Staff Spotlight: Lindsey Marcelino, Wellness Care Coordinator

Lindsey Marcelino comes to Bennington, VT, by way of the west coast—most recently, central Oregon. Their career spans working with both children and adults in a variety of settings, but wellness has always been important to them. Lindsey enjoys coming up with ideas to promote wellness, from activities and groups, to simply learning to understand oneself.

In Oregon, Lindsey worked for a women-owned sexual health resource center, where they worked with medical practitioners and women’s health experts to learn more about autonomy and anatomy of the body, in order to better serve their clients. Before Oregon, Lindsey worked in K-12 education in California and earned an associate degree in Social and Behavior Sciences. “That’s where I fell in love with humans and our behaviors,” says Lindsey. They worked as an aide and worked individually with students with autism spectrum disorder, helping both their clients and other students in the classroom to better communicate with each other.

“I ran a lot of group activities on the playground to get kids to play together,” says Lindsey. “Because they already knew how to communicate with each other outside the classroom, they knew how to talk to each other inside the classroom. Kids would help each other self-regulate.” Lindsey used their ability to understand nonverbal languages to help clients grow socially and emotionally.

After some time working as a teacher, Lindsey moved on to the resource center in Oregon. Working with children on their social and emotional journeys inspired Lindsey to translate these efforts to working with adults. They planned and hosted workshops, book clubs, and networking events for adults to build community and access educational resources. “I really enjoyed working with adults in the realm of wellness, and mental health has always been important to me.” That led Lindsey to pursue a new role working with adults and was drawn to UCS. Reading the agency’s Staff Spotlight features and seeing its focus on staff appreciation put UCS at the top of the list when it came time to make a decision.

Now, Lindsey is settled into their role as Wellness Care Coordinator and connects clients to services both inside and outside UCS that focus on activities to ensure their emotional and physical well-being. While only a few months into the role, Lindsey has big plans for activities, and some are already in the works. Lindsey hosted a seed swap in early spring for clients and staff and are in the process of preparing the garden at UCS’ Ledge Hill Drive location for spring planting. This will be a place for staff and clients to work together on planting, weeding, watering—everything that goes with maintaining a vegetable garden. Lindsey’s enthusiasm for the project has already inspired a group of staff members to join the effort. Other ideas for client wellness include groups for art making, music appreciation, physical activities and sports, and even pop-up groups. Lindsey, along with a group of others, is also planning a client art show to open this winter. “My goal is to hear the clients and make something happen that they’re asking for,” says Lindsey. Since wellness can mean many things, the opportunities are endless. “I’m really excited that the emphasis is on well-being and fun. Grounding and mindfulness are so important, but there’s also that part of us that’s physical—dance, movement—the emotional part that is expressive. I enjoy the possibilities.”

Outside of UCS, Lindsey enjoys exploring the natural world. They recently went on a foraging walk and learned all about fiddleheads, or young fern coils. Other recent foraging discoveries include garlic mustard, an herb with culinary and medicinal uses, and violets, which are currently steeping to make syrup.

Lindsey hopes that clients similarly explore their world in ways that interest them—a big part of their job is to help clients find those things they enjoy doing.

“Wellness—what does it mean for an individual?” asks Lindsey. “What can we actually bring into our lives or continue that brings the joy, the love, and the self-exploration for personal growth?”