Growing Hope: building resilience in our lives

[Linda Poole]

Last week, a couple of us from Soil for Water presented a webinar titled "Grazing for Resilience: Bouncing Forward from Catastrophic Events."

The topic of rebounding from natural disaster sure hits home with me. I and my neighbors are ranching through what some have called the perfect storm of dust: record high temperatures, a plague of grasshoppers (see below), and, at my place, only about four inches of rain in over a year. Prairie ranchers are tough, but this last couple years have pushed many to the very limits of strength and hope. Working on the webinar brought home to me that the biggest challenge for some of us is not drought, but despair. We need rain, yes, but even more we need hope. We need community, compassion, ideas, friendly shoulders to cry on at times. We might be able to get that from people nearby, but there's also a warm welcome right here for anyone seeking to build hope and resilience.

Please have a look at the webinar and then, if you would like, direct message me through the forum, email me (lindap@ncat.org), or better yet, post in this thread. We're here to listen. Whenever possible, we'll share resources. We'll always share compassion. You are not alone. Together we can grow hope! We're here for you!

 

[Linda Poole]

An article in Civil Eats talks about farmers and ranchers supporting one another. They talk about COMET, "a program called Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory (COMET), which was developed in 2014 at the High Plains Research Network, and which serves eastern Colorado’s rural and frontier communities."

Through COMET, farmers and other locals—for instance, the owner of the hardware store and staff at the public school—learn to ask gentle but probing questions of their friends and neighbors during the normal course of conversation. They may tell a socially isolated farmer that they’ve missed her at the diner lately, then ask, “How are you, really?” says Maret Felzein, a member of HPRN’s Community Advisory Council who helped fine-tune the COMET curriculum. Questions culminate in asking the person who’s struggling if they’d be open to hearing a story about a similar challenge, or if they’d be willing to talk again. “It’s an invitation to engage,” Felzein says.

Sara George, a WiWiC regional coordinator, says this kind of strategy lines up with the very particular needs of the farming community. “There are farmer helplines out there; there’s mental health support groups.” (Farm Aid, for example, maintains an online list of resources.) “But I think building up a network in a community is so much more relevant,” George says.

Part of this, she says, has to do with the fact that the person on the other end of a crisis hotline might not have a background in ag, or understand its pressures. “Truth be told, even family [members] and friends can be like, ‘Why are you working every weekend? Why can’t you leave the farm for vacation?’” George says. “[They don’t understand that] you’ve got irrigation pipes that are breaking, animals that are dying, and crops that have an infestation of bugs. You’re always in triage mode on a farm.”

 

[Linda Poole]

Thanks for giving me a call, SC! Great idea to make that Farm Aid farmer resource list really easy for people to find!

Hit the link above, or copy this address into your web browser: https://farmerresourcenetwork.force.com/FRN/s/.

The page there has a way to easily search for just the type of help you might want. Highly recommended!

 

[Erik tucker]

An article in Civil Eats talks about farmers and ranchers supporting one another. They talk about COMET, "a program called Changing Our Mental and Emotional Trajectory (COMET), which was developed in 2014 at the High Plains Research Network, and which serves eastern Colorado’s rural and frontier communities."

There will be a (comet) training in Rockyford CO this coming Monday the 7 from 11 to 1 pm call Hanna at 719-363-1596 if you want to know more or go.

 

[Linda Poole]

Many of us have been through first-aid training where we learn the Heimlich maneuver and CPR. But did you know there is now a similar training to help with mental health emergencies? I recently attended a really helpful training in mental health first-aid. This training was done by a local provider, but it is a national program of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Read more about it at https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/:

Mental Health First Aid is a course that teaches you how to help someone who is developing a mental health problem or experiencing a mental health crisis. The training helps you identify, understand, and respond to signs of addictions and mental illnesses. FIND A COURSE near you.

This training was so worth the day it took to complete. Find a training near you by using the form at https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/take-a-course/. You may be able to help a friend or even save a life! For sure you'll be more aware of the sometimes subtle signs that a person is struggling and may benefit from your nonjudgmental support and kindness.

 

[Ronaldalony]

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