Workshops

The WIN program includes six 75–90 minute workshops that can be used in tandem or independently to support individuals who are unemployed, underemployed, or seeking new career options.

Deepening and Sustaining Relationships

Being unemployed or underemployed and searching for a job are often very lonely challenges. In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to deepen their relationships, which is an essential source of support and resilience. Using the strengths of working in a group of peers, the workshop will foster a renewed sense of purpose for participants to connect with their friends and family, and develop connections within the group that can be sustained for the long haul.

Fostering Social Awareness and Reducing Self-Blame 

Navigating work disruptions often leads individuals to experience shame and stigma along with self-blame. This workshop focuses on helping participants enhance their critical consciousness (CC), which refers to the capacity to read the world and to enact change in one’s life and context. Developing CC offers a powerful reframe about the causes of unemployment, which can reduce self-blame. CC also furnishes a protective factor that enhances resilience and promotes active engagement in one’s life.  Activities include group-based discussions of participants’ experiences, which provide the content for a discussion of the larger factors that constrain the labor market.

Building Emotional Resilience and Self-Care

This session is offered in two workshops.

Managing unemployment and underemployment is hard and stressful. These two workshops focus on self-care and stress reduction that can help to prevent mental health problems, which research indicates are far more prevalent and challenging during periods of job disruption. Participants will have an opportunity to build emotional resilience and enhance their self-care strategies, which are essential for managing work-related stresses.

Rather than passively observing the eroding work experience in America, I advocate that we all commit to creating the conditions in which our natural human striving to create, contribute, and collaborate is nurtured and affirmed: To engage in work that is decent and dignified is in our DNA, and it is central to our well-being and the welfare of our communities."
David Blustein, The Importance of Work in an Age of Uncertainty: The Eroding Work Experience in America