“I'm glad to be part of an organization that takes the time to assess their employees' wellness, especially during these times. When you receive positivity, you share positivity.” – Nonotuck Employee

How can people cultivate wellness, peace, and balance in their lives, while also showing up to serve their communities? How can people take care of their own wellbeing, in order to serve their communities better?

These are the questions that help guide the Nonotuck Wellness Initiative, which aims to strengthen the well-being of the Nonotuck community as we work together towards our mission, offering Shared Living, Adult Family Care, and personalized day services for people with disabilities. Each of our services is inspired by our core values: mutuality of love and respect, and interdependence with choice, a voice, and the opportunity to live authentic lives.
 
This mission is carried out by a committed and caring team of Nurses, Clinicians, Care Managers, Program Directors, Administrative staff, Direct Support Workers, Placements Specialists, Community Health Workers, and our Executive Team. The Nonotuck Wellness Initiative was created to support the well-being of this team so they can continue to provide the best possible care to the people we serve.

Workplace Stress

“I greatly appreciate that [wellness] is a focus. I've worked for many other agencies that did not recognize fatigue and burnout. There was never a time to ground myself and reset; even prior to Covid-19, wellness was always a priority at Nonotuck.” – Nonotuck Employee

The prevalence of workplace stress has been well established and can have a significant impact in the field of Human Services. 83% of US workers report suffering from work-related stress (Everest College) and a 2020 survey showed that at least 80% of social workers believe stress levels are affecting their ability to do their job (Community Care, stress.org https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2015/01/07/stress-stopping-job-social-workers-say/)

While the statistics around stress are staggering, studies are finding that high levels of wellbeing relate to employees feeling nearly 6x more engaged in their work (Gallup, 2017), being up to 29% more productive (Rongen et al., 2013), feeling almost twice as satisfied in their job (Gallup, 2017), and 125% less likely to burn out (Porath et al., 2012). In addition, workplaces that choose to invest in employee wellbeing and which have happy and engaged workers experience, on average: 70% fewer safety incidents (Gallup, 2016), 24-59% lower turnover (Gallup, 2016),10% higher customer ratings (Gallup, 2016) and are 3.5x more likely to be seen as creative and innovative (World Economic Forum, 2010).

A Values Based Approach

“I feel that Nonotuck has been very sensitive, caring, and supportive to the needs of Nonotuck employees as well as the caregivers and individuals that we support.” – Nonotuck Employee
The statistics around workplace stress and wellbeing are extremely important, but for us at Nonotuck, it also comes back to our core values of Authenticity, Mutuality of Love and Respect, Interdependence, and Vulnerability.

Authenticity: We want the people we support to live their most genuine lives with authentic relationships and opportunities and for them to be empowered to make their own choices.
Mutuality of love and respect: Everyone deserves to love and be loved, and to feel they are being seen, heard, and realized, regardless of abilities.
Interdependence: Caregivers and persons with disabilities are dependent on each other as they would be in any strong relationship or friendship. They can rely on each other for mental, physical, and emotional support.

Vulnerability: When we can be seen as our true selves or see others as who they truly are, we can live and love authentically and whole-heartedly. Allowing ourselves to be open is being vulnerable, and yet courageous.

It is the job of each of our team members to do their part to ensure that these values are being honored in the lives of the people we serve, and in turn to have these values honored in their workplace.
The Nonotuck Wellness Initiative exists to address the increasing levels of stress found in today’s workplaces, while also respecting and celebrating the Nonotuck core values. We believe that to care for others, we must care for ourselves and that in order to best support the people we serve, we must cultivate wellness in our own lives.

Nonotuck’s Wellness Initiative

“When compared to what I have seen at other workplaces, Nonotuck has continued to excel in prioritizing employee wellness. This has been apparent not only through the pandemic, but prior to the pandemic as well.” – Nonotuck Employee

Nonotuck has always been committed to employee wellness: with staff surveys, great health insurance at a reasonable cost, plenty of time off, good starting salary and yearly raises with potential profit sharing.  In addition to these benefits and our core values, Nonotuck aims to foster a culture of kindness and civility though the Civility Initiative. The Civility Initiative began in 2009 to create Nonotuck as an island of civility in an ocean of incivility. This initiative is imbedded within the organization today and is deeply aligned with the mission of the Wellness Initiative.

Since 2015 the Wellness Initiative has included a partnership with Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Through this relationship many of our team members have attended RISE workshops both in person and virtually, and have been greatly impacted by these experiences. RISE is an evidence-based mindfulness program designed to teach stress resilience tools to frontline professionals such as doctors, nurses, teachers, law enforcement, and human service professionals.

When the pandemic hit in 2020 we looked for new ways to support the wellness of our community. Nonotuck swiftly responded to Covid-19 converting almost all operations across the state to remote to keep our community safe. For several months during this transition we held daily virtual wellness breaks for staff including yoga, family dance parties, guided meditation, and workshops.

Using surveys and check ins we communicate with the community regularly to understand how people are doing and make sure the programs we offer are relevant and meaningful. The responses to a wellness survey administered in the Fall of 2020 amidst the height pandemic stress showed that although our community wanted to make their wellness a priority, they were having difficulty finding the time. In response to this finding Nonotuck Leadership created two Wellness Hours each week. During these hours no Nonotuck meetings are scheduled and there is no expectation to respond to email. This is our community’s time for each person to take care of themselves however you need, and it looks different for everyone. Some may go for a walk, prep dinner for their family, help kids with home schooling, take screen free time, or lay down and rest. This is also when many of our wellness programs such as yoga and meditation are offered. This is a nonjudgmental time set aside for wellness.

The Wellness Initiative continues today with wellness programs hosted by Nontouck such as yoga, meditation, workshops, and more. We also continue to partner with other organizations such as Kripalu and Insight Timer to respond to the needs of our staff. Each of these programs aims to not only support the individual wellness of our employees, but to create space for meaningful connections.

Making a Difference

“I'm very thankful to be a part of the Nonotuck team. A company that tries to make a difference in the life of the employees and the people we serve is truly something I celebrate.” – Nonotuck Employee

In a time when so much of the future is uncertain, one thing that employees at Nonotuck can count on is that the Wellness Initiative at Nonotuck is committed to our mission. We will continue to come up with creative ways to make a difference in the lives of our employees, so they can in turn keep making a difference in the world.