Solidarity Teams
Summary
TLDRThe video script emphasizes the importance of collective care and solidarity in maintaining a 'zone of fabulousness' amidst challenging work environments. It suggests that self-care is crucial but not sufficient; a support system of colleagues and community members is necessary to stay connected and ethically aligned. The speaker shares personal experiences, highlighting the value of solidarity teams in providing critique, support, and a sense of belonging. The concept of 'Frontline Fight Club' is introduced as a means for frontline workers to find dynamic support, stressing the need for diverse methods to sustain resilience and well-being in demanding roles.
Takeaways
- 🤝 The importance of collective care and solidarity teams for maintaining a 'zone of fabulousness' in challenging work environments.
- 💆♀️ Self-care is essential but not sufficient; collective care involves others reaching out to offer critique and support when needed.
- 🔄 The concept of 'zone slippage', where individuals deviate from their optimal performance zone, and the role of solidarity teams in helping to correct this.
- 🤔 The significance of recognizing and honoring the work of others, and understanding the fluidity of roles within a team.
- 🌟 The role of solidarity teams in keeping individuals connected to their collective ethics and motivations for their work.
- 🥊 The introduction of 'Frontline Fight Club', a free service for frontline workers to engage in physical activity as a form of support.
- 💪 The necessity of being dynamic and agile in supporting those doing difficult work, acknowledging that a one-size-fits-all approach is not effective.
- 🔄 The struggle of balancing personal detachment and connection in the workplace, and the awareness needed to stay in the 'zone of fabulousness'.
- 👥 The idea that the best resource for staying fabulous is each other, emphasizing the importance of a supportive network.
- 🌱 The evolution of what constitutes a solidarity team, including the realization that those served by one's work can also be part of this team.
- 🔗 The connection between collective care, solidarity teams, and the ability to resist burnout by staying true to one's values and ethics in work.
Q & A
What is the concept of 'collective care' mentioned in the transcript?
-Collective care refers to a supportive environment where individuals look out for one another, offering critique and assistance to help each other maintain a 'zone of fabulousness', especially when someone experiences a slippage from that zone.
What role does self-care play in staying within the 'zone of fabulousness'?
-Self-care is important for managing oneself effectively so that the person being served remains at the center of attention. However, it is not sufficient to maintain the 'zone of fabulousness' on its own; collective care is also necessary.
Can you explain the term 'solidarity teams' as used in the script?
-Solidarity teams are groups of individuals who support each other, ensuring that everyone involved stays connected to their collective ethics and helps each other stay fabulous. They are the people who shoulder you up in the work and keep you connected to your values.
How does the speaker define 'fabulousness' in the context of the script?
-In the script, 'fabulousness' is used metaphorically to describe a state of being where individuals are at their best, serving their clients or community effectively and maintaining a high level of performance and well-being.
What strategies are suggested for frontline workers to stay dynamic and agile in their work?
-The speaker mentions 'Frontline Fight Club' as an example of a strategy where frontline workers can come for free and engage in activities like boxing to support their physical and mental agility.
Why is it important for the speaker to make space for the community and peers they work for?
-It is important for the speaker to make space for the community and peers because it aligns with the collective ethics and the purpose of their work, which is not about personal prominence but about serving and supporting others.
How does the speaker describe the experience during the fentanyl crisis?
-The speaker describes it as one of the worst times, with a particularly challenging night having 17 overdoses. The support of the people around them was crucial to getting through such difficult times.
What does the speaker suggest as a way to resist the language of burnout?
-The speaker suggests focusing on collective care and solidarity teams as a way to resist the language of burnout, emphasizing the importance of support and connection with others who share the same ethics and values.
How has the speaker's understanding of their 'solidarity team' evolved over time?
-The speaker's understanding has evolved to include not just colleagues and close friends but also the clients they serve, recognizing the importance of their support and the trust built over time.
What is the significance of the speaker's realization about including the community in their solidarity team?
-The significance lies in the recognition that the community they serve can also provide support and a sense of belonging, which is crucial during challenging times and helps in maintaining connection and avoiding burnout.
How does the speaker describe the importance of being aware of one's own values and ethics in their work?
-The speaker emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in terms of values and ethics, as it helps in recognizing when one is not conducting themselves in line with their own ethics and allows for the seeking of support from the solidarity team.
