29 Dec, 2016

Try This: Identify Self Care Activities to Start, Continue, & Stop

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:59:24-04:00December 29th, 2016|Categories: Self & Community Care|Tags: self care, Try This|0 Comments

I recently shared a self care exercise you can use to identify your recipes, remedies, rituals, and resources for self care.

Today, let’s try another exercise taken from “The Revolution Starts with Me!: Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources”, a workshop I co-facilitate with Adaku Utah.

When I facilitated this exercise a few weeks ago with the staff at Reproaction, I adapted it to fit the organization’s self care needs, rather than have the staff complete the exercise individually. This exercise, adapted from the MS Society of Canada, is can found in our self care zine. If you already have the zine, pull it out and follow along, (or you can get a free copy when you sign up for my weekly newsletter.) Like the previous exercise, this exercise can be done individually or by a staff or group.

Here’s what you’ll need:

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15 Dec, 2016

Try This: Create Your Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources for Self Care

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:58:56-04:00December 15th, 2016|Categories: Self & Community Care|Tags: self care, Strategic Planning, Try This|1 Comment

I recently attended a staff retreat for Reproaction, one of my clients. During the two-day retreat, I led a few discussions on self care and goal setting in 2017 from an organizational viewpoint.

In particular, I led the staff through two exercises taken from my workshop “The Revolution Starts with Me!: Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources for Activist Self Care“. This workshop is typically co-facilitated with Adaku Utah, and is tailored to meet the needs of the primary audience. Over the years, the workshop has focused more on young activists as we’ve been asked to facilitate in mostly activist settings, but for Reproaction’s staff retreat, I adapted it to fit the organization’s self care needs. Today, I’ll walk you through one of the exercises. Whether you’re a staff or a group of students, this exercise will work for you, and there’s no right or wrong way to do it.

Here’s what you’ll need:

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12 Aug, 2015

Try This: Discover Your True Color

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:48:01-04:00August 12th, 2015|Categories: Miscellaneous|Tags: Capacity Building, Try This|0 Comments

During my college resident assistant orientation, we went through multiple leadership and staff building exercises. One assessment that stood out most was the True Colors™ assessment.

True Colors™ * is a personality test developed by Don Lowry in 1978. Originally created to categorize four basic learning styles to identify the strengths and challenges of these core personality types, True Colors™ helps us to understand different personality temperaments.

The concept behind True Colors™ is we aren’t put into the box of one, with the understanding that our personality traits are fluid and can adjust based on our environment or circumstances. True Colors is a way to understand the how our behaviors and motivations relate to our own to increase camaraderie, improve communication, and limit potential conflict.

This was particularly useful when I started working with my fellow RAs. When we took True Colors, we were excited to see that we each embodied one of the four personality types: Orange, Gold, Green, or Blue. After a while, we would refer to each other by color only, and when conflict arose or when we came together for meetings and to plan activities for our residents, we were able to understand why someone made a particular decision as well as how to work together.

True Colors™ can be used by college residential staff, supervisors, teachers, and more. I would venture to say that it’s particularly useful for school social workers, counselors, teachers, and anyone else that works with younger people as it can help you tailor your lesson plans and weekly counseling sessions based on the color of the young people you’re working with.

One thing worth mentioning: While you may dominate in a particular color, there’s no better or worse color. Each color is design to compliment the others, and you can flow in and out of your dominant color throughout your lifetime. Before reading on, I highly recommend you take the assessment. Here’s the official link to purchase True Colors™ for your staff or students. It includes the assessment as well as a detailed report of your colors by ranking and cover different areas where your color can come into play such as an work environment, school, childhood, time management, and how others may perceive you. Here’s a sample report. (And no, I’m not affiliated with True Colors™.)

If you want to take the exam without purchasing, check out this assessment based on True Colors developed by Lone Star College, or the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill’s version created by the university’s Department of Campus Recreation.

