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Individual Impact
Individual Impact | Organizational Impact
NRRC has been careful to document personal changes reported by individuals participating in our educational programs. These modest evaluation efforts have included focus groups, training evaluations, semi-structured interviews, as well as video and audio tape transcriptions. In general, we find that four broad categories of change are reported.
It has been NRRC history that when people increase their understanding of how they function, quality of life improves. NRRC evaluations show changes routinely include enhanced personal well-being (physical to emotional), increased personal reflection or spiritual development, better relationships with others, and greater environmental satisfaction. The following sample comments illustrate the broad outcomes for a wide variety of persons participating in ongoing NRRC programs.
Sleeping Better
"I had a very, very, very busy mind during the day, coming home from work, at night, laying there at night. Lots of busyness in my mind. And no one ever told me that I could shut that off—that it was my choice, that I was in control of my mind! And I’ll never forget . . . thoughts run through your head like a film and you are responsible for what you put into your head and what you let roll around in your head. You and only you are responsible for all that. And somehow that passed me by my whole life! I just never thought of that!
"So I’m a completely different person now, because I know that I’m in control of my thoughts and how important it is to not have a lot of static upstairs and to be peaceful and that I’m in control of that. I never knew that before. Nobody had ever told me that before. Oh, I knew it right away, right when they talked about it and they talked about ‘static in the attic.’ I thought ‘Oh, I’m 100% static in the attic. That’s just me! I’m like that.’ It just spoke to me. It was the most wonderful light bulb that shone in my head—‘Oh, you’ve got static in the attic all the time.’ I wake up and can’t sleep in the middle of the night because of stuff that’s rollin’ around in my head. Ah! I’m sleeping 100% better. I’m much more at peace with myself.
"I knew that I wasn’t sleeping well. That was my worst problem—the no sleep and waking up all the time and letting your mind just go crazy with all these thoughts in your mind. And I knew I wasn’t healthy because of the lack of sleep. I think that you don’t operate very well during the day if you don’t sleep. It was the most marvelous thing for me to realize that I could change and that it was up to me to change and that I could do it by myself immediately."
— Family Involvement Coordinator
Overcoming Depression
"What hit me right away was just the very the basic fact that we have innate health. I keep saying, ‘It’s in there; it’s in there!’ cause I’ve struggled a lot with some pretty extreme depression, bordering, well actually more serious. So the thought that there’s health I can draw on that is already there . . . It’s not something I have to somehow get someplace, but it’s there. I tend to really be a care-giver, and the thought that I don’t have to fix everybody’s problems has just made me a much more peaceful person. I still can listen. I can still have compassion, maybe even offer a couple of suggestions, but it isn’t mine to fix. It’s made life a lot less stressful."
— Parent
Stress and Worry Reduction
"People presented it to us and encouraged us to sign up for the class, and I didn’t sign up, because I thought–it was at the time when I had the breast cancer, and I was dealing with so many health issues—‘I’m not gonna go to a class to talk about my health.’ So I just got in by luck. Somebody else dropped out. When I talk about the training now and tell anybody about it, I tell them it’s changed my life. I tell them I’m a completely different person. I’ve really done a complete turnabout in being under stress and causing my own stress."
— Breast Cancer Survivor
"It wasn’t that I wasn’t worrying. I will have a conversation with a member of my family and everything’s fine. And then at 3 in the morning, I’ll wake up and think, ‘How did they mean that?’ The first episode was with my granddaughter. All of a sudden I thought ‘Wait, there’s not a thing I can do about it.’ And I started remembering it’s a waste of time and it’s a waste of energy. And I thought ‘If something happens I’ll worry then.’ And now it’s slowly becoming a habit."
— Grandmother
Personal Reflection and Development
"It’s definitely strengthened my spirituality, and it makes me feel better. I just feel a lot better about everything. I don’t know, somehow in my mind I have a division of spirituality and actual religion, organized religion, a religion that I practice. To me, spirituality is what’s within me; it has nothing to do with where I go, or how I choose to worship in a place. And I think that I’m much more aware of my inner self because of the training—much more aware than I was before and listening much more to my inner self."