Outlines
🤝 Collective Care and Solidarity Teams
The speaker emphasizes the importance of collective care and solidarity teams in maintaining a 'zone of fabulousness' in difficult work environments. They discuss the necessity of self-care to manage oneself effectively while serving others, but also highlight that individual efforts are not enough. The concept of a solidarity team is introduced as a group that supports each other, offering critique and assistance when someone slips from the zone of fabulousness. The speaker shares personal experiences, mentioning the value of having people who understand the gravity of the work they do, such as fighting the death penalty, and how these relationships contribute to staying connected and ethically aligned. The paragraph also touches on the idea of using collective ethics to maintain a sense of fabulousness and the importance of recognizing and utilizing the support of others in the community.
💪 Support in Challenging Times
This paragraph delves into the speaker's personal experiences during the fentanyl crisis, describing the overwhelming situation where they had to deal with 17 overdoses within a short period. The speaker credits their solidarity team for helping them cope during such challenging times, highlighting the importance of having people around who share the same ethical values and commitment. They discuss the significance of knowing when to lean on others for support and the value of stepping back when necessary, as well as the evolution of their solidarity team over time. The speaker also reflects on the importance of including the community and clients in their support network, as they have learned to serve and be served by those they work with. The paragraph concludes with a reflection on the role of love and the collective effort in the face of adversity.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Fabulousness
💡Collective Care
💡Solidarity Teams
💡Zone Slippage
💡Ethics
💡Frontline Workers
💡Harm-Reduction Center
💡Burnout
💡Detachment
💡Community
Highlights
The importance of collective care and solidarity teams for maintaining a zone of fabulousness.
Self-care is essential but not sufficient for staying fabulous; collective care is necessary.
Collective care involves reaching out to offer critique and help when someone experiences zone slippage.
Solidarity teams are composed of people who support and keep you connected to your collective ethics.
Identifying who shoulders you up in work and accessing them across time is crucial for solidarity.
The role of solidarity teams in fighting against death row and staying alive in dark and hard work.
Frontline Fight Club as an example of dynamic support for frontline workers.
The necessity of being agile in supporting people doing difficult work and the importance of community.
The struggle of making space for the community and peers rather than focusing on oneself.
The concept of enmeshment and disconnection as challenges to staying connected and fabulous.
Resisting the language of burnout and focusing on collective ethics and solidarity.
The personal experience of relying on support during the fentanyl crisis and the importance of ethics.
Recognizing when to step back and seek support from your solidarity team.
The evolution of what constitutes a solidarity team over time and including clients in that team.
The realization that the community you serve can be part of your solidarity team and contribute to your resilience.
The idea that collective care and solidarity are essential for staying connected to the work and the people that brought you here.
Transcripts
[Music]
in terms of staying with the zone of
fabulousness and the fact that we need
each other to do that there's a couple
of strategies that are helpful
the first one is collective care and
solidarity teams self care is important
self care so that you can actually
manage yourself in a way that the client
or the person that you're trying to
serve gets to be at the center but
that's not going to keep you fabulous
that's not going to keep you in a zone
of fabulousness what we need to have is
collective care and that collective care
means that when there's zone slippage
someone else is going to reach out and
actually offer you a critique and help
bring you back that's part of collective
care but it's also doing things like
honoring the work of other people
permission and other people to be fluid
and to be to stay with different ways of
being fabulous solidarity teams meaning
solidarity teams come from figuring out
who it is that's really shouldering you
up in the work who are the people that
really keep you alive and connected to
your collective ethics right and how do
you access those people across time who
are they they may be the people you work
with they may not be some of the people
that helped me the most stay alive in
this epidemic and these poisoning deaths
are people who worked fighting death row
with me people who fought the death
penalty with me who really understand
life and death and staying alive in a
work that is this dark and hard so and
what are the ideas and the practices and
the people in terms of your relationship
with culture and spirituality belonging
the things that keep you connected the
keep the things that keep you well
practices and people and music and
experiences that solidarity team is the
thing that you know can keep solidarity
is the thing that drew us to this work
and to each other because we are
actually week old and ethic for justice
doing collectively and it's the
Solidarity that's going to keep us in
line with that across time you cannot
you cannot stay fabulous on your own
front line Fight Club is a session that
happens twice a week where frontline
workers can come for free and box I
think things like frontline Fight Club
are important for frontline workers
because we need to be really dynamic and
agile about how we support people who
are doing difficult work not not once
is going to be good for everyone and for
me I really like sweating while the the
zone of fabulousness might be where we
endeavour to be at the same time like
there's there's always going to be
moments in a day where I'm you know
detaching when I shouldn't detach or
when I'm meshing and I shouldn't mesh
