Gather for HER

What does it mean to reclaim our human spirit? This is our theme for this month’s series of conversations as we prepare for our upcoming FireCircle 2020 Virtual Leadership Intensive happening April 29/May 1st.

Our first gathering welcomed Jay-Ann Gilfoy, CEO of Vancity Community Investment Bank, a subsidiary of Vancity Credit Union whose mandate in simple terms is to ensure money is put to good use for organizations that are doing good for their communities. 

“Two key focus areas for VCIB are affordability, trying to make sure that vulnerable populations and others have a place to live so they can have a quality of life and with that, environmental sustainability. Our first quarter was the best we’ve had and then all of a sudden this hit, so we’ve been actively working on a lot of fronts:

1. ‘We’ve pivoted our energy to make sure that we are helping communities thrive. We’ve been able to seed a little bit of money into three different foundations who are going to provide services for people around food, shelter, and healthcare for vulnerable populations in the Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa areas.’
2. ‘I’m actively engaging with my team, keeping a now virtual organization going at the board and employee level. We have a number of employees in different situations from: pregnant and due any day to young people in Toronto with family elsewhere, and everything imaginable. I am working to keep people employed, fulfilled and supported in the business.’
3. ‘We have customers affected by this because they are organizations that gather people. The need for social distancing has created an impact on the organizations we support and so we’re working with them to do all the things available to them to get through this period.’

Every day something new happens, so how do we shift and how do we pivot? How do we lead virtually to keep people engaged and deal with the stress and the mental health impact of this situation? I think that’s going to be one of the long term impacts of what we’re facing right now, a higher level of mental health impact.”

What does reclaiming our human spirit mean to you?

• Getting back to the basics and finding those places we can make a difference. I have a mantra I can do where I remind myself that I have the right attitude and I can weather this.  
• Using anchor points to keep us focused on the big work we’re here to do when we’re overwhelmed by the unknown. 
• Come back to who we are and what makes us happy. Celebrate the little wins every day. 
• Grieve the loss of control. It’s real. Grief is part of the process of learning.

“We’ve all been running at such a pace and it’s an unsustainable path for us as a species. I’ve heard stories from my team. Their life looks like: getting up, getting ready for work, dropping the kids off until they go to after school care, where I pick them up and move them along to soccer, or to dance. They’re busy, I’m busy and then we don’t connect until 9pm at night. We’ve been running at such a pace we’ve forgotten the basics like empathy and connection.

This is a check-in. What are we up to as a species and our connection between ourselves and the land we live with? It’s a good time to reflect on that. How do we want to be coming out of this?  As we’re peering into each other’s houses and everything starts to blur between our personal life and our professional life - all that stuff we carry as important can drop away.”