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U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz Child, Youth and School Services conducted a comprehensive training day for all CYS personnel Mar. 24 at the Landstuhl Youth Center.
The first half of the day was centered on resiliency, with training provided by James M. Honeycutt, Employee Assistance Program/Prevention Coordinator. According to Honeycutt, “My mission was to conduct a resiliency day for the CYS staff that focused on building mutually supportive relationships, detecting signs of burn out, encouraging help-seeking, fostering supportive team communication, and strengthening a sense of team identity.”
The highlight of the morning was a tactical arts and crafts team building exercise, centered around shared team values. During this portion, all 12 program teams from across Rheinland-Pfalz and Baumholder came together to create team posters with a logo that captured their shared experience from the resiliency training they received that morning and creatively display how they will continue to work together towards shared goals and values.
Travis Gentry, of Landstuhl CDC, explained his team’s poster, “Divide the task, multiply the success. This describes how by working together as a unit — things work better for everyone.”
Hunter Kautz, of LCDC I Preschool and his teammates created a poster that says “You gotta peel if you wanna feel” and shows a banana happily shedding its outer peel. According to Kautz, “Our logo represents sharing at work, getting to know one another better – which makes work more fun.”
Jacqueline Joye and Noah Jacob Paul of the Wetzel Teen Center described their team’s poster of a bee, with the words “Just Bee” as a reminder to take things as they are, and bee your authentic self — sentiments that ring true for them and for the teens that they serve each day.
The posters will be displayed in each respective center to motivate the staff during daily activities and serve as a reminder of their shared commitment to help and care for one another.
Mr. Kevin Breisch, Facility Director/Training Specialist and Ms. Melissa Gironda, Training Specialist, worked together to organize the training day, which not only produced favorable physical and mental health outcomes for the staff, but it also served as the annual Operation Excellence refresher training, enabling 172 CYS staff members to meet and complete this requirement.
“We have four training days on the calendar each year, this was the first for this year, first quarter,” said Breisch. “Melissa and I thought, how can we make this training special? And we decided that the resiliency training is a great way to provide the staff tools and resources to care for themselves and each other — while letting them know that we care about them. These are all the caregivers, administrative assistants, the non-supervisory staff — these are the people who are on the front lines every day.”
Gironda added, “We wanted a topic that could benefit everyone, and with the subject of mental health and awareness, we want to create the notion that it’s okay to take a step back and take care of yourself. We ask our staff to take care of our children every day, and now we want them to pause and make sure that they take time to focus on themselves and their needs – to help each other and improve our programs.”
The Army’s Child and Youth Services programs are designed to foster and develop children’s physical, intellectual and socio-emotional capabilities. The goal of the quality child and youth development options is to reduce the conflict between parental responsibilities and unit mission requirements.
More than 200 Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation employees serve seven Army CDCs in the Rheinland-Pfalz garrison footprint — two at Baumholder, two at Landstuhl, and one each at Kleber Kaserne, Miesau Army Depot, and Sembach Kaserne. Kleber CDC reopened in August 2019. The Air Force also offers CDCs at Ramstein Air Base and Vogelweh Housing Complex.
For more information about Child, Youth and School Services, visit https://kaiserslautern.armymwr.com/programs/about-cys-services
