Riding the Waves Together: WOMP Summer Sessions with Monarch School
This summer, Changing Tides Foundation partnered with Groundswell Community Project to offer our WOMP (Women's Outreach Mentorship Program) summer sessions to students at Monarch School. Monarch School is located in Barrio Logan, and they provide comprehensive academic, social and emotional support to unhoused youth, alumni, and their families. I was truly inspired by the community we created, the students who participated in our program that remained open and vulnerable, as well as the volunteers who showed up each week to make sure each participant felt safe, seen, and supported in and out of the water.
We broke down our original WOMP curriculum so that we could take time to get to know each other and ease into the flow of the mother ocean. We had the incredible Sarah Fisher, a certified therapist and school counselor from Groundswell join us as a co-facilitator for WOMP. We adopted some of Groundswell's Surf Therapy curriculum where we took time to tune in and ground ourselves at our new home break of Ocean Beach. We created a space where everyone could come as they are, no judgement or pressure to show up or feel a certain way. Teaching them no matter where you are on your surf journey, if you love and respect the ocean, you belong at the beach.
Each week, we started the same way. Checking in with one another, giving opportunities to define group guidelines and express ourselves. Before we jumped in the ocean, we always had an activity planned to deepen the girls' relationships with themselves, their surf sisters, and mother ocean. We focused on breathwork, meditations, journaling, environmental education, menstrual education, and group art projects that allowed everyone to slow down, be present, and connect.
During our first week together, we started small with baby steps into the water, all linked arms, checking in with our surf sisters with every step deeper. Allowing our power stance to provide stability when the waves came our way. The girls played and screamed with excitement when the waves splashed against them. Some wanted to go deeper, some were content just getting their ankles wet. The second week we moved to boogie boards to gain the sensation of moving with the waves. The next week, we got the girls on surfboards. By this time, they were already more confident in the water and had been practicing their popup on land. Our helpful volunteers paired up with the participants and rode waves in with them to provide support physically and emotionally as they embarked on their surfing journey. By the last week, the girls were cruising on waves all by themselves, wanting to paddle in and back out, standing up without any hesitation. And as impressive as this was, what was even more amazing was the pure happiness and joy each participant was expressing while we were out there in the water.
This summer WOMP taught us how to ride the waves of life together, feeling the support from our community. The participants began to see the parallels of life's challenges and challenges brought up by the ocean. They learned to move through these big feelings and face their fears with a newfound confidence and connection to mother nature and themselves.
Waves of love to all of our participants, mentors, guest speakers, Groundswell and Monarch partners making this all possible.
