We know that the COVID-19 crisis will create greater instances of moral injury and secondary trauma in healthcare workers, a population already burdened with compassion fatigue and burnout. We’d like to support healthcare workers to harness the power of narrative and community through the COVID-19 crisis, and to share the burden with them as we stay home.
We are partnering with Grammy-nominated recording artist and mindfulness activist and all around stellar human being Jewel and her NeverBroken initiative and with Badges United Foundation, an awesome organization focused on meeting the mental health needs of first responders and drawing upon Community Building Art Works’ experience using poetry and expressive writing with military and civilian healthcare workers and students to create a safe space for healthcare workers to use poetics to share the full truth of their experiences with one another and the broader community. Poetry blends narrative, mindfulness, and self-expression to help people make order out of chaos, and to overcome the shame that accompanies traumatic experiences.
To reach as many people as possible, in as many places as possible, we need your help.
If you know anyone anywhere in the world who works in healthcare—not just doctors and nurses—please ask them to contribute their words at www.PoeticRecord.org
Seema Reza is a poet and essayist and the author of two books: A Constellation of Half-Lives and When the World Breaks Open. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in Writing and Community Building from Goddard College. In 2010 Seema began working with service members, veterans, and their families at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and has since developed a unique multi-hospital arts program that encourages the use of the arts as a tool for narration, self-care and socialization. In 2015, the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore awarded Seema the Col John Gioia Patriot Award for her work with service members in military hospitals. Seema is a 2019 George W. Bush Institute Stand-To Veteran Leadership Scholar.