In the fall of 2013, I received the following email:
“Congratulations! Debby Beckman has nominated you to join a select group of influential professionals as a member of the 2014 class of The Executive Journey Fellowship – a program aimed at renewing leaders and transforming the field of youth work in the state of Indiana…
We hope you will consider applying for one of the limited number of spots available for the 2014 year… We encourage you to see this fellowship as an once-in-a-lifetime professional opportunity to make your coming year one of renewal and possibility for yourself and your organization.
You deserve it. And the field needs you.”
I applied and, in December, was notified that I was selected as a 2014 Executive Journey Fellow.
When I said ‘yes’ to this experience, I knew little about the organization or what I was getting myself into, but Debby Beckman, my friend and mentor who was executive director of the YWCA in Fort Wayne at the time, thought it would be right up my alley, and I trusted her.
Although it is a statewide program,
The Journey is not as well-known here in northeast Indiana as it is in Indianapolis. Now in its 22nd year, there are nearly 1,300 alumni. It’s a program of the
Indiana Youth Services Association and is made possible by support from Lilly Endowment, Inc.
The Journey was the brainchild of Indianapolis resident Janet Wakefield. In 1986, Wakefield was selected along with 51 other youth workers and educators to take part in the Lilly Endowment Leadership Education Program (LELEP). At the time, she was working for the Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth program, where she had been for 15 years. After the LELEP fellowship was over, she began consulting for Lilly Endowment.
In 1987, the Endowment started
teacher creativity fellowships for K-12 educators throughout Indiana. The program awards funding (currently up to $15,000) for education professionals to step away from their work and engage in renewal activities. Wakefield worked on these fellowships, helped with a similar clergy renewal program, and set up think tanks.
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2014 Executive Journey Fellows gather outside during a retreatWhile Wakefield was working on these projects for Lilly Endowment, she remembers thinking, “Why can't we do this with youth workers?"
In 1998, Wakefield was visiting Fort Wayne as part of the work she was doing for an organization called Community Partnerships with Youth. While here, she witnessed a youth worker showing the signs of burnout that were becoming all too common in the field.
Besides burnout, Wakefield had begun to see low wages, long hours, and minimal benefits forcing some to seek higher-paying opportunities outside of the field. Others found themselves working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
Her experience working with Lilly Endowment put Wakefield in the mindset to believe she could make a difference in the youth profession. She remembers hearing staff at the Endowment saying, ‘We need people who have good ideas to bring them forward because our job as funders is to give money away.’
Wakefield began talking about her ‘good idea’ with the youth development program officer for Lilly Endowment. They discussed incorporating ideas from several other programs they were both familiar with, including Parker Palmer’s
Center for Courage and Renewal and Marian David’s
Sustaining the Soul that Serves.
Between 2000 and 2002, Wakefield submitted many proposals to Lilly Endowment, tweaking the application every time it was rejected. Eventually, she found the sweet spot and secured the funding.
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At retreats, Fellows share insights in the "Big Book of AHAS"In 2003, The Journey launched its first official group of fellows. The program included four three-day retreats with organizational teams of executives, new professionals, and students. After two years of this approach, The Journey split the fellowships into two cohorts: executives and new professionals; later, they added a third student group.
When I started my fellowship in 2014, I was a supervisor at Brightpoint, a local social service organization that serves people of all ages, including youth. My cohort included 27 people in various leadership positions at organizations around the state. We met at lodges or retreat centers with accommodations arranged by The Journey staff. Retreats started with an opening circle called “Connections.” The circle served as a way to disconnect from the outside world and become present with each other.
A concept introduced at our first gathering was ground rules or Touchstones that we all agreed to observe as we participated in the retreats. These “Touchstones for Creating a Safe and Trustworthy Space” included:
- Choose for yourself when and how to participate;
- Be present for yourself and others;
- Presume welcome and extend welcome;
- Embrace difference;
- Speak your truth;
- Speak for yourself;
- Make space for silence;
- No fixing;
- When the going gets rough, turn to wonder;
- and Observe confidentiality.
We were each given a journal to record our thoughts and asked to bring them to subsequent gatherings. The four retreats centered around themes that were illustrated on stickers we were given to add to our journals. The stickers functioned like passport stamps marking our stops along “The Journey” year.
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Jennie Renner's journal from her 2014 Executive Journey FellowshipRetreat activities included time for quiet reflection, meeting in small discussion groups, spending time in nature, writing in our journals, sharing our insights, and exploring nearby attractions. At every retreat, we received hearty meals, plenty of snacks, opportunities to try new things, and often special treats and surprises. And the best part was, everything was taken care of by the Journey staff and venue hosts. I truly felt pampered.
From early on, I felt comfortable sharing my thoughts with this group of people who started out as strangers; Others commented that they felt the same way. The Touchstones set the tone for building the trust that made us feel at ease with one another, but there seemed to be something more at work. We came to refer to it as “The Journey magic.”
As the fellowship was concluding, we were informed that we would be receiving a $1,000 personal renewal scholarship to spend on ourselves. This felt like a luxurious bonus to the yearlong gift I had already received. In addition to this, we were each awarded a $500 organizational renewal scholarship to bring some of what we learned through The Journey back to our workplaces.
In the years following my Journey Fellowship, the program offered funds and staff support to host events for fellows and other youth workers in and around Fort Wayne. I was part of a group of several local fellows who volunteered to plan and host events over the next few years.
In addition to locally-organized events, The Journey periodically offered activities in Indianapolis, all-Journey retreats, International Youth Worker Exchange trips, and professional development cruises called Symposiums on the Sea. All of these activities were open to anyone who had ever participated in a Journey Fellowship and often available at no charge or a significantly-reduced cost to fellows.
As The Journey approached its 20th year, they announced they would take a year off to regroup and plan The Journey of the future. In 2024, the organization introduced the reimagined Journey which included a new initiative to support individuals after their Journey year. The state was divided into five regions and fellows were invited to apply to serve as leaders in their region. I became one of five leaders for the Northeast Region which includes over 150 Journey Fellows.
I was interested in being part of the regional leadership because I want more people to experience “the magic” of The Journey. What I have discovered in my new role with the organization is that it is not magic at all. The Journey is a thoughtfully-planned program designed to take care of people who take care of people– in this case, our youth.
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All Journey Retreat 2018In addition to adding regional groups, the Journey changed the fellowships for 2025 to include two cohorts open to professionals at any stage of their careers who work at youth-serving organizations. Also, interested individuals no longer need to be nominated to apply.
As the sector continues to hear from youth workers about the fragile state many are in as they deal with increased workloads, lack of adequate staffing within their organizations, and compassion fatigue, The Journey is needed more than ever. The issues that young people face have become more challenging and youth workers who stay in their jobs are reporting a lack of support and recognition of the valuable services they provide.
Data from the
Indiana Youth Worker Well-Being Project confirm that physical, emotional, and financial stress are by far the top concerns of Indiana’s youth workers. In the reimaging of The Journey, access to supports that acknowledge the interconnectedness of these top stressors was identified as critical to improving circumstances and addressing the root causes of overall stress.
My fellowship year was life-changing. I learned that taking care of myself is not selfish; it is necessary. I experienced how vulnerability feeds meaningful relationships that sustain me. I gained a network of support from all over the state of Indiana. And I was inspired to pass along the gifts that I received from The Journey to others.
Applications for The Journey Fellowship will be available this fall. To learn more, visit
https://indysb.org/the-journey/.