Maria Arpa
This week
Meanwhile back in Hempstead, NY
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
the Wednesday Whisper
Receiving a warm welcome
Last week we went back to Hempstead, NY to deliver DRM training to the staff of a small non-profit called Reign4Life. Reign4Life is headed up by one of our DRM trainees from the previous project. Marcellus is a strong, well known and influential person in the area. He saw the value of having their facilitators trained in DRM as they work with the youth gang problems that are exacerbated by the divide between the African American community and the Hispanic Community in the area.
It’s been a while since we were there and it felt like coming home.
One of the most touching moments was meeting a local reverend who runs a project getting people into work. He was always a bit indifferent to our programme believing that getting people into work was more important and therefore not keen for us as ‘outsiders’ to be included in the community. I ran into him and what followed was a real surprise.
He said, ‘We need you back!’ Not believing my ears, he continued, ‘I didn’t realise the effect you were having until you’d gone’. Still trying to compute what he was saying, I kept looking at him. ‘I now see that the people you trained were more able to keep calm’. We went on to discuss the importance of people being ready and able to emotionally cope with going into a workplace especially if they had been formerly incarcerated.
Sometimes it takes a while for the full effect of the DRM to be appreciated. And now I’m hooked on the Heart of Hempstead.
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
Patience does not come naturally to me. It is something I have worked on and developed as part of my DRM journey. In Hempstead I let the work speak for itself and never tried to persuade anyone which required patience on my part.
The Wednesday Whisper
What areas of your life require you to be patient when it feels counter-intuitive to do so.
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