Nonprofit Stories: Birthdays!

While friendship and fond memories may not be the fundamental pillars of a trauma-informed workplace, they tend to spring up in trusting, empowering, and collaborative environments. This is just the case with our team’s approach to birthdays.

With each opportunity, celebration rings out and work at the office is put on hold for at least half an hour. Pre-pandemic life saw us celebrating with small gifts, cake, and lots of singing. Even when trapped in our homes for a year and a half, we continued to celebrate, singing—however awkwardly—over a Teams call.

Birthday celebrations do not have to be extravagant, nor do they have to include gifts in order to be meaningful among friends and coworkers. Simply recognizing the events of team members’ lives — both inside and outside of the office — reminds us that we matter, we are cared for, and we are individual members of a larger community.

 Our small team is all the closer due to our shared recognition. This bond carries into our work, allowing us to dig deeper and trust each other in the pursuit of providing the best behavioral health trainings we can.