Sarah Barbosa Consulting
Has The Unexpected Been A Bit Too Much Lately?
Are you unsure about your next steps or your future in the non-profit sector? Stuck on how you can engage or empower young people in your community?
How I Found My Voice as A Young Person in The Non-Profit World
Monday, June 26, 2023.
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I was sitting on a gorgeous bay window in an all-wooden chalet, the kind you only seem to find in storybooks. My boyfriend was working at the kitchen island, and I had settled myself into a warm sunspot, anxiously fretting and shuffling the papers I had brought with me and compulsively checking my emails.
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Something felt off.
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Something in my gut was telling me that something bad was about to happen.​​​
I was fortunate enough to work remotely.
I had gotten this role at a non-profit over 7 months ago, after short stints and contracts that brought me all around the nonprofit sector.
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For once, it felt like I had found a unicorn, a rare gem of an organization to work at. Finding a good organization to work for in the non-profit sector is challenging.
It’s riddled with uncertainty.
It takes and demands everything from you and gives you very little in return.
At 9 am on the dot, my laptop pinged.
It was an outlook notification inviting me to an all-staff mandatory meeting at 3 pm.​
The meeting rolled around painfully slowly, and the atmosphere was tense as soon as I hopped on the Zoom call.
About 2 minutes in, my life came to a crashing halt and imploded.
“Effective immediately, all staff is temporarily laid off.”
The certainty I had finally found, the stability I was given, the fulfilment I got from my work, the life I was building – all of it, all of it gone in a matter of seconds.
What I Had To Change
It was a crisp cool fall day, and on the drive to therapy that morning all I kept repeating to myself was how much I didn’t want to be there.
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I convinced myself that I could not have a stable job.
I could not have a fulfilling job.
I could not have financial security.
I could not have a big life.
In my mind, this was the consequence of choosing to start my career in the nonprofit sector and being laid off only proved those thoughts right.
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To cope with it, I drowned myself in shame.
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Until I realized what I was doing.
One Moment In Therapy Changed Everything
For the first time, my therapist spoke to the scared, small and lonely girl who needed someone to see her. Who had spent too long surviving and not thriving when her world imploded because she was let go.
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​My therapist looked at me and was the first person to make me feel seen in that shame.
I couldn’t run from her. I couldn’t hide.
That’s where shame grows – in the silence, in the isolation, in all the nooks and crannies you try to hide yourself in.
I Now Work As A Youth Engagement Consultant
I help organizations build their youth engagement strategies to bridge the gap between youth and their communities.
Helping youth, and being the bridge between organizations and the young people in their community – that is what I love.​​
I remind myself that I am not my job.​
I am not the organization I work for.
​I am not trapped by the field I chose to work in.
I am not made to live a small life and just barely survive.
I Can Succeed In The Non-Profit Sector.
I can have stability.
I can thrive.
I can live a big life.
I can have everything I have ever wanted.
I can make a difference and have an impact on my community.
I don’t have to do it at the expense of losing who I am or changing myself.
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The journey to navigating and thriving in the non-profit sector starts with accepting the things you can't control and taking control of what is within your control.
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Guess what? So can you.