After School Health & Wellness Volunteer

Save to Favorites

Looking for volunteers to assist with our health & wellness after school program at St. Mary's Episcopal Church and Greenhouse Art Center in Harlem. Please inquire for further details.

By teaching and modeling positive leadership, we can help reduce the number of acts of violence in the NYCHA community developments. Due to the sensitivity of those who may find themselves in precarious situations which could lead to a violent act, we will be working with educators who have expertise in facilitating activities for youth. We will utilize the following activities to educate youth with tools they can use to de-escalate or prevent interactions from becoming violent:

Healing Circles: It is important that participants recognize the value in others. Healing circles give participants a safe space to grieve, share common fears and loss, and ways to celebrate life.

Asset Mapping: Participants will come up with a list and create a map of people and places in the area that offer a safe harbor, mentoring, and job training. Youth will learn there are multiple places in the community where they can find people who want to help them.

Community Engagement: CASEL training is a social emotional learning intervention program which teaches youth Self Awareness, Self Management, Social Awareness, Responsible Decision Making and Relationship Skills. Youth will learn about their own strengths and limitations with the intention that being more aware of themselves will lead to more prosocial behavior. We will engage in community building activities as a group and partner with other organizations or community groups to establish connections, feelings of belonging, and peer and adult support.

Violence Responses: An idea for this topic would be to offer Restorative Conferences. Restorative Conferences are structured meetings between offenders and victims, sometimes including supporting parties. The meeting is a conversation that helps them identify the wrongdoing, who was affected, and how to repair the harm that was done.

Yoga and Meditation A relaxing form of exercise that was developed in India and involves assuming and holding postures that stretch the limbs and muscles, doing breathing exercises, and using meditation techniques to calm the mind. Yoga appears to have benefits for increasing physical flexibility and reducing internal feelings of stress. Yoga may be recommended as an alternative or complementary health-promoting practice.

Cooking Hands-on culinary skills and nutrition education program adapted to the needs of the Active + community. This Fall we will introduce young people to living a healthy lifestyle, basic nutrition, safety and sanitation in our mobile teaching kitchen, cooking as a life skill, and creating delicious flavors in healthy meals.