A Letter From The Executive Director/CEO
Colleagues and friends, as a community corrections professional who has spent her entire career in this field, I join many others in looking forward to the third week of July, PPPS Week, designated as a time to shine light on and celebrate the work of those who carry out this important work. While Team APPA praises and recognizes the value of community supervision staff all year long, this is an opportunity to specifically acknowledge and pay homage to the tens of thousands of amazing individuals in our field. It’s also a great time to highlight the work done to increase positive results for those assigned to pretrial, probation, and parole.
Last year, we adopted the PPPS Week theme, Stronger Together, focusing on the benefits of working collectively to create opportunities and find solutions for the challenges we face in our field. The efficacy of the collective work highlighted by that theme—and indeed of all of our work—depends on the well-being of those who are joining together in this endeavor, and that is why this year’s theme is Wellness Unveiled: Navigating the Community Corrections Journey, with an emphasis on mental health.
The need to promote mental health and psychological wellbeing that brought about this year’s theme is one that resonates for all too many, particularly in community corrections. While our work opens the door to high rewards--with an opportunity to change lives—it can also be high pressure. Since the onset of the pandemic, in particular, individuals doing this work have been voicing concerns about their emotional health more than any other time that I can recall.
Throughout this calendar year and beyond, let’s emphasize wellness. While remaining laser focused on the people and communities we are serving, we must not forget self-care. Consider what flight attendants say on airplanes before takeoff: “Put your mask on first and then assist others.” Yes, we must care for others, but we MUST NOT forget ourselves! If we are not healthy, we cannot give our best to others.
This very issue happened to come up during a recent meeting where a colleague spoke about building a culture of well-being to reduce unnecessary harm and suffering of our staff. She discussed how aligning occupational, organizational, and our own wellbeing strategies across roles, cultures, and backgrounds can make a measurable difference in both employee and population outcomes. She urged us to identify promising practices currently employed in our field that are focused on the health of staff. Her words definitely fell on receptive ears.
Ladies and gentlemen, we can use PPPS Week to re-launch a focus on both our physical and psychological health. Let us make improving wellness and finding balance a priority; let us add to the stories of healing for ourselves and others; let us show empathy and compassion; let us celebrate resilience and transformation; and, lastly, let us keep the message of health and safety at the forefront–not just during PPPS Week, but always.
My sincere gratitude for your selfless contributions!
Veronica Cunningham, Executive Director, APPA
