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Guide to Feelings Friday

History​

Feelings Friday was initiated at the Flatiron School coding boot camp by its founders, Avi Flombaum and Adam Enbar, after they observed burnout among their first cohorts. During his time at Flatiron, Ethan attended various Feelings Friday meetings. He loved that after an exhausting week, there was a recurring Friday meeting to sit with his peers and just talk, vent, and share their feelings about anything. Since joining the Virtual Coffee community, he wanted to bring that same open space online and thus started the Feelings Friday group, providing a virtual safe space for Virtual Coffee members to share their feelings on Friday evenings.

Host Duties​

Be sure to read through the Guide to Hosting a Coffee Table Group documentation to gain an understanding of what is expected of you as a Coffee Table Host.

Read on for additional info specific to Feelings Friday Hosts.

Greeting Attendees​

Greet members as they join the room and ask if it's their first time in attendance. If so, give a brief description explaining what the Feelings Friday event is about. Here's an example:

Feelings Friday was started at the Flatiron School coding boot camp by its founders, after they observed burnout among their first cohorts. They designed Feelings Friday to be an open safe space where folks could gather to share whatever is on their mind this week. With whatever is said in the room stays in the room.

Be sure to provide links to mental health and wellness resources in the group chat.

And ALWAYS verbally provide disclaimers and rules for Feelings Friday as well as paste them in the group chat.

General Itinerary​

8:00 - 8:10 PM ET​

Take this time to greet your attendees individually as they join the Zoom. Give them the first 5 minutes or so to get settled in and wait for people who may be running late, then dive into sharing the information in the Greeting Attendees section above. As you do this, set up the group chat by pasting in the links to the mental health and wellness resources as well as the disclaimers.

Next, paste the wellness check-up group questions into the Zoom chat. These question serve as ice breakers to help get the conversation going. If no one volunteers to share first, proceed in alphabetical order.

Various types of participants attend Feelings Friday. To help members communicate what type of support they are seeking from the rest of the group, Ethan created a key of participant preferred method of communication and support from the Zoom reaction menu. Paste the key in the Zoom chat and encourage members to use the reactions when it's their turn to share.

8:10 - 8:58 PM ET​

For each participant's turn to speak the host will:

  • Ask all other participants to mute while the speaker is sharing
  • Ask the speaker if they would like to answer the wellness check-up group questions located in the group chat or if they have a topic in mind they'd like to share
  • Ask the speaker to select from the Zoom reaction tab how they wish the group to communicate with them after they are done sharing their feelings

8:58 - 9:00 PM ET​

Thank all the participants for sharing their feelings with the group and listening to the other participants' feelings being shared. Here's an example:

Thank you all for coming to this session of Feelings Friday. Thank you for sharing your feelings, and remember, whatever is said in this room stays in this room. I hope to see you all in the next one! Until then take care and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. Later!

Resources​

Mental Health and Wellness Resources​

Disclaimers and Rules​

  • Legal Disclaimer: The Feelings Friday group is run by volunteers. I am not a licensed medical professional. Please consult your doctor for any medical advice.
  • Safe Open Space: Whatever is said in this room stays in this room.

Wellness Check-up Group Questions​

  1. What's on your mind this week?
  2. How was your week?
  3. How do you feel about work?

Participant Preferred Method of Communication and Support​

  • Speed up: I’m going through a lot right now, so I just need some good vibes and virtual hugs for support.
  • Slow down: I'm thinking out loud/venting my feeling in an open space, but I am not seeking advice.
  • Green checkmark: I'm thinking out loud/venting my feeling in an open space, and I'm seeking advice.