Taking the Temperature
7 Passes
Our incredible partner group 7 Passes Initiative is a non-profit organization in Touwsranten, South Africa, who aims to “…prevent violence and support and improve youth education and opportunities…” locally, and works to inspire “…similar positive change throughout South Africa and beyond.” Offering many programs for young people, 7 Passes is a vital community hub who embody their values of Respect, Honesty, Fun, Openness, Commitment, Courage, Confidentiality, and Equality (Anti-racism). The 7 Passes leadership proudly shared these with us on our first Zoom call when we asked what we should most keep in mind in designing this project.
Coming Together
Our team shares mutual enthusiasm to create something meaningful, and I love the diverse strengths we each readily bring to the table: from design to sociology, to psychology and early childhood development. My central question regarding our process is: how can we best utilize and honor our respective areas of expertise: 1) in an integrated way, and 2) in order to intentionally meet our org’s needs? I alternate between feeling like we are accomplishing this well, and other times have moments of confusion. I think this is due to my challenge in seeing beyond scope of my own knowledge base; and admittedly — I recognize the need to temper my tendencies for becoming a control freak in group projects.
To reiterate in a strength-based way, I feel excited about the ideas I have based on recent experiences in facilitating group-based trauma-informed drama therapy with children living in a marginalized neighborhood in Oakland, CA. I recognize the two populations are not the same, but I know that drama and play therapy tools work well cross-culturally, given how the content and engagement style is dependent on the particular contributions of participants. Also, drama therapy techniques place an emphasis on the universal needs of relationship-building, meaning-making of difficult experiences, emotional expression, and fun. I gather from conversations with the 7 Passes team that drama activities work well, and that they are seeking new strategies to support children and youth in expressing emotions in healthy ways.
All that said, I value the contributions and ideas of my lovely teammates, and don’t want to unintentionally steamroll the process with my, uh, enthusiasm. I guess I’m just not always sure about how to make our ideas cohesive (list of ideas below). I know it is important to all of us that we offer something which really works well within the specific cultural and community context 7 Passes is situated, and as well as is accessible to implement, is based on a clear foundation of child development and attachment theory, incorporates all our strengths, and most importantly — responds to the specific asks of 7 Passes.
Taking the Temperature
We’ve had two Zoom meetings with the 7 Passes team, plus a very meaningful email exchange*. Each time we communicate, I get more clear on their specific needs. Concurrently, I always walk away with more questions. Our team presented the 7 Passes leadership with an idea for a buddy system (working title: “Budding Buddy System”); originally meant to be between teenagers and older children (both in buddy pairs and in groups, with the teenagers given opportunities to participate in planning and facilitating programming). Based on feedback that mixing of the ages might be unsafe within their community context, the idea is now the buddy system/programming between older and younger teenagers.
Within that, we have discussed including:
- Drama therapy/embodied activities, with: a lexicon of goal-directed tools and techniques serving as building blocks for planning activities (implemented and augmented as is relevant); a focus on fostering resilience; a focus on “resourcing” (connecting youth to internal and external sources of safety); a focus on increasing healthy emotional expression (incl. emotion identification and self-regulation); and an opportunity for youth to develop their own definition of “resilience”; opportunities for older youth to collaborate in running activities for younger youth.
- Evaluation and monitoring: surveys for youth and staff, pre- and post-programming.
- Incorporating color psychology: informing design elements of our presentation, as well as programming.
- Creating “holding”/containment for staff, so they feel supported in running programming*
*A 7 Passes staff shared beautifully and vulnerably via email about the challenge of remaining regulated in this work — given limitations of the particular toolset for emotional regulation this individual and others experienced growing up, in combination with triggers inherent in the work and risk for re-traumatization. We were asked how to handle such instances of trauma-laden overwhelm, quickly. While we had been considering the wellbeing of the staff, this brought it to a very real and visceral level. I now wonder if we should shift our primary focus to such concerns. If not, I wonder how we can considerately care for staff’s needs in this process, without our own plate becoming too ambitious or fragmented. I replied as sensitively as I could — reflecting and validating to this person their own displayed strengths and insights, including the bravery of their emotional expression and their reflection about prior times they found safety through co-regulating with a supportive other.
Through collaborating, and as inspired by the existing wisdom and expertise of the 7 Passes team, I really hope we can offer support in a tangible way.
