My thoughts on self-care, fellowship accessibility. and inclusion.

We had a brief lecture on self-care during one of our learning sessions. I remember hearing that self-care is the sole responsibility of the individual. A bootstraps type mentality, in my opinion. But I challenge this argument. The health of an individual is not just the responsibility of the individual. Our actions and inactions sometimes harm other people. We must make effort to be aware of the consequences of our actions. Therefore, we, fellows, and the Columbus Foundation at large, must also practice community care or collective care. This is yet another piece of the equity and inclusion puzzle. What was missing in the lecture on self-care was this concept. A community cannot succeed when community members are not caring for each other. What was missing in this self-care address was the acknowledgement that individuals’ self care practices are hindered by external forces such as “bosses,” friends, family, race, gender, sexual orientation, chronic health issues/disabilities, neighbors, businesses, climate and weather, authorities (instructors, police, judges, etc), policies, or lack of policies that institutions and employers have. The conversation did not acknowledge the negative health affects these variables can have on fellows. What was missing was the conversation about organizations and employers cultivating a culture of self-care, which can often lead to higher satisfaction, productivity, and retention. What was missing was that self-care is not commonly taught to individuals. It is not always curriculum in schooling or taught in families. What was missing was the acknowledgement that someone’s physical and mental health is always affected by all of these external forces outside of our control. What was missing was the context of self-care costing money and that it is, debatably, a luxury to those with low incomes. It is not always accessible, especially for people who are disabled. For some personal context: I cannot cook food if I do certain work for a variable number of hours. A 3 hour day can take me out as much as an 8 hour day. A 10 hour day can go by fast and I feel my baseline normal. Disability is not a reliable thing. Perhaps I do cook, but this tipping point means the next day I can’t work at all. And possibly the day after that, because I go to my needed art therapy time for my mental health. But art therapy time requires physical effort. That increases my pain which results in fatigue. Now I need to recover from therapy. Perhaps I take a medication to aid me, but then the medication has its own side effects that affect my life in other ways. Now I need to recover or alter course based on medication.

I do value the autonomy and agency of others, I do value work ethic. I value working on expanding my discomfort zone and as a result, reducing my danger zone. I also value taking care of others and I value providing the education and tools for others to take care of themselves. We must recognize that in our society, it is too easy to abandon self-care when all your energy has been expensed on surviving.

Some ideas on how The Columbus Foundation can support their Summer Fellows and be more accessible in the future:

Allocate funds to pay an equitable wage. Context: Median rent is over $1000/month in Columbus. (July 2022 Columbus Rent Report, Apartment List). Context: White Castle pays $17/hour. Context: Gas is $5 a gallon. Self-Care massage is $60/hour.

Recruit more: students of different age groups, non-degree seeking students, non-credit students, students with children, etc.

Engage with and recruit more people who have disabilities. Ask them how to make the program more accessible before, during, and after the program. Perhaps emphasize providing feedback after program completion to fellows so that they do not think offering feedback could result in jeopardizing their position.

Provide clear rationale for certain fellowship requirements.

Offer a way to provide anonymized feedback to challenge requirement rationales, non-profit site issues, and concepts shared in learning sessions.

Recruit learning session presenters who have disabilities.

Recognize that fellows may be working multiple jobs outside of their fellowship to make ends meet and to secure employment when the fellowship ends.

Remove the hour requirement. Non-profit sites can track productivity based on fellows’ deliverables over the course of the ten week period. Hourly work is status-quo.

Offer the option to attend learning sessions virtually.

Recognize that fellows may not have reliable transportation, healthcare, food, shelter, or clothing. Find ways to ethically identify if people are struggling to meet these needs. Find ways to support people to meet these needs. People who go through these issues have insights into how non-profit services are failing and how to improve them.