The People We Are: Team P3 on Equity and Community
All I ever wished for as a child was to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and a Nobel Prize in Literature. Preferably in the same year, preferably in that order. I was a twelve-year-old immigrant girl, my brain overflowing with awe and possibility, when I dreamt that up. That is how I got through my teens, dreaming of peace and literature, but, never, work. By the time I reached my early twenties, my Nobel Prizes metamorphosed into a non-profit and a local writing workshop. The dreams were still there but they were sensible.
Liz Farias, our Talent & Culture Manager, dreamt of growing up to become a teacher. Other members of our team contemplated futures as pediatricians, paleontologists, architects, and archeologists. Ultimately, what each of us sought in those dreams as children, in our own way, was to grow into adults that made a difference in the lives of the people we encountered. I believe those dreams led us to the Young Center’s People, Places and Pocketbook team, aka Team P3, aka Human Resources, Administration, and Finance.
Team P3, the children we were, the people we are today, is committed to responding to the needs of Young Center staff by creating spaces in which we build community and honor the unique backgrounds of our staff. As an equal opportunity employer, we make it our mission to bring on board people with diverse experiences, perspectives and cultures that reflect the children we serve. As an HR operations team, we know that empathetic listening is only the first step in bringing equity and justice into our hiring practices. What matters, who we endeavor to be at the tables we sit at, at the meetings, panels, and sessions we are invited to join, is that we are allies to the staff whose job it is to fight against our unjust immigration system. To that respect, the Young Center takes pride in offering a competitive benefits package and generous time off policies to ensure our staff have the time to prioritize wellness and self-care. Wellness is vital to building community with each other. Esteem and belonging cannot exist without wellness.
Over the last year, Team P3 focused on staff wellness by implementing monthly Young Center wellness sessions. During these sessions, staff were able to meditate, engage in community art therapy, and learn about alternate therapies for self-care. Finally, we incorporated wellness into professional development and encouraged staff to use their annual professional development and wellness stipend to seek out experiential wellness opportunities. These experiences have included memberships to dance classes, gyms, botanical gardens, zoos and urban farming to name a few.
While much of our work on Team P3 appears largely behind the scenes of our organization, we are immensely proud of our continuous efforts to improve and support the lives of our Young Center staff. So much of our work depends on us actively soliciting staff feedback about the ways our organization can better meet their needs and support them, and then, with that information, devising plans and opportunities to effectuate meaningful changes that demonstrate to our staff that we hear them, we support them, and we want them to thrive. Our childhood dreams of becoming Nobel Prize winners, pediatricians, and teachers have changed, but our mission of making a positive difference in people’s lives and building stronger communities remains.
By Maritsa Leyva Martinez, Payroll & Benefits Manager
