For the past two years, Peace Hill at Avila has hosted A Brief Respite, a contemplative gathering of nonprofit leaders that meets at Avila Center for Community Leadership on the fourth Wednesday of each month. A small but growing event, A Brief Respite began in response to a call from local nonprofit leaders.
“I could feel in my body that as a nonprofit leader that could never shorten my to-do list, never find a way to take a breath, never stop to consider my own needs, I knew I had to find some sort of restorative rhythm to be able to continue to do the work I love, and be healthy and whole long term,” Dave Crispell, executive director of Jubilee Home, said.
Dave was not alone in yearning to slow down for a moment. According to a recent survey by The Center for Effective Philanthropy, 95 percent of nonprofit leaders are concerned about burnout. This awareness led Dave and Ben Haas, director of the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham, to search for a space for nonprofit leaders to rest and recenter themselves.
“Having a little experience with Peace Hill, I sensed they and Terry knew a thing or two about creating the specific kind of space I was longing to inhabit and experience,” Dave said.
Terry Allebaugh, a life-long nonprofit leader and president of Peace Hill at Avila, recognized the need all-too-well.
“We set it up so that folks didn’t need to add something else to organize to their schedules; all they needed to do was set aside three hours on their schedule once a month and then find their way out to Avila,” he said. “We would have two hours of contemplative practice followed by lunch and conversation. With funding support from Westminster Presbyterian Church, we have been able to offer A Brief Respite for two years now.”
Ben emphasized the importance of inner life for nonprofit leaders, recalling Meister Ekhart’s assertion that “the outward work will never be puny if the inward work is great.”
“Dave and I came to Terry with our sense of how punily Durham’s nonprofit environment resources that inner work, and our hopes of making greater space for it,” Ben said. “Peace Hill at Avila became an essential, faithful catalyst for that much-needed space. Month after month, A Brief Respite nudges folks immersed in human urgency toward the importance of putting on our own oxygen masks first. Accepting that simple invitation takes deliberate effort, and I don’t always make it. Every time I do, I leave deeply grateful.”
Dave echoed Ben in expressing appreciation for the space that A Brief Respite provides.
“I always leave lighter, less exhausted, with more capacity to continue engaging, and believe I am better able to be the ED I want to be because of A Brief Respite,” he said.
Priskila Arulpragasam, a graduate student in the UNC School of Social Work and intern at Durham Congregations in Action (DCIA), values the variety of approaches to contemplative practice offered by facilitators of A Brief Respite, as well as the consistent opportunity to slow down and rest.
“I think it’s really good to take some time to pause, because often, like with nonprofit work and with the work we do, we keep running, meeting after meeting, event after event,” she said. “I’ve always felt guilty when I didn’t do anything. I’d be like, ‘Am I wasting time?’ But, coming to and finding that space where I can be kind to myself and say, ‘you deserve this space,’ just, you know, absorb the environment, that’s something that’s been very valuable.”
Desireé Lucas, DCIA intern and graduate student studying social work at UNC and pursing a Master of Divinity degree at Duke University, affirmed the need for spaces like A Brief Respite.
“I think just the fact that a space like this exist for leaders in the community, I think is really important, especially during very intense times like the ones that we’re in,” she said. “I think just the fact that it is a place for people to rest and take a moment to be present, I think is what makes it really valuable.”
Nonprofit leaders at all stages of their careers are welcome to join A Brief Respite. Every fourth Wednesday, attendees gather for contemplative practice from 10:00 am to noon, followed by lunch provided free of charge. There is no cost to attend, though registration is requested. Please email information@peacehillavila.org if you have any questions or if you’d like to be added to the mailing list.