— Parent Program Coordinator
"Participation has given me a better perspective to make judgments about my own abilities and competence . . . a sense that I have what it takes within myself or can figure out how to reach out to others to get the support that I need to get through these [tough organizational] times. On a more a personal note, it has caused me to reconnect with my spiritual self. It had been really a long time since I had come to church to join with anybody in any spirit of worship or celebration of just our beings."
— Inner City Nonprofit Administrator
"I’ve got a calmer inside. And when I feel calmer inside, I’m more thankful . . . when you’re feeling grounded, when you’re feeling okay with yourself, you just feel closer to your beliefs. You feel closer to happiness, and isn’t that when you’re really spiritual, you’re really at peace and happy? Whether it’s bad or good, you can handle it."
— Nurse
"I spent a lot of time over the years telling myself I didn’t have [a spiritual life], and didn’t need one, and really connecting it to all kinds of organized religion-type stuff, and I’m still not really able to speak very well about what it is for me, but I know that I have one. That’s different. That’s huge."
— Community Member
"It is a process. If it wasn’t a process, we could take the magic pill. But it’s almost like a journey. You’re here, and it’s a lifelong journey."
— Disability Services Worker
"I have learned over the years through lots of trials and tribulations that the journey is sometimes the most important part—the journey is the point. That’s where the focus needs to be . . . at the other end, something wonderful is going to happen. I just have to hang on and be calm for the journey."
— Nurse
"You know what? I am so at peace with myself, but I was helped along. I was hit by a semitrailer! I was broadsided in the fog by a semitrailer, and I’m perfectly fine. I mean, I could whine. My left foot’s still a little numb, but they said give it three months. So, I’m just so thankful. My blind spot is being true to myself, knowing who I am and finding me and getting there. That’s what I want more than anything right now."
— Car Crash Victim
Relationships
"My girl told me, ‘Whoa! You keep going to that thing!’ You know, I had a hot temper, and just since I started going I’ve been learning how to control it and learning how to communicate more. I still have my little ups and downs, but that just comes with normal everyday life. I used to hold stuff in. It slowly started bringing me out more . . . being able to speak, being able to talk. Our blocks will get better if we all work together and know someway to communicate about the problems that exist."
— Neighborhood Resident, Drive-by-Shooting Victim
"It has, I think, changed me. It’s changed the way that I’m patient with people."
— Community Organizer
"The biggest change is acceptance about things that I can’t change and being able to recognize that, and look for other ways, other things to put energy into that I think would make a difference. I was happier and content with myself and able to face some of the same people that I had some really terrible conflicts with without feeling the same way about them."
— Parent and Community Member
"I got suspended before I found out some of this. . . I actually punched a kid . . . But then I found out it was a separate reality thing, and it could’ve been stopped."
— Junior High Student
Environment and Workplace
"I am a much less angry person now than when I started. Something just struck me about the whole thing. I came home a much different person right off the bat. I’m way more tuned into how that anger was feeding into all kinds of other things on my block, in my life, in the neighborhood—that was pretty huge for me."
— Resident and City Worker
"I sort of started quieting down and being able to focus on what was really important. . . and that’s the individual residents and the neighbors that I came to know and love in the community."
— Neighborhood Association Board Member
"What I have noticed is the ability to be able to think healthier, just the thought. Healthy thinking has been an enormous asset to me and my life. The vision of being able to see health in the midst of unhealthy situations has been a plus for me. You just have to keep going to that healthy spot."
— MAD DADS Volunteer
"I used my quiet mind. Because I didn’t do any of my homework, I had a ton to do the next day. So I did it all in school. Just kind of calmed myself down at the end of the day and did a bunch. Got it all done. I was proud of myself."
— Junior High Student
"We’ve gotten much closer as a staff. People listen to one another . . . they feel like they can go to one another. You can say, ‘I don’t know what to do. What should I say? How could I handle this?’ You get support and get help and get ideas."
— Educator