Global Integrators--24

Resilience for Global Integrators
Staying the Course

Rwanda, refugee tents circa 1994; photo credit UNHCR

We think that the time is coming for a diversity of colleagues to join together intentionally, visibly, and practically on behalf of global integration (GI). GI put simply is how we skillfully integrate our lives and values on behalf of the issues facing humanity. Likewise we think that the time is coming for colleagues to carefully reflect and act on what it means to be good global learners-practitioners--to seriously consider what it means to be what we are calling global integrators (GI-People).

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 Member Care Updates and Global Integration Updates.

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"Human resiliency is the ability to face reality: to engage with and grow through life's challenges and adversities via inner strength, social support, coping skills, and core beliefs/values including life purpose and spiritual meaning."
Kelly and Michele O'Donnell

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This entry focuses on the need for resilience in order to remain effective as global integrators. It is a reminder that GI Involvement comes with a cost, and sometimes a great cost to our personal stability, sanity, overall health, and  relationships via critical incidents, cumulative stress, etc.

Resilience is a protective factor of resilience (defined above) which is necessary to stay the course over the long-haul in GI. There are certainly so many more perspectives, principles, and resources that can be shared. We invite you to add some of yours via the comments section. It would also be very helpful to do a survey to assess what global integrators (and different types of global integrators) do to remain resilient.

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Member Care Update—November 2015
Resiliency Toolkit–Strengthening Ourselves and Others: This Update focuses on developing resiliency. It provides practical resources to  promote well-being and effectiveness (WE) for workers in mission, aid, and development as well as for member care workers themselves. The resources include brief assessments and articles–core items in a versatile toolkit to strengthen yourself and others. 
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Periodically we do special Updates that feature items to put in such a member care toolkit. Five past examples are archived HERE: 12/2009 Resiliency, 8/2010 Self-Care, 3/2012 Work-Life Balance, 1/2013 Cool Tools, and 10/2014 Creative Healing. We finish the Update with a reflection on resilience from Pearls and Perils of Good Practice ( excerpt below--available now as an ebook) as well as one of our favorite resiliency songs, Ready for the Storm.

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“For the mission/aid community, helping can often involve staying sane—and alive—in unstable, insane places....It is not that mission/aid work always deals with life-threatening experiences, of course. Rather it is just that helping to relieve the “maims and moans” of creation takes its toll. Mission/aid workers, like the people they are helping, have some special challenges and needs for resiliency...”(pp. 2,3)

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Headington Institute—Resources

“The Headington Institute partners with humanitarian relief and development organizations and emergency responders, before, during, and after deployment in order to ensure the wellbeing of individuals. Our team of psychologists, many with over 30 years of clinical experience, bridge cutting edge academic research with practical application at the field level, in order to strengthen the impact of humanitarian response and promote the long-term wellbeing of humanitarian personnel.” (from website) Some examples of their resources:

--Resilience

--Stress and Burnout

--Trauma

--Moral Injury (blog entries, quote below)

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“I became interested in moral injury a few years ago when I worked with military veterans who were struggling to make peace with things they had seen or done, sometimes more than 40 years after the fact. Moral injury…is defined as the lasting impact of participating in, witnessing, or failing to prevent something that goes against deeply held beliefs and values. People who are helping others during an emergency or after a disaster don’t have the same experiences as those who go to war, but the nature of this work can bring people face to face with human suffering and tragic outcomes. An emergency responder might be haunted by a life that could not be saved, or an accident that could have been prevented.” Lisa Finlay, Guilt and Shame: The Messy Part of Moral Injury, 20 July 2015

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and maintain a good sense of humor...

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Final Reflection

I finish this entry by citing a medley of quotes which appeared in my first entry on Global Integration, back in  January 2015. The quotes are basically exhortations to help us stay the GI course with integrity and skill.
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"Persevere as you pursue areas that you are passionate about and stretch yourself into new areas of interest as part of life-long learning.  As in most human enterprises, there can be political agendas, power dynamics, territoriality, and dysfunctional behaviors to navigate” (O’Donnell, 2012, p. 201).  Keep in the forefront the opportunities for “selfless moral struggle” in partnering with others (Patel et al. 2011, p. 90) and the “duty and choice to risk your own rights and well-being” on behalf of fellow humans (O’Donnell, 2011, p. 187). “Embrace lifestyles that reflect commitments to equality, justice, and wellbeing for all” (O’Donnell, 2012, p. 201). Develop your personal character and professional competence as a responsible global citizen committed to “seeing reality clearly… [including] physical and mental suffering due to human cruelty… [without giving up] our dream for a more loving and peaceful humanity” (Mollica, 2013, p.15). Connect with a supportive caravan of colleagues for your Global Integration journey in the service of humanity. Remember that in all you do and in whatever comes your way, “your task is to be true, not popular” (Luke 6:26, The Message)." 
 

