In Ottawa, Ontario, an organization called Soul Space is making a name for itself by providing spiritual care to the city’s front line street health, harm reduction, and community and social service workers. Before Zoë Chaytors left the EDGE team in February, she did an EDGEy Conversation with representatives from Soul Space:- Alex Brownlee, Frontline Worker Advisory Group, Peer Support Worker and Soul Space Photographer
- Lynn Fischer, Chair of Soul Space Steering Committee, Programming Provider and Retired Doctor
- Glenys Huws, Soul Space Steering Committee Member and Retired Ministry Leader
- Bobby Jamison, Soul Space Co-Founder, Frontline Worker Advisory Group, Frontline Worker and Peer Support Worker
- Paul Power, Frontline Worker Advisory Group and Retired Frontline Worker
- Danielle Rolfe, Soul Space Co-Founder and Program Coordinator
We’re all aware of the realities facing the less fortunate across country: poverty, homelessness, and mental health and substance abuse issues, often compounded by trauma. Social factors such as cuts to public funding for housing and food security, an escalating opioid crisis, and the recent COVID-19 pandemic intensify these hardships. The consequence?
Front line workers doing the vital work of providing care for our most vulnerable get exhausted and burnt out.
Soul Space recognized the need for Ottawa’s front line social support workers, who are often quite young, to engage in not only self-care to stay healthy, but to have a form of collective care and support with a wholistic focus that includes spirituality. Soul Space co-founder Bobby Jamison found that once he started talking about his belief that spirituality is vital to keeping all human beings in balance, people agreed with him that it was lacking in support environments for front line workers. He and Soul Space’s other co-founder, Danielle Rolfe, have developed an organization without a building, but with a philosophy and group of like-minded people around them that let them help front line workers cultivate and enjoy the benefits of in-person peer support and worker collective care:- Retreats for connected organization
- Clay workshops
- Cafes with no agenda – just a meeting with front line workers from all sectors for nurturing care, supportive conversation, and fun
Alex Brownlee and Paul Power, front line workers who found their way to their official work with Soul Space by initially being involved with its collective care activities, speak highly of how it made them want to connect with with Soul Space and be a part of its work. “It’s this really beautiful unity of folks from all walks of life, with all different skills, who have come together to support others who are doing the hardest work that you can imagine…when you really see it, it changes the perspective.” Alex says. Paul added that peer support and community doing things together helped him find what he needed after a few years of very difficult front-line work during the pandemic.
The panel is surprised by and grateful for what their work with Soul Space has taught them.
They talked about the relief they felt when they discovered they didn’t have to control everything as tightly as they’d first imagined. Danielle says about one of the first retreats, “And then, when I took my foot off the gas and let things just slide into place, they did, you know, better than I could have planned.”
Lynn Fischer agrees: “It was liberating to realize that that you can take the pulse of a group on any given day and realize what’s helpful.”
Along the same lines, Alex says he has had to let go of the idea that the Repair Cafes needed to be a smash hit, with a large attendance right from the start, or they’d have to consider them a failure. “Things can just naturally happen.” The Repair Cafes started with just a couple of people, and at recording time were doing very well.
Zoë reflected that the Soul Space team’s approach to its work opens a valuable dialogue on how, when we’re supporting people, we need to consider important questions: “How do we hold things loosely? How do we let go of control sometimes? How do we trust the process? How do we acknowledge that different things will fill different cups for different people at different times?”
For the future, the group is happy to keep doing this work, see many more people doing it in many more places, and help support it so that it can spread; also, to be about, as Danielle puts it, “being present” in their activities and interactions with front line staff, to support them in their work and prioritize being there for them regardless of whether there’s growth. Lynn would like to see the group have its own space out of which it could operate. Alex wants front line staff to, “let us take care of you for a moment so that you can take care of others.” It’s an important message.
“I think you have tapped into what is universal about what it means to be community and what it means to sit with each other in a really authentic way,” Zoë told the team.
Learn more about Soul Space Ottawa and listen to Zoë’s full EDGEY Conversation with the team on YouTube.
[Video credit: EDGEy Conversations] |
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EDGEy Conversation Error Correction from Sarah Levis Last issue, I brought you an article about an EDGEy Conversation that Zoë Chaytors did with Brenda Baker about the exciting ways that Grosvenor Park United Church in Saskatoon, SK, has been making its community of faith more accessible for people with disabilities. And I forgot to post the link to the EDGEy Conversation—a tremendous oversight on my part, and I hope that Brenda Baker and Grosvenor Park United Church can accept my apologies. Please go listen to this great EDGEy Conversation with Brenda Baker about disability, accessibility, and the importance of making our communities of faith welcoming for all people! Warm Regards, Sarah Levis, EDGE Team |
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