Well, it is no secret that COVID pandemic and everything that happened during that time made us stressed a survey from the American Psychological Association says three in five adults said stress affects their work in some way. And two in five are just saying the word. Now anybody can burn out in any job but certain people and certain jobs can be more susceptible to it. People who have to do a lot of things at once. One on one teachers, health care workers and people who work in our nonprofit se
ctor helping other people. And it's that last group of folks I want to focus on right now. They are the focus of a grant program that I quite frankly have never heard of. The women's foundation of Minnesota is awarding 40 yes, 40 women statewide who run organizations that make our state with a grant and it is to be used to rest. They are called Rest Up grants. Each one is $10,000 and each woman can take it to use at her nonprofit the best way she sees fit so she and her group can take a break. I
feel really grateful and just really see. So the rest up Grant definitely sees us. Um It definitely acknowledges that we get to live fully and free. And to me this uh rest up is like nothing I've ever seen before. We haven't really had time to rest in the last three years. And um and that, that and that's really important for us to think about because when there's chaos or just struggle happening, it's gonna be important to have a, you know, a balance of wellness and rest. And with that, we wer
en't able to. And I think it's women. That's a big one too as leaders. We, we're, we're taking care of home, we're coming into work, we're doing all the things. Sometimes when we get this rested up and you should check on us, Laura to make sure we're actually using it because that's the thing, that's the thing. We have a food shelf that has to stay open and it did and just the delivery model is different. But I feel like we've been going like 100 miles an hour for over three years and now it's l
ike we can, we can rest, rest means different things for every single person. Um When folks wrote in their application, some wanted to use it for professional coaching, some wanted to use it to take a sabbatical. Some just need a vacation. And I think that's ok. Everybody is managing crisis from day to day. And so how do we make sure that we continue to be responsive and that we listen. And so it's unrestricted dollars, they get to decide how they want to use the, the money. It's a powerful thin
g when a funder recognizes that the people doing the work are the experts at the work. Right. We're the ones on the, the ground level working with our staff, working with families, working with young people. And it's a powerful thing to, to be acknowledged that we're valuable. Our people are valuable than doing nonprofit work for the last 10 years. And when it came into nonprofit work, I'm like, wow, like it, it, it, it's tough. It burns people out. I see people go in and out and I wonder is tha
t gonna be me? We rarely see this kind of thing that it's just used for, you know, our creative minds and how to support our staff and, and I'm really excited to plan on how to, how to spend this money with just staff in mind with this. It also allows me to feel like the universe is aligning after the pandemic to say, hey, we've been thinking about pausing and, and resting and, and it's ok. Right. Like the problems are gonna be there and we're, we're still committed to solving those problems, bu
t we need to take care of ourselves and their staff. Those three women run organizations in our community that change people's lives and they'll join 37 others tomorrow when they'll be recognized in giving these grants at one heck of a party thrown by the Women's Foundation. Congratulations to all of you. Rest up and continue to do good for all of us, so proud of you.
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