GirlTrek’s 10-Point Plan for Self-Care during COVID.
Family, you are our utmost concern. We love you and will stop at nothing to protect you. The news is changing every day, so please read this entire email to know GirlTrek's game plan for keeping all members healthy and the neighborhoods we serve safe. We will keep a careful eye on things and anticipate changes. We also have the faith of our foremothers and are prayerful that all things will work together for our good.
"We are each other's business; we are each other's harvest; we are each other's magnitude and bond."
– Gwendolyn Brooks
Here is GirlTrek’s 10-Point Plan for Self-Care right now...
Let’s get into it.
1. Walking Programs on Hold
You are our utmost concern right now. As you know, most major cities have entered mandatory lockdowns with only emergency medical and frontline responders permitted to leave home to work. Each state is different regarding outdoor exercise, but we’d like to support the most conservative measures to keep you and your families healthy. As of this email, GirlTrek is suspending all outdoor walking challenges. The national map on our website will be removed. We ask that you cancel any scheduled events by midnight. Instead, we are going to double down on 30-minutes a day of self-care and take the revolution inside. Many of you will still need to go outside to protect your mental health, get fresh air and sunshine — when you do, please follow the guidelines of your local government. As a collective action, let’s make a pact — right here - not to wear “superhero blue” outside in support of the global effort to protect public health. I promise, when this is all over — we will shake our shirts out — and have a blow-out block party - all across the nation!
2. New Programming to Support You
Introducing GirlTrek’s 100 Radical Ideas for Self-Care. All of these activities can be done from the safety of your home. We will keep you inspired daily on social media to make your way. through this list. Starting tomorrow, join us for the first-ever, “Virtual Superhero Saturday: A 3-Hour Fitness Marathon!” Coaches will have their whistles ready to keep you inspired for 180 sweaty minutes of dance, boxing, high-intensity training and yoga — with hilarious intermissions. That is just the beginning. Our goal will be to keep you laughing, thinking, hoping each day and to recommend excellent resources to keep you healthy. We are @girltrek on Instagram, Twitter and "GirlTrek: Healthy Black Women and Girls" on Facebook. Please contribute by using #girltrek, tagging us @girltrek and by following the hashtag. Stay tuned for a massive inspiration campaign coming up in May! #daughtersof
3. Emergency Financial Support
The GirlTrek Gives Back Fund was established to support its members who are facing extraordinary financial hardship. During the still-unfolding COVID-19 crisis, a special committee of GirlTrek members and trustees will accept and review applications weekly for emergency financial assistance to help ease the mental and emotional pressure that comes with financial stress. Listen, we understand. We’ve earmarked $100,000 to support trekkers. With that budget we can provide a limited number of 3-5 emergency grants each week until Nov 30th. Please apply if you need help. We cannot help everyone who applies but we will help as many as we can. For most applicants, grants will not exceed $1,000 per member.
4. GirlTrek Support Line
Have questions? Overwhelmed? Isolated? Need Help? Just want a real person to talk to? We have a corps of brilliant and friendly volunteers ready listen. Their mission is to lift your spirits, answer your questions and direct you to great resources — they can connect you with licensed professionals who can address your mental health needs. They are best listeners in the movement. The GirlTrek Support Line operates from 9am-9pm EST, 7 days a week. You can call 855-GRL-TREK.
5. Stress Protest Canceled
GirlTrek canceled all summer programming last week. This week, we made the impossible decision to cancel the Stress Protest. We heard directly from you — that although you want the sisterhood, you NEED to save money right now. Full refunds will be issued within 10 day to all those who registered. All payment plans will be forgiven as of today for last year’s event. If you need to access the “feel-good” of the Stress Protest, right this minute, please watch this amazing previously unseen video from last year’s event.
6. A Word on Social Events
Please cancel all group walks and physical gatherings – no Harriet House Parties, No Girls Trek Out, etc. Instead, let’s all follow the lead of the GirlTrek sisters in DC who hosted a Happy Hour on Zoom or GirlTrek San Diego leaders who are connecting members 1:1 with support buddies. We encourage you to connect virtually — now more than ever. Virtual book clubs, cooking classes, movie watch parties, breakfast in bed, whatever. To help, we are deploying our mighty field team — Kee and Onika to host a virtual “national tour” of social events across GirlTrek’s group city pages. They will focus on new, growing and understaffed cities. Please help them out by hosting a virtual event in yours.
7. GirlTrek Store is Closed
We support fair and just labor practices. Linda and her crew at Fulfillment Plus are not only some of the hardest working people in our community, but they are members of GirlTrek’s movement. To protect them and think about their safety — we are closing our store for now. GirlTrek will continue to pay our monthly retainer to support their small business. This means there will be no new orders after today and there will be a major delay of all prizes and golden shoelaces. You can still claim your victories at GirlTrek.org, but your prizes will NOT be shipped until it is safe for our fulfillment team.
8. Wage-Earning Wellness Training
For the last three years, GirlTrek has underwritten workforce training in fields that directly improves the mental and physical health of Black communities. Through “GirlTrek-U”, we have a stellar year record of certifying members to serve as fitness instructors, outdoor hike leaders, mental health first aid instructors, nutritional coaches and local advocates in partnership with the American Council on Exercise (ACE), The Sierra Club, Stanford University’s School of Public Health and others. Our goal is to expand these offerings to create wage earning jobs in the future. If you are interested in GirlTrek-U, please contact amber@girltrek.org.
9. Volunteer Opportunities
If you are a social worker, certified mental first aid responder, prayer warrior, wellness teacher or donor and you’d like to volunteer or support these efforts please apply here. For more information, contact us at giveback@girltrek.org.
10. Connect with us.
We are here to serve you. Please tell us how we’re doing in this quick survey. Vanessa and I will personally do our level best to support you during this time. Please stay connected with us on IG @morgantreks and @vanessatreks and join us each week for:
Monday Morning Prayer and Meditation
Join us every Monday of the quarantine at 9am ET as we meditate on the powerful words of our foremothers some weeks and practice formal mediation others. Meditation will be followed by fervent prayer led by members of the GirlTrek communities.
Coffee and Conversation each Friday
Please join us at 12:30pm ET. Our only agenda is to act a fool, talk about the week and respond to your texts, questions and jokes live on air. Dial In: 646-876-9923; Code 734464325. You are invited to join us today.
That’s it.
Please call us at (855)-GRL-TREK if you need us. Don’t hesitate. We love you so much.