Thank you again to all who presented at and attended our 12th Annual UlsterCorps Service Summit.
Presenters included:
- Lester Strong, founder & Executive Director, Peaceful Guardians Project
- Amy Nitza, Ph.D., LMHC, Executive Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at New Paltz
- Christine Hein, Executive Director, People’s Place & Fatima Deen, Wellness Empowerment Center Facilitator
- Ev Mann, Center for Creative Education founder, MaMA founder, Sunday Gatherings at MaMA co-founder, Director of Education, Peaceful Guardians Project
- Jess Robie, RN, Holistic Health and Wellness
- Karla Vermeulen, Ph.D., Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY New Paltz
- Andy Reynolds, Volunteer Programs Manager, Mohonk Preserve
- Bryant “Drew” Andrews, Executive Director, Center for Creative Education
- Rev. Evelyn Clarke, Town Councilwoman at Town of Esopus & Pastor, New Progressive Baptist Church; Rev. Dr. Renee House, M.Div., Ph.D. Retired Pastor, Old Dutch Church Kingston; and Rune Jacobson, The Hudson Valley School of Tai Chi Chuan
- NYS Senator Michelle Hinchey
Additional Resources shared at the event:
From Lester Strong, founder & Executive Director, Peaceful Guardians Project:
From Karla Vermeulen, Ph.D, Deputy Director Institute for Disaster Mental Health at SUNY New Paltz:
- Download the Professional Quality of Life Tool which includes scoring instructions, and people can learn more about it at:
- Training on building resilience and Stress Inoculation is at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzDZ85U5Nwk&t=12s - Other resources on the IDMH website:
From Andy Reynolds, Volunteer Programs Manager, Mohonk Preserve
From Ev Mann, Center for Creative Education founder, MaMA founder, Sunday Gatherings at MaMA co-founder, Director of Education, Peaceful Guardians Project
- “Coronavirus has made the mighty kneel and brought the world to a halt like nothing else could. Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists. And in the midst of this terrible despair, it offers us a chance to rethink the doomsday machine we have built for ourselves. Nothing could be worse than a return to normality.
Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.
We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.”
— Arundhati Roy
- “Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take everyone on Earth to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.
One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these — to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.
There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it. I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate. […]
In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall: When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for.”
–Clarissa Pinkola Estes
