Boldly Moving Education Ahead opens Educator Wellness Center

Let's talk some education because teachers and students are now in the full swing of the school routine. However, these overworked educators, they need a little place to reset, restore, reconnect. in other words long before the holiday and summer breaks. Boldly moving education ahead has created a space just for them, strictly for educator wellness. Ann Horton and Michael Payne Jr. are here with us to just talk about, one, why this is so important. I mean, pouring back into our educators, they have a tough job, for sure. Absolutely. So we really truly believe in educational wellness, not only for retention, but for the success of their students in our classrooms. So we created an Educator Wellness Center where educators all throughout the city, regardless of whether or not they're connected with BMEA, can come, rest, recharge, and especially reconnect with other educators in that space. Nice. And you guys just had a grand opening, opening this spot yesterday. How was it? We were just talking about it. It was a good time. It was a great time. We had educators come out, of course. Yesterday was parent-teacher conferences, and so being able to see our educators come, have fun with us. We had a book study, we had line dance in Detroit, we call it ballroom hustle, and we had hustle classes taking place yesterday. So it was a big hit, and I really look forward to being able to curate experiences like this for our educators on a monthly basis to get them something to look forward to. Yeah, I mean, this is like an upgraded kind of version. You think back when we were in school, it was like the teacher's lounge in the school, This is really a unique spot where these teachers can gather, really just kind of talk, feel supported, and just reconnect, right? Yeah, we have educational resources in there for teachers. There are going to be teacher-led activities, like we mentioned before. We have a meditation space, as well as we will have clinical therapists there for them to be able to talk to. So there's tons of resources and opportunities for teachers to really maintain their wellness. And prosperity is important for us. Personal prosperity is important for us as an organization. So, you know, go to the website, wearebma.org. You can not only follow us and support us through donations, but you can also join and register for the Wellness Center. Yeah, and it is free, right? Absolutely free. Any teacher, educator can kind of drop in. Teacher, school leader, absolutely, yep. Absolutely. What I was going to say is, you know, what we hear all the time, we hear burnout, we hear student outcomes, we hear, you know, all these things we would classify as buzzwords in education. But simply what that gave us is the responsibility as an organization to put together an experience where teachers, leaders, whomever work in these school spaces, they have a space where they can escape and just focus solely on themselves. Because what we believe is that this trickle-down effect, when a leader is well, the teacher is well. When a teacher is well, the students are well. And so that's what's important for us at BMEA. And so continuing to create experiences like this is something that's super important to us. We look forward to it, and it's always a good time. I imagine teachers have been kind of giving you guys some feedback. What's that been like, and what is their collaboration with them, you know, in creating this space? Yeah, absolutely. So we, like Anton mentioned, we have teacher wellness fellowships. And so a lot of those fellows have played a big role in decorating the space, giving input into what's needed, what teachers will look for. And like I said, they'll be leading some activities, craft activities, painting sips, all these things that they want to do that brings out some of their creativity that they can give back to other educators in the city right okay and so again free all you got to do is sign up if you're an educator doesn't matter what role just head to the website and reserve that spot right yes we are bmea.org all right okay i'm looking forward to you guys an amazing idea an important safe space for sure so thank you so much for sharing that