Staff Care Creates a Supportive Community in Chad and Sudan

People in Aid’s Staff Care Project creates a newfound experience for staff care and wellness thinking. The program develops training modules on stress reduction and self-care methods for humanitarian staff. The innovative training program, funded by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and piloted by People in Aid in Chad and Sudan, was developed for organizations in order to create an enriched process of staff care and wellness.

The program began in December 2010 and ended in February 2011 under the guidance of People in Aid consultants Amber Gray and John Fawcett, involving 50 individuals from two different locations and the assistance of 40 NGOs. The project is the first of its kind, with a momentous step in inter-agency staff investment. Gray and Fawcett gathered experiences from projects in Latin America, Haiti and Indonesia to build a program that would adapt to the environment and culture in Sudan and Chad. A learning method that was culturally appropriate and a content-driven process were essential for success.

To create a community-based infrastructure, the program developed three primary modules that would lead to organizational strategies: individual, social support, and organization. Participants in the program were pre-selected based on a key criteria and each module process took about a day to complete. Gray and Fawcett required the participants not only to reflect on their culture and identify traditional factors that protect them from harm and distress, but also to determine whether those factors are still available and adequately address the harm and distress they face in their organizational contexts. By the end of each process participants were challenged to develop new or adapt old strategies to relive harm and distress.

Gray and Fawcett used storytelling and role play to engage the participants in each process. Each process built on previous information that was learned the day before. But more importantly, the three modules paved the way for innovative strategies that evolved naturally through each process. A safe learning space was created that allowed participants to learn from one another and gain new experiences. Each process stressed the importance of staff care and wellness thinking through organizational efforts. The three-stage module process served as a unique template for the project and they can be used by any organization to implement their own staff care program. Participants involved in the process left knowing that they could initiate a content-based process in their work environment that deals with staff care and wellness.

Gray and Fawcett hope that the success of the program leads to more staff care communities in new locations. Although the Staff Care Project ended in February 2011, People in Aid continues to receive feedback on its progress for the participants and their organizations.

To learn more about the project contact Ben Emmens, Director of HR Services at ben@peopleinaid.org

By Michael Orevba, InterAction Intern