Global Integrators—21

7Is for GIs

Seven Indicators for Global Integrators

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Member Care Updates and Global Integration Updates.

 

We think that the time is coming for a diversity of colleagues to join together intentionally, visibly, and practically on behalf of global integration (GI). GI put simply is how we skillfully integrate our lives and values on behalf of the issues facing humanity. Likewise we think that the time is coming for colleagues to carefully reflect and act on what it means to be good global learners-practitioners--to seriously consider what it means to be what we are calling global integrators (GI-People).

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This entry identifies seven core indicators--seven I’s--that we think are important to help guide Global Integrators. There are surely more too! The seven indicators are qualitative markers rather than quantitative measures. The descriptions below also include Member Care Updates which provide resources that specifically relate to the indicators. Indicator 7, Imparting your life (love) links them all.

Clarify your:

Interests
Involvements
Influences

Cultivate your:

Interior
Integrity
Inspirations

Impart your life

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1. Issues--Pursue your passions.

What issues matter to you the most? What are you passionate about? What are you naturally motivated to learn more about? In short: explore, expand, engage.

Clarify your interests further as you explore what other sectors, organizations, countries etc. are doing with regards to these issues. Be prepared to expand your “experiential boundaries,” knowing that it can be a bit uncomfortable but also rewarding. It may take time and effort to significantly connect and contribute. Don’t go alone but get involved with others. Find compatible colleagues with similar interests and key groups and networks in which you can be part and engage together on global issues.

2. Involvements--Till the terrain.

How much do you want to get involved in specific global issues?  With whom? What is realistic for you given your current commitments and need to make a living? Here is a “continuum of involvement” for clarification.

Informed----------Included----------Immersed

The continuum begins with more minor involvement in a global area, such as reading the reports, a journal, or a UN publication about things like human trafficking, climate change, or the sustainable development goals (informed). It then proceeds to a midpoint and the inclusion of a global area in one’s work such as road traffic accidents, child disabilities in a specific region, or non-communicable diseases (included).The end of the continuum could involve becoming a recognized participant in a global area or part of a group (organization, sector) such as working part-time in a human rights advocate in a non-governmental organization, developing culturally relevant psychosocial support for victims of gender violence, or setting up elementary schools for refugee children in a country (immersed).

 3. Influences--Get a grid.

What has influenced your desire and ability to connect and contribute more globally? The gird below can help you clarify these influences.

List 3-5 items for each of the six categories below. As you review your past, you will likely get a better sense of what your future course might look like.

•      Principles/Beliefs
•      Documents/Materials
•      Organizations/Groups
•      People/Models
•      Milestones/Gravestones (important events/experiences, for the better or worse)

 à Charting a Future Course

Applications for Member Care—Interests, Involvements, and Influences

Strategies for Crossing Sectors: February 2014. “How do we practically connect and contribute across sectors in order to stay in touch with our globalizing world and to further develop our member care skills? The first resource links you to core suggestions for Charting Your Course through the Sectors (from chapter two in the new Global Member Care book) [interests, involvements, influences, as per above in this entry]. This chapter also updates the international member care model (five spheres, 2002, O’Donnell and Pollock) to help guide us into the next developmental phase of member care. The second resource provides suggestions for how you and your colleagues can effectively use the multi-sectoral materials in the new Global Member Care book (from the Application section on the Global MCA website). Crossing sectors is a crucial direction that supports and shapes good global practice in member care.”

4. Interior--Self-Care 

How do you cultivate your inner world? What things do you do practically for self-care, personal growth, and resiliency?

Grow deeply as you go broadly. Practice the basics of self care, such as good nutrition, sleep, expressing gratitude, prayer/reflection, time with friends, exercise, etc. especially during seasons of stress and times of adversity.

Member Care Application—Interior

Resiliency Toolkit–Strengthening Ourselves and Others: November 2015. “This Update focuses on developing resiliency. It provides practical resources to  promote well-being and effectiveness (WE) for workers in mission, aid, and development as well as for member care workers themselves. The resources include brief assessments and articles–core items in a versatile toolkit to strengthen yourself and others. Periodically we do special Updates that feature items to put in such a member care toolkit. Five past examples are archived HERE: 12/2009 Resiliency, 8/2010 Self-Care, 3/2012 Work-Life Balance, 1/2013 Cool Tools, and 10/2014 Creative Healing. We finish the Update with a reflection on resilience from Pearls and Perils of Good Practice (available now as an ebook) as well as one of our favorite resiliency songs, Ready for the Storm.”

5. Integrity—Being Moral

How do you cultivate your highest standards and values? To what extent do you follow them both privately and publically? In what ways can you be susceptible to corruption—the opposite of integrity--in its many subtle forms?

