I seriously love the great folks at UJA-Federation’s Connect to Care program. For the uninitiated, Connect to Care is metro New York’s response to unemployment and the economic crisis as it has impacted our Jewish community.
So when these nice folks asked me to create a program to remind people that they are productive members of our community and not just a statistic, I jumped at the opportunity and created “Rebuilding Your Spirit”, an approach to using our spirit to respond to unemployment challenges.
And now, I’m ready to customize this program for any community or congregation and bring it to them at a cost of transportation and a token amount to offset my overhead. Not only that, I am working with a few great ministers to build an interfaith model as well.
Here is just one part of the program:
MOVING
From To
Unemployed person Person Experiencing Temporary Unemployment
Being a statistic (47%, 8%) Being a person with a unique life story
Looking at the short term Looking at the long term; Building an action plan
Focus on loss Using time to build and learn
Loss of purpose Creating meaning
Feeling guilt for accepting help Accepting and seeking help as return for past productivity
Denial of feelings Accepting and working through feelings
Losing hope Rebuilding spirit
Withdrawing Connecting and networking
An outline of the presentation and discussion can be found online at http://www.slideshare.net/JewishConnectivity/rebuilding-your-spirit-outline.
If your community or organization would like to bring this program in, I’m offering it for transportation expenses and a small amount to help cover my overhead. It’s already being booked, so please hit me with an email at Arnie@JewishConnectivity.com, and let’s bring this to the folks who are hurting right now.
