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Date: 1/3/2024
Lead Yourself Youth is hosting a free event on cultivating psychological safety environments on Wednesday, Jan. 31 from 4 to 6 p.m. at 200 Venture Way, Hadley.
The workshop will include introductions about the organization and staff, lead a discussion on different experiences and showcase red and green flags in different environments.
Director of Creativity and Content Development Emily Hunt said, “If students are able to recognize these green and red flags, when they go out into the workforce, they will know beforehand what resonates with them and what doesn’t. The overall goal is to produce understanding and compassion.”
Those interested in attending can reserve a spot at www.tinyurl.com/2w4mcz6u.
Lead Yourself Youth is an organization that brings social emotional learning to school systems.
Hunt said, “We focus on nervous system regulation practices and psychological safety is a big part of that. We want to bring this type of learning to schools all over, so this event is a way to get our name out there. Everyone deserves to have this information about how the nervous system affects behavior on a daily basis.”
The organization offers different workshops and resources for self-empowerment, identity development, positive habit forming and behavioral changes to focus on people becoming the best versions of themselves.
Hunt added the event is for educators, troop leaders, homes school group leaders, parents, guardians to attend to learn about the dynamics of psychological safety and how to cultivate it for students.
“The event will dive into the dynamics of psychological safety, how to foster psychological safety, so that youth can experience that. I think it is really important that we provide a psychological safe environment whenever we can,” Hunt said.
Andrea Bordenca is a principal and owner of Venture Way Collaborative, chairperson and CEO of DESCO Service, founder of Lead Yourself Youth and managing partner of Generative Consulting.
She is also the CEO of a healthcare service organization and founded an organization that provides youth training to students and educators.
The Belchertown Education Foundation recently honored Andrea Bordenca as a 2023 Community Champions for her efforts to enable the foundation to enrich the education of students in Belchertown schools.
Bordenca added, “We do professional development. I have a staff that is a millennial, a GenZer who deliver the training to educators and to youth so that people have different voices and different backgrounds, so it is not just coming from the GenXers. There is enough of our voices out there, so we are bringing in young and different voices to reach the youth.”
Hunt has been working with Lead Yourself Youth since March 2022 and is continuing to learn while also organizing the workshops.
“I am excited for the event. We are showcasing our expanded team, some expanded professional development offers. I personally did not have a lot of psychologically safe environments growing up and I knew something was missing and didn’t know what it was until I met Andrea and learned about all of this” Hunt said.
She added, “No one should be missing that. It is so essential especially when you are young. People will go their whole lives repeating patterns and wondering why the same thing keeps happening to them. It’s not happening to you; it’s happening for you so you can learn and do something different.”