SOAR participants, three faculty and three staff members, must attend meetings, events and complete all program requirements including a project, the release stated.
“After going through many options, we kept coming back to this project,” said Dr. Bridget Ingram, professor of Early Childhood Education. “When we first started working on this it was pre-COVID. Our work started with plans for a physical care space on campus and then making it virtual as well. We finished the initial plans right as we transitioned into a pandemic world.”
The group decided on virtual “lounges” where people can connect and utilize a variety of resources.
“We wanted to have a space where people could go to decompress, recharge and refocus,” Ingram said. “When we formed the committee to discuss what space should entail…we brainstormed what it should include, especially when a person is tired, worn down, fatigued.”
Faculty and staff can virtually enter a self-care site on the college’s Blackboard application to join “lounges” that include activity, serenity, motivation, creativity, humor, music and movies, hobbies and there is even a children’s lounge for parents to access activities for their family members, the release stated.
Ingram said the next step is preparing the physical care-space on campus slated to be available to faculty and staff beginning fall semester.
“Some of the pieces have been purchased for the space and the location has been identified,” she said. “The vision was to start with a physical space and replicate opportunities, resources, and ‘vibe’ in the virtual space, but the virtual space was completed first due to the pandemic.”
The physical-care space will include massage chairs, monitors for access to virtual content, opportunities for music, puzzles for those who are hands-on, essential oils, conversation spaces, textures and lighting, Ingram said.
“We’re really excited about it,” Ingram said. “This is a vision that’s been around for a while. To have an institution that puts this much energy and support behind something that really is going to bolster the health of the people that work in the organization really says something.”
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