Empathy

A message from Reverend Stacey, BCC Chaplain and Director of Church and Community Engagement.

Empathy is about finding echoes of another person in yourself. – Mohsin Hamid

“Empathy will guide our programming and culture at all levels. We recognize that without empathy we cannot understand what type of care and encouragement to provide. A supportive work and program environment means possessing a desire to know and understand others.” (BCC Core Value Statement)

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It refers to the ability to relate to another person’s pain vicariously as if one has experienced that pain themselves. Empathy is different from sympathy because you put yourself in another person’s “shoes.”

Empathy is about standing in someone else’s shoes, feeling with his or her heart, seeing with his or her eyes. Not only is empathy hard to outsource and automate, but it makes the world a better place.
-Daniel H. Pink

You can only understand people if you feel them in yourself. -John Steinbeck

Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant? -Henry David Thoreau

While we are striving to respond with empathy to others around us, we must also be kind to ourselves and feed our own spirits.

I want to interject a bit of humor here with this anonymous quote on empathy: Before you criticize someone … you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’re a mile away and you have their shoes.

Scriptures in the Judeo-Christian tradition call us to love our neighbors as our selves. In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus taught that our neighbor is anyone in need.

We work together as a BCC team to make a positive impact in our communities on behalf of children, youth and families.

Here is an inspirational word from Christian scriptures: So continue encouraging each other and building each other up, just like you are doing already. -1 Thessalonians 5:11

Our small acts of positive living are making a difference! Always remember, you are not alone.

 

 

This was originally part of our 40 Days of Positive Actions activity, sponsored by BCC Spiritual Life Team.

 

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Be Kind

A message from Reverend Stacey, BCC Chaplain and Director of Church and Community Engagement.

Kind hearts are the gardens,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the blossoms,
Kind deed are the fruits.
-19th century rhyme

Our focus this week is on being kind to ourselves as well as to others.

I am reminded of this quote from the Dalai Lama:
“Be kind whenever possible.
It is always possible.”

We need to practice being kind at all times.  Small acts of kindness make all the difference in our lives and in the lives of others. 

In one of our houses in Baltimore, the youth are writing in on their “40 Days of Positive Actions” calendar the specific actions that they are taking each day. One example was that a youth shared a snack with another.  It is inspiring to learn how our young people are making this practice meaningful in their daily lives.  Thank you to all of our staff who are encouraging positive actions and modeling them.

There are many scriptures that make clear God’s desire for us to be kind to one another.  God’s own kindness is our example.

Here are some verses from the Bible to illustrate:

Since God chose you to be the holy people whom God loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.  You must make allowance for each other’s faults and forgive the person who offends you.  Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
-Colossians 3:12-13 (New Living Translation)

Be kind and loving to each other.
-Ephesians 4:32

The Lord has told you what goodness is.  This is what God wants from you:  Be fair to other people.  Love kindness and loyalty, and humbly obey your God.
-Micah 6:8

Let us encourage one another to be kind to ourselves and to be kind to one another.  We all deserve more kindness in our lives as well as the joy of showing kindness!

Hope we have a great week!
Rev. Stacey

And always remember:

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
-Aesop

 

 

This was originally part of our 40 Days of Positive Actions activity, sponsored by BCC Spiritual Life Team.

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Top Ten Ways to Engage with Board of Child Care (BCC)

Top Ten Ways to Engage with Board of Child Care (BCC) 

1. Pray for the children, youth and families BCC serves as well as BCC staff. Include the ministry of BCC on your congregation’s ongoing prayer request list.

2. Contribute financially either by a special offering – the Christmas Offering or at some other time during the year – or by including BCC in your church and/or missions budget.

3. Make sure that your church is subscribed to BCC updates. Click here to subscribe or confirm your subscription.

4. Spread the word about BCC by creating a space to post BCC updates on a bulletin board, on printed materials, website, social media, etc.