Integrity is moral wholeness. It is living consistently in light of your highest virtues and values (moral wholeness). It acknowledges personal weakness and wrongness, including the possibility and likelihood of self deception/justification, and seeks to live act virtuously with courage and consistency.

Member Care Applications—Integrity

Counting the Cost–Living with Integrity and Courage: January 2015. “This month’s Update is a summons to act with integrity and courage in our lives–to support us as we “count the cost” of doing what is right and helping vulnerable people. The first set of resources features three thought-provoking items: a) a TEDx presentation by a humanitarian journalist on her experiences covering war and the courage of ordinary people; b) a compelling exegesis on Christ’s parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25; and c) the millennial homily by John Paul II honoring Christian martyrs in the 20^thcentury. The second set of resources feature three items that point us towards the personal qualities needed to do member care and mission/aid well: a) the recent Global Integration webinar on healing/mental health in our violent world; b) the compilation of articles in b) Sorrow and Blood and c) Serving Jesus with Integrity. We finish this Update by taking the call for integrity and courage to the macro level: the final video lecture from Jeffery Sach’s online course on The Age of Sustainable Development (safeguarding the world’s future—people and the planet).”

Member Character: July 2012. “This issue focuses on the development of character for all those in mission/aid, especially member care workers. We see character as the core qualities of a person. These qualities are consistent over time and also reflect one’s moral goodness. Character is shaped by our life experiences, including hardship and role models. We include two set of resources from a Christian Perspective and a Social Psychology Perspective, in order to stimulate your own character growth and to support you in your work.”

6. Inspiration—Sustaining Sources

What gets you going in the morning? And what keeps you going through life? Is there a set of beliefs and values, sense of purpose and meaning, to motivate and sustain you? Something transcendent? Humanitarian principles, ethical imperatives, sense of duty, love, faith, God? How do you cultivate these?

Member Care Applications—Inspiration

Jesus Christ—The Lord of Member Care: September 2015. “This month we feature the main person in the Member Care field, Jesus Christ. We have lovingly referred to Him in our member care writings over the years by many different names: the Master Carer, the Good Practitioner, the Heart of Member Care, the Multilingual Messiah, the Pearl of Great Price, the Precious Pantocrator (The Almighty), and the Pierced-One. These names are actually titles of great honor and they are the focus of this Update: Jesus Christ the Lord of Member Care (a new title!), the One whom we all seek to know, love, and serve with all our being.“

 7. Imparting your life--Love

How much is laying down your life and serving others part of your work and life in general? How much do you want to give of yourself to others, being compassionate, maintaining the human quality of your work--doing to others as you want them to do to you?

Love is not a soft skill. It is tough work. And it is core, in our view, for doing member care well, and doing global integration well, for doing life well.

 Member Care Applications—Imparting your Life.

Ordinary Heroes: March 2013. “This month we focus on ordinary heroes, especially those whose ongoing, sacrificial and often unrecognised acts of goodness truly help others. Member care workers, and the mission/aid workers whom they support, and the people with whom mission/aid workers support, can often fit into this definition of ordinary hero. The first set of resources focus mostly on understanding ordinary heroism. The second set of resources focus on supporting ordinary heroes, emphasizing women whose lives are ransacked by exploitation, poverty, and degradation.”

MC: Global Letters for a Global Community--1

Resilient Love

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The world is indeed full of peril

and in it there are many dark places.

But still there is much that is fair.

And though in all lands,

love is now mingled with grief,
it still grows, perhaps, the greater.

--Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

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We are writing to member care workers and all those with member care responsibility within international mission/aid who identify with the historic Christian faith. We write to encourage us all to stay the course in our service to God and humans and to take full advantage of the many opportunities to provide and develop member care. We write fully aware of the problems that can discredit, divide, and disable the church-mission community (CMC) and all of our member care efforts. We write with a commitment to the love that is necessary to resolve these problems and to promote health within the global CMC.
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Member care is founded upon the Biblical command to love one another (John 13:34-35) and on the ethical sense of duty to help vulnerable people (Proverbs 24:11-12). The commitment to love one another and duty to others is tested in many ways for all of us, individually and collectively. The testing is often in the furnace of health, relational, and organizational struggles.

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Member care above all involves the trans-cultural practice of fervently loving one another. Such love, as affirmed in I Cor. 13:8, never ceases. It is both sacrificial and celebratory. We grow together in the mission/aid community, we celebrate life together, and by God’s grace we do our utmost to stay close together. Resilient love is the ultimate measure of the effectiveness of our member care.

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Kelly and Michèle
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Reflection and Discussion

Identify a current situation where you want to apply or develop resilient love.

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Note: Letter 1 includes some adapted excerpts from the Preface in Global Member Care: The Pearls and Perils of Good Practice (2011).