YOGA & Holidays at YES

Ginnie has continued to work with YES and the Center for Teenage Mothers. For the majority of the past few months all of the staff participated in a counseling course, which I joined in on whenever I could. It was a lot of fun to spend a few hours with the women of YES and get to know them better. The goals of the course included helping the staff feel more comfortable working with and addressing the special needs of the girls we serve. We had some intense debates and discussions about hot topics and it was a great new way to interact with my Belizean co-workers.

As far as CTM (Center for Teenage Mothers) sessions go, the counseling class forced them to move to a day I was unable to attend, so I just got back into sessions in late November with a yoga class for the moms. It was quite a learning experience for me since we had a large group of new moms and moms-to-be in the class and I had to quickly find adaptations for different trimesters (fortunately, we have a yoga for pregnancy book in the office that made it a tad easier). The moms said they felt relaxed after the session, which was the goal. Some of the babies are old enough to follow along, so they joined in the poses, too! It was a lot of fun for everybody; there were definitely a lot of giggles.

The final session of the year was held on December 5th with our Christmas party where we participated in a KK (which I finally discovered stood for Kris Kringle – not sure what took me so long to put that together, it just wasn't clicking!). We played games (including quite a fun version of pin the nose on the Rudolph), listened to Christmas music and exchanged gifts. Earleth (the Outreach Coordinator for YES) also rounded up all the moms and babies for a group photo – it was a process, but it worked (and doesn't everyone look fabulous?)! The pumpkin pie cookies went fast at this party, too, so I think they are officially a new dessert I must make for holiday gatherings for years to come.

I’m looking forward to 2009 with the moms because Earleth supports the idea of a leadership series of workshops for the moms! We are calling it Teen Moms GLOW for now, if we come up with something catchy that includes leadership and moms, we’ll give it a new official name. It’s somewhat of an emerging leaders program, but with a focus on leading as a young woman and a mom. We’ll cover all sorts of topics from personal leadership style to financial management to positive discipline and much, much more! It’s one project I am really excited about for the coming year.