5. Plan a tour of a BCC program.

6. Engage volunteers in creating Prayer Blankets and/or Welcome Bags.

7. Ask the missions team or another group in your congregation to donate money for Bibles.

8. Participate in one of BCC’s collection drives throughout the year (e.g. Christmas gifts).

9. Invite a speaker to share a presentation on BCC.

10. Volunteer for a project designed with the BCC Spiritual Life team.

Enriching Communities,
One Family at a Time

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Family Fun Day – May 2017

The second ever Board of Child Care (BCC) Family Fun Day was held Sunday, April 23rd at the Baltimore campus. Family Fun Day aligns with BBC’s mission to enrich communities, one family at a time. The organization is focusing resources on bringing together children and families.

The idea for the family fun day was created by BCC’s Case Managers who are in charge of connecting youth to community and state resources as well as interfacing with the families. Case Managers have been a true asset to the organization, assisting with making sure that our youth have the appropriate resources to fit their needs.

Eboni Barksdale, Senior Case Manager, stated, “a family day is an event designed to engage families of our youth in an engaging and interactive setting that helps strengthen bonds.”

We do this by bringing families together and providing a chance for them bond through art, crafts, and discussion in a caring and supportive environment.

Easter Egg Hunt with Brothers and Sisters

We focus on uniting families within all of our programs. It is especially important for residential to expand on family engagement and involvement. This focus on family engagement is a core part of our purpose statement, “Enriching communities, one family at a time.”

Family Day was a big success in not only unifying children and families but also as a wonderful opportunity for siblings to enjoy crafts, an Easter egg hunt, and quality time with loved ones. For more information on BCC’s programs click here

The article was written and published by Owings Mills Junior and Development Intern, Nick.

 

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2017 Volunteer Auxiliary Annual Meeting Recap

The 2017 Annual Meeting was held on Thursday, May 11th. There were 88 Auxiliary Members in attendance from all regions. The conference opened with a welcome from the Auxiliary President, Ms. Julie Wernz followed by the “Hymn of Promise”.

The Keynote Speaker was Ms. Laurie Anne Spagnola, President and CEO of Board of Child Care.

The Children’s Choir of South Korea is an organization of children grades 3rd – 8th travels giving hope and joy to many people throughout their mission tours. The Board of Child Care had the privilege to host these young and talented students at our 2017 Annual Spring Auxiliary Meeting.

There was not a dry eye in the audience after the children sang “Jesus Loves Me” and then proceeded to hug each person in the meeting. Please enjoy photos from the event on our Facebook Page. Click here to see a video.

Give a Tic Program was a success!

The program was designed to help raise money for batteries for donated watches so that they could be used in the Christmas Store.

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Disc Golf

One of the joys of working with youth is getting to share your interests with them.  The grounds at Board of Child Care are perfect for disc golf.  Given one of the staff’s passion for the game, over the past school year, many of the students have learned to play disc golf.

A few of the students, in spite of the limited, very mediocre instruction they have received, have shown themselves to have the potential to be good to very good disc golfers.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with disc golf, it is very similar to golf but played with discs (Frisbees).  Instead of getting the ball into a cup the disc is thrown into a basket.  In the same way a traditional golfer uses a number of different clubs to get the ball from the tee to the cup, a disc golfer uses a number of different discs each designed with a specific purpose to get the disc from the tee to the basket.  There are drivers, midrange discs and putters.  Unlike traditional golf, most disc golf courses are free and a set of discs can run under $30 compared to hundreds of dollars or more for a set of clubs.

On April 9th, we were lucky enough to have Travis Foreman, a professional disc golf player, come to Board of Child Care to run a disc golf clinic for the kids.

As part of the clinic, Travis was able to get Gateway Discs to sponsor the event.  Each participant received a number of golf discs courtesy of Gateway Discs.  Travis also gave away disc golf bags to three residents who won a putting contest.

At the clinic, Travis did a few demonstrations of his abilities and then patiently taught the residents about the different types of discs and how to throw them.

The residents then got to practice throwing the different types of discs at baskets set at multiple distances.

The clinic ended with a modified game of disc golf using two of the portable baskets Travis brought with him.

All of the kids who attended had a great time!   So much so that the following Saturday, six of the residents and their staff went to the disc golf course at Poor House Farms to play their first round of disc golf on a real course.

Travis had such a good time that he offered to come back if another clinic was desired and he donated 24 of his own discs to ensure that the residents had all of the discs they needed to play a serious game of disc golf.We look forward to many future outings to disc golf courses in the area!

 

 

 

 

 

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