGBTQ Issues. The pillars center on employee engagement, total compensation, learning & development, and performance management. This work’s power is built around measurement maps that align the organization’s strategic goals, investment goals, leading indicators, and business results while overlaid with its racial, gender, transgender, and disability lenses. Marvin received his BA from Creighton University, a Certificate in modern dance from the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance, and his MFA, in contemporary dance, from New York University/Tisch School of the Arts. After his 17-year performing career as a modern dancer, Marvin received his MBA in Human Resources and Marketing from Baruch College/Zicklin School of Business. He recently graduated from Southern New Hampshire University with an MS in Accountancy.
Joan Bibelhausen has served as Executive Director of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers since 2005. She is an attorney and is nationally recognized for her work in the lawyer assistance and diversity and inclusion realms. Joan has significant additional training in counseling, mental health and addiction, diversity, employment issues, and management. She has spent more than two decades working with lawyers, judges, and law students at a crossroads because of mental illness and addiction concerns and well-being, stress, and related issues.
Marit Appeldoorn, MSW, LICSW, RPT-S is a psychotherapist, supervisor, and consultant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She holds a master’s degree in clinical social work from Smith College, and has over 25 years of experience providing mental health care to children, families, and adults. Marit loves teaching and training, and specializes in a reflective and integrative approach to both therapy and supervision.
Ashley Oolman was born and raised in Minnesota, and is a wife and mom of 3. As a Black neurodivergent woman, leveraging differences to strengthen human connection was a means to both survival and healing. To her work with Allied Folk, she brings lived experience, multiple degrees, and an unwavering belief that we all have the power to change the future. Together with organizations and community partners, she co-creates spaces for exploration and re-learning, designed to advance equity, reconciliation, and ultimately, change. Ashley is operations director of equity and inclusion with the Minnesota Department of Human Services.