Can I get a Namaste at the end?

Anyone who has ever once spoken in front of a large group undoubtedly welcomes audience affirmations – the spontaneous amen, bravo, or right on!.  These outbursts are strong indicators that the audience has heard and agree or appreciate our messages; they are music to our ears.  Yet a recent conversation with Anisha Chablani, Deputy Director of Roca, has led me to think of these audience affirmations in a different way.

I’m in the midst of writing a retrospective piece for Roca, one of the most awesome organizations with whom I have ever had the privilege to be associated.  Located in Chelsea MA, Roca works with the most disenfranchised of our young people – system and street involved youth on whom society has given up.  Roca has an extensive and integrated evaluation system that monitors and tracks developmental indicators of progress linked to their participants’ learning plans.  In other words, for every individual in its program,  Roca staff document  exactly how well participants are doing, what challenges they are facing and what additional supports and opportunities are needed to support continued growth.  This method ensures that each young person gets the tailored services they need, regardless of the staff member or various learning and engagement opportunities in which they’re involved.  Funders love it because it provides quantitative data on efforts leading to outcomes – pretty impressive stuff.  But what I really wanted to know for this reflective paper was, at the organizational level, how Roca knows its over arching outcomes have met their goals – in short, success – when it sees it. 

Anisha’s reply was simple and profoundly to the point: “When I get a Namaste at the end.”  Indeed, I thought to myself, that’s exactly it… but how can I ever explain this to anyone?  This isn’t about affirmations as I’m used to thinking about them, as a form of approval.  Well, I’m going to give it a try.  

Anisha wasn’t talking about giving a presentation to a yoga class, though that would be a guaranteed way to “get a Namaste” – Namaste is the familiar greeting and hands folded gesture used by yoga instructor and students.  Rather Anisha was going to a deep place of thought, reflecting Roca‘s presence in the world and invoking the Sanskrit meaning of Namaste: as defined by Deepak Chopra, “I honor the spirit in you which is also in me.”  Thinking about what she said I realized that Roca is a secular embodiment of the spiritual concept of Namaste.  Here’s how:

• The coming together of people as equals, regardless of difference – be it among youth and staff, partners or community agencies.  Roca is a magnet that attracts people of all kinds and walks of life to work together and create pathways and developmental opportunities that propel young people out of harms way and into a life of self sufficiency.
• The idea that we honor the light that is within everyone.  The reverence and respect Roca has for all people, but especially for the young people they serve who have literally been thrown away by society is palpable.
• The literal translation “I bow to you.”  Humility is embodied everywhere at Roca – within the organization’s world view, its programmatic approach, and its relationships with the community, and the practices of the staff.  In fact, this humility occasionally works to the organizations detriment when it comes to attracting funding: Roca does very little self promotion, especially in comparison to other organizations that might be competing for the same limited funding stream.  When I asked a staff member why there was so little emphasis on communicating the organization’s incredible and amazing success with marginalized young people the answer was simple and stunning: “How  awful it would be to claim credit for a young person’s success.“  Despite the years of intensive efforts and resources – staff time, relationship building, learning opportunities, employment readiness and training – Roca invests in the young people it serves, the success is always the young persons, never Roca’s.

As youth workers it is one thing to infuse the spirit of the meaning of Namaste into our work – in itself a tough challenge and great accomplishment.  But Anisha was talking about more than that; “A Namaste at the end” is the ultimate indicator that Roca has successfully achieved its mission and no longer needs to exist – it’s the time when people can come together as equals in humble service and with profound respect for the most marginalized members of our planet, and would do so without a moment’s notice or hesitation.   

Namaste, Anisha, may your collective leadership lead to success that puts Roca out of business and heals the world.

And for the rest of us, what would it take to get a Namaste at the end of your work?

Learn more about Roca.