I’m not always very good at keeping up with the multitude of themed weeks that fly around the internet! I am all for a celebration, but it can be a little overwhelming at times.
Anyway, this week THREE themes have coincided, and amazingly, they all resonated with me. SO! Here goes. One blog, three themes. Good luck!
Happy Foster Care Fortnight.
Happy Creativity and Wellbeing Week.
Happy Learning at Work Week.
At Soundcastle, we speak a lot about the importance of running a family focussed business. We have families of all shapes and sizes on the Soundcastle team and are designing a flexible working model around team members going through fostering, IVF and all other manner of family and caring responsibilities.
We are so proud of our team and the resilience with which everyone faces the challenges in their personal lives, and we celebrate their strength and vulnerability. Today, I wanted to share a bit of my story in connection with these three themes. I’m very happy to chat or answer any questions about this too, so do message me if you want to chat further.
Just over a year ago, my partner and I decided to grow our family. Soundcastle was in a really positive place, our little boy was 3.5, and we felt ready for the next step. We were very conscious of the impact of the pandemic on families across the world, and also of the privilege that we experienced with our amazing support network. Slightly spontaneously, we stumbled into the world of fostering. We made our first enquiry in spring and by summer, had a new family member! She is AMAZING. And we feel exceptionally lucky, as we stop and reflect this Foster Care Fortnight. It has been the most exciting, challenging and emotionally intense period of our lives and being surrounded by such a brilliant work family has really made it possible.
Recently we were fortunate enough to be offered an allotment! One of the most important things we have learned on our journey of therapeutic parenting (so far!), has been about making space for energy. Lots of holding. Not too much fixing.
The theme of this Creativity and Wellbeing Week is ‘Get Creative. Get Outdoors’ and it feels like perfect timing to celebrate this wonderful new outside space in our world and new family. It represents new growth and permanence. It offers somewhere to cry and to be safe. It lends us somewhere to dig without judgement. It is deeply therapeutic and has already had a transformative impact on our family life.
In parallel to all this development in my personal world, I am really happy to share that this week, the Soundcastle Team are completing their First Aid for Mental Health training. This is the first time that everyone will be qualified in this brilliant area, and I’m also excited to share that the training is being facilitated by my Co-founder, Hannah, who recently qualified as our in-house Mental Health trainer. The training is intense but is bringing the team closer, inspiring new thinking and feels like a perfect way to celebrate Learning at Work Week!
SO! One week – three themes. We made it!
As I said, if anyone has any questions about fostering, allotmenting or first aid for mental health – do reach out 🙂
Have a beautiful week and let’s hope next week’s trio is a national celebration of sunshine, ice-cream and beaches!
Rach x
This is a beautifully written piece, straight from the heart! What a whirl!!