but but at the same time being aware of
it like say for instance you know even
today I I work at a pier run
harm-reduction center that's open 24
hours a day so we're always trying to
figure out you know as a team how to
make sure that it provides the community
what it needs and and for me like my
struggle is continually that it's not
about me or my ideas it's actually about
the community and the peers that I I
work for so making sure that it's not me
who's like making my voice big but like
making space for them even though yeah
that that's that's a struggle but at the
same time like that's that's where I use
those tools a lot in terms of staying in
the zone of fabulousness the best
resource we have is each other right we
need each other to stay with
fabulousness
so that solidarity team is a team of
folks who are the people that shoulder
you up in the work who are the people
that keep you connected to your
collective ethics our collective ethics
right who are the folks when you get
with zone slippage and you start to move
out who are the people that are going to
offer a critique and bring you back
right and the people on your solidarity
team may not be the people that you work
with it may be people who you've known
through activism or who you've known
through music or experiences in your
life that helped you stay connected and
belonged and in a really good place so
that solidarity team is a group of folks
that you need across the span of your
life to stay with collective ethics and
to stand as our fabulousness how's that
frame how does the frame of the zone of
fabulousness you know looking at
enmeshment and disconnection as people
get drawn in those kind of directions
outside of connection how's that frame
useful for you in terms of solidarity or
collective care well it makes I think of
some of the things that you talk about
around resisting the language of burnout
because that's often the language that
people come in with they're coming
they're seeking me out or they're
seeking out conversation support because
they are burned out
or somebody has told them that they are
burned out people don't know what to do
with I'm burnt out but they know what to
do with ya I'm not at the spot I want to
be with this work that I care so deeply
about I feel very very lucky because in
this work I've been for the most part
and I've worked in a number of different
locations in the Downtown Eastside and
on the fringes of the Downtown Eastside
but I've been surrounded by really
people who I've felt very supported by
and so going through some really hard
times where at the beginning of the
fentanyl crisis when one of our like one
of the worst two nights that I've been
through was where we had um 17 overdoses
and not back-to-back shifts and I could
not have done it without the people that
I had around me and I leaned on I leaned
on most people I think that knowing like
just knowing that I'm talking to people
who have the same ethics are guided by
the same you know kind of love and
strength and conviction means that when
I'm not feeling good when I'm feeling
wobbly you know and I can't I can't hold
myself up I know who to go to and
they've got me and yeah knowing myself
knowing where I sit knowing my own
values and ethics knowing when I'm not
able to conduct myself in line with my
own ethics and being able to be just to
tell people around me like like I'm not
well right now I can't I don't trust
myself right now
yeah and step back and say can you can
you step up like that means a lot to me
and that that's so different than that
solidarity is so different than just
support you know cuz the poor can tell
you to phone the AP and go to grief
counseling or something right but this
is something like we're all in this
still this isn't over
and this isn't ending and we want you to
be able to be abuse across time and you
might need to step back right now and
howl at the moon
and no one's gonna judge you as a bad
professional for that right we are gonna
like hold you through that right mm-hmm
yeah but what's changed for me over the
years is what solidarity team looks like
snow I know at the beginning of the
opiate epidemic as a manager had about
50 staff and about about 300 tenants as
well as you know just kind of like the
community yeah and so it wasn't a person
that was burning you it was something
that was happening which is the opiate
epidemic so you know I'm like my my days
or 18-hour days seven days a week cuz I
couldn't not be there you know I wanted
to make sure everyone was supported
whether it be the tenants whether it be
the staff I'm not taking a lot of time
for myself and what what I realized what
I was missing for my solidarity team was
actually the folks that we serve so I
took some time when I was feeling burnt
out by everything mm-hmm Oh some time to
actually just hang out with folks not in
a crisis way and not in solving way but
like mixing dinners you know what yeah
coffee and that's when I realized that
was one of my big learning things over
the last couple years is my solidarity
team were colleagues and close friends
that I trusted but I hadn't thought
about adding to my solidarity team some
of the clients that have known for just
as long I'm in ways of trusting and it's
actually how I changed my response to an
opioid epidemic was what is it like what
does the community need what do they
need and that's been that I could need
this we need not can kits on each floor
we you know we need we need staff
supporting us we need supervised
injection like all the stuff that we
know we needed I was something just
about taking a moment to be with
community helped me move away from being
burnt out by the opioid epidemic and has
kept me and it is yeah that connection
and the idea that the folks that you
serve can be on your solidarity team is
pretty it's pretty out there
and and of course it's true right
because I think the whole point of
collective care and solidarity team is
what is that the harder you work what
drew you to this work is that is what's
going to keep you here and you're there
for people so then when things get
really hard we get further and further
away from the people that brought us
here which of what you're saying is love
right yeah
you
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