Once you take the assessment, come back and read more about the colors:

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1 Jul, 2015

Try This: How Does Health Care Look Through the Reproductive Health, Rights, & Justice Frameworks?

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2021-08-19T18:47:08-04:00July 1st, 2015|Categories: Equity & Justice|Tags: reproductive justice, Try This|0 Comments

In March, I began consulting with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene’s Bureau of Maternal, Infant and Reproductive Health around engaging community stakeholders on health equity and reproductive justice. I was initially intrigued because this was the first time I’ve heard of a city health department being interested in incorporating the reproductive justice framework into their work. Last week, the DOHMH held a community gathering of 65 local organizations on how to engage the community in this work, and I assisted in introducing the reproductive justice framework to those in the room who were not familiar with it. It was a great opportunity to assist the DOHMH in utilizing the reproductive justice framework in their work as they connect with local providers, community groups and activists, and I look forward to working with the DOHMH as they become more engaged with the New York City community.

During my presentation, I broke down the differences between the reproductive health, rights, and justice frameworks into two using Forward Together’s groundbreaking report A New Vision for Advancing Our Movement for Reproductive Health, Reproductive Rights, and Reproductive Justice (2005):

Reproductive Health: A service delivery model that focuses on addressing the reproductive health needs of women. The people affected are patients in need of services and/or education, and the key players are people who work as, or are allied with, medical professionals, community and public health educators, health researchers, and health service providers.

Reproductive Rights: A legal/advocacy based model that focuses on the protection of an individual’s right to access to reproductive health services. The people affected are individuals who are encouraged to actively participate in the political process, and the key players are people who work as, or are allied with, advocates, legal experts, policymakers, and elected officials.

Reproductive Justice: A community organizing model that focuses on intersectionality as a way to organize communities to change structural inequalities. The people affected are community members who are organized to lead against reproductive oppression and other injustices, and the key players are people who work as, or are allied with reproductive rights, reproductive health, and social justice and other justice organizations.

To go further, I used a health topic to demonstrate how it could look under each of these frameworks. Let’s take a look at an example on minors consenting to HIV treatment in New York State:

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18 Jun, 2014

Try This: The Teach Back Method

By Nicole Clark, LMSW|2022-08-15T12:24:11-04:00June 18th, 2014|Categories: Workshop, Program, & Curriculum Design|Tags: Try This, Workshops|0 Comments

There’s a lot to think about when planning a workshop, and along with making sure we’re as engaging as possible, we get caught up in how we’re delivering our message, that we don’t realize how it’s being received.

Outside of evaluating your workshop, there’s a great tool that’s been used by teachers, healthcare professionals, and social workers alike. It’s called the Teach Back method, and you’re going to start incorporating this into your workshops.

The Teach Back method (also known as the “show me method”, or “closing the loop” is a practice where the facilitator asks the workshop participants to explain a concept or skill based on the workshop topic, essentially taking on the role of facilitator. The Teach Back allows you to gauge your participants’ understanding of a topic or concept. The Teach Back also determines how effective you are at teaching or demonstrating a concept or skill within of your workshop. Merely standing in front of your participants and reciting information, even if you’re engaging them, doesn’t lead to a high increase of behavior change in the long run.

If your workshop participants are able to Teach Back, it means they most likely understand the material, especially since they’re tasked with teaching to their peers.

Along with retaining information, some of the benefits of the Teach Back method include:

Participants see themselves as experts, rather than relying solely on the expertise of the facilitator
Participants will most likely employ the behavior in real world situations
Participants are able to retain information when it’s recited in their own words

As the facilitator, you also benefit from the Teach Back method:

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Try This: Identify Self Care Activities to Start, Continue, & Stop

Here’s what you’ll need:

Try This: Create Your Recipes, Remedies, Rituals, and Resources for Self Care

Here’s what you’ll need:

Try This: Discover Your True Color

Try This: How Does Health Care Look Through the Reproductive Health, Rights, & Justice Frameworks?

Try This: The Teach Back Method

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