Fun Fridays at Mercy Multiplied

June 21, 2017

Mercy Multiplied’s program is a multi-dimensional approach designed to heal the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. A large part of the residential program is biblically based counseling and life-skills training. Additionally, residents participate in daily classroom time and fitness education. However, the learning takes a different spin on one particular day each week: Fun Friday.

Mercy staff, Erin.

The goal of Fun Friday is to give the residents opportunities to experience fun in healthy ways. For the Nashville Mercy home, Erin Gentry, Program Assistant, plans the Fun Friday events. Read our recent Q&A with Erin below:

What is the heart behind Fun Friday?

The goal is to teach the girls how to have fun in a way that is healthy. A lot of the residents come into the program having had experiences in which having fun is to party or thinking the only way to have fun is doing something bad. The goal is to show them, here’s how we can have fun with other people in a really healthy way.

How did Fun Friday begin?

Our staff came up with the idea. Fun Friday was meant to break up the intensity of the week and create opportunities for fun, interactive learning.

What are some Fun Friday activities you’ve planned?

Nashville staff and residents playing board games.

While we do fun things like karaoke and games, we also do team building. In team building, we’re playing a game, but at the end we process that game and pull out what we can learn based on how we had to work together and what didn’t work well. Learning by playing a game is very different from our normal teachings, but the residents still learn to communicate better and interact with others.

Why is the Mercy staff involved?

Home staff participate in Fun Fridays to be around the residents in a way that’s outside of their normal interactions. The rest of the week, residents are functioning with staff in their individual, professional roles. So, this could communicate to a resident that the only reason she would be talking to her counselor is for a counseling need. Fun Fridays help people get time with each other, to know each other’s hearts better or to just hang out. It shifts how we think.

What are some of your favorite Fun Fridays?

Residents playing on the Wii.

I like off-site Fun Fridays. Most of the girls think being in the house all the time is challenging. We visited Hummingbird Cracker Co. and saw them make dehydrated crackers. We also toured Dave Ramsey’s corporate office building and attended a live typing of the Dave Ramsey show.

Do you see a change in the residents after Fun Friday? 

I see a change in a girl’s ability to relax, because Monday through Thursday is an intense week. When Friday hits, and we’re going into the weekend, residents are encouraged to relax and do self-care. As the girls participate in and learn from Fun Fridays, it carries over to their lives and improves their ability to have fun together and understand each other a little bit more.

If you’d like to learn more about Mercy Multiplied’s program, please visit our FAQ web page.