Those of you with excellent taste in music would have recognised the Beatles’ song lyrics in this post’s title! But don’t worry, if you’re not a Beatles fan, we’ll still accept you 🙂
Either way, we in the YAM core team are so excited about the ways that YAM sites around the world have been coming together. As more and more sites are established over the years, there are more opportunities for collaboration.
It’s easy to feel like we have to just put our heads down and do the work at our own sites, since there’s often an endless to-do list. Not to mention the fact that there’s the whole global pandemic situation going on, and many sites are having to take breaks or make adjustments to their normal operations. But remember – just like with mental health, no one has to navigate challenges alone.
Each YAM site exists in its own cultural context, and no two sites are the same when it comes to organisational structure or approach. But we can learn from each other in both where we are alike and where we differ. We’ve seen this clearly in a couple of recent calls when sites connect with one another.
On February 10, the YAM core team had a zoom call with folks at the Texas, USA site and the Montana, USA site. The two sites were very much connected in the early years, with Instructors and Trainers becoming trained together, and collaborations in setting up the site systems. But in the past few years, the sites have had different focuses as they each grew in ways that made sense for their local contexts. But now, there are many opportunities for the two sites to connect and collaborate, and we can’t wait to see where things go! They talked about working together on their research tools to gather data about YAM, pursuing funding opportunities together, and generally supporting each other as they navigate school closures due to COVID. There is strength in numbers, and these two teams are bursting with ideas, skills and possibilities for the future!
And on January 28, we had a call with the Swedish Coordinators Network. Representatives from all 12 Swedish sites joined the YAM core team for updates about YAM, and to share questions and ideas for how YAM in Sweden can continue to grow even during COVID. A topic of discussion was Continued Training and debriefing for Instructors. We discussed how important this is for fidelity to the method, and one of the main takeaways from the discussions was the importance of employers really giving the Instructors time and resources to attend these sessions – otherwise it is hard to expect high attendance.
We are so grateful for the hard work done by all YAM sites, and the YAM core team continues to be available to support each site with whatever we can. We hope there can be more opportunities for sites to come together in the coming months, and we’ll keep sharing insights and lessons learned that will hopefully help sites around the world continue to grow!