It is our wish for everyone on campus to have a happy and healthy 2023! Make the coming year your best yet! In January, we start with a focus on individual health, goals, and plans. We then round out the month with a continuation of our series on communication skills and DEIB. We look forward to using the January winter break to help you all set aspirations, gain insights, and set actions into motion. 

 

The USM Learning and Talent Development Committee's Winter Wellness day-long program was held on December 20th.  There were 14 sessions to choose from and now you do not need to make a choice; ALL of the sessions have been recorded and will be available to view here. 

 

Attached is a PDF of our January Training Opportunities. This PDF has links to register for each of the events listed. We look forward to seeing you at many of these events to engage you in our community of learning.

Two events of particular note in our January calendar are: 

 

We begin a series on Work-Life Wellbeing. Throughout the spring, we will have one event per month that will focus on the balance we all strive to hold between our work lives and our home lives. January will focus on the personal side of our lives with Life Planning. February will bring a session on Work-Life Wellbeing: Worklife Balance Integration. That session explores topics gathered during recent focus groups. 

 

Also in January, we will explore the intersection of two of our series, communication skills and DEIB, with a crossover session on Intercultural Communication. Future planned sessions include Active Listening and Unconscious Bias. Stay tuned! 

 

Please share the attached flier with all that we may be able to serve. 

 

In partnership,

 

Jill Wardell & Melody Wright

UMBC Workplace Learning, OD & Wellness

Our mini pantry at the Campus Police Station will remain open 24/7 until we return.

If you are having a food or financial emergency, please dial 2-1-1 on your phone to speak to someone who will help connect you to resources that can help.

We also have compiled a list of some food pantries in the Arbutus-Halethorpe-Catonsville area. You can find that list here.

We wish you a happy and joyful new year and look forward to seeing you again in 2023!

Sincerely,

The Team at Retriever Essentials

We are having one more Free Farmer's Market in 2022 (weather permitting)! Sign up to volunteer to help us get one more batch of produce and dry goods out to our community. 

We are asking that folks stay for the whole time, 1:45 to 3:30 PM on Thursday, December 22nd in front of AOK Library (towards Erickson Hall)

Sign up here!

We are looking for 2-3 more volunteers to help out by volunteering at our event. We are co-sponsoring StudyCon with AOK Library and Academic Success and are looking for someone to help with tasks such as scanning IDs, facilitating a (very simple!) craft, or handing out goodies.

Volunteers are meeting at 10:50 AM and are asked to stay until 2:00 PM on Wednesday, December 14th.

Please send Lydia Sannella an email at lsannel1@umbc.edu if you are interested!

- The Retriever Essentials Team

Get in one last good deed before you head into finals! We are looking for folks to meet at 1:50 PM Monday through Thursday at True Grits to pack meals and then deliver them to The Essential Space. Sign up here.

Thank you to Food Recovery Network, Chartwells/Campus Dining, and to all the volunteers who have turned out this semester to make this all possible. Because of you, we were able to recover 760 meals from True Grits this semester!

Attached is the agenda for our NESS meeting tomorrow via webex at 10am.

Take a break from studying and help us get fresh food out to our UMBC community! We need volunteers Monday-Thursday this week. 

Signups are here.

Happy December! 

As we look to the end of the semester and a restful winter break, we finish out the year with a few sessions on leadership development, wellness, and exam stress relief for students.  

We continue to share curated offerings from HRDQ on leadership development including: First or Worst: What Builds and Breaks Leaders; and Taking the Lead: Five Things Every Supervisor Needs to Know. These webinars are free through HRDQ, and you can find all of their offerings here. 

We also continue our collaboration with the USM Learning and Talent Development Committee by offering all campuses the USM Winter Wellness event on December 20th. There are 14 separate workshops during this day-long event, including “Communicating Without Conflict with Your Significant Other”, “Managing Holiday Stress” and “Emotional Eating: The Connection Between Mood and Food.” Select all, or just one or two, to get you on the path to wellness this winter. 

This collaboration with USM also extends to our students. This month, UMD extends a welcome to all USM students for a workshop on wellness techniques to ease end of semester and exam stress. More information and registration can be found at https://go.umd.edu/micro-moments. 

Have a safe and pleasant winter break!

Retriever Essentials needs your help!

We need folks to help pack meals each day at 1:50. Meet at True Grits, pack up some meals, and bring them to our pantry in RAC 235!

We also need volunteers for Thursday's Free Farmer's Market (especially the 2:30 shift). Meet in front of AOK Library, under the trees near Parking Lot 7.

Can't make it this week? Keep an eye out for signups for next week. Hope to see you soon!

We will only be open two days this week: Monday and Tuesday. Please do your shopping between 12-6 PM today or tomorrow.

Additionally, we will not be having our Free Farmer's Market this week.

We hope you stay safe and warm over the long weekend!

-The Retriever Essentials Team