This summer, The Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center hosted a summer “lunch and learn” series to provide professional development and self-care opportunities for the roughly 200 staff who work on the campus. The plan is to build the series into an annual campus program for Florida’s long, hot summers when the population recedes along with local traffic.
Broken down between self-care related topics on Wellness Wednesdays and professional development topics on Thirsty for Learning Thursdays, the Center hosted a total of six workshops between May and July.
Wellness Wednesdays included Mental Health & Self-Care, Sugar Detox, and Gentle Yoga & Movement. These workshops were partially funded through a mini-grant to focus on self-care from the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.
Thirsty for Learning Thursdays included a two-part marketing workshop on differentiating our brands and a collaboration workshop to help us open up conversations between our organizations and find out how we can help each other.
Dr. Kameron Hodgens, Executive Director and CEO of Glasser/Schoenbaum has spent much of her four-year tenure focusing on campus relations and ways in which the Center can be more of a convener and resource for its tenant partners. “As a campus housing 20 nonprofits, our responsibility to maximize its impact goes beyond subsidizing quality office space. We want to provide resources that may not always be available and convenient to the staff on our campus as a value-added benefit. It’s easy to say that professional development and self-care are important, but unless it’s free and convenient, chances are that very few of us make it a priority.”
As the summer ends, Glasser/Schoenbaum is taking the series’ momentum to begin a new monthly program called Glasser Passports. This new series will respond to tenant partners’ stated interest in learning more about the neighbors right next door to them on the Campus of Caring.
The staff at Glasser/Schoenbaum have done a great job of connecting the many organizations on campus and creating a space that sparks collaboration. This sense of community extends to staff and clients alike, helping to break down barriers and leading to innovative ways to serve the community as a whole.
Real estate is one of the greatest costs in a business budget. Our partnership with The Glasser/Schoenbaum Human Services Center allows more money to go towards our mission. And what better place to house our office than on a campus with nineteen other outreach agencies.
As a small organization with a staff of two, employee safety was a big consideration when we were looking for office space. We did not want our employees to be in a place where they were alone. Being on the GSHSC campus has been great because there is a whole community of like-minded professionals.
