This is excerpted from the Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s recent newsletter.
It’s time to talk about mental health, and to balance what your nonprofit organization is experiencing with what you and your team are personally feeling and experiencing. And if you’re feeling anything like we are, it’s a lot. It can be difficult to take the space and time, but you’ll need to nurture yourself and your team to keep doing the difficult, amazing work you all are doing. Here are some mental health resources and support systems that can help.
- CNE’s upcoming session: What Your Brain Needs from You to Successfully Navigate All of this Uncertainty on Wednesday, April 29th from 9 – 10AM (Eastern Time)
- The Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition shared a model to help nonprofit teams care for one another and the people you serve, called Stress First Aid. Research shows that there are five human needs during a time of community crisis: safety, calm, connection, confidence/having a plan, and competence/hope. Here is a Stress First Aid video with additional resources, a support tool, and a very simple 1-page debrief with good questions to ask your team.
- Help Happens Here, operated by the Community Mental Health and Wellness Coalition, is a comprehensive collection of mental health resources and guidance. It includes information about crisis services and remote services provided by local organizations, including Region Ten, The Women’s Initiative, On Our Own, and JABA (who is looking for volunteers to help seniors feel more connected!) Many of these services are free. It also includes information on accessing and navigating health insurance and other basic needs.
- ReadyKids has put together resources for families and parents, on topics such as food support, health care, and more.
- Here’s an article featuring the ways that local mental health service providers have adapted.