How I’m Transforming My Social Change Approach With Wellbeing How I’m Transforming My Social Change Approach With Wellbeing
Stories from the Hearth
Guest post by:
Amos Leuka
Director, Living Culture and Climate Alliance (LCCA)
🌍 Loita Maasai community, Loita, Narok County, Kenya
Amos Leuka, director of the Living Culture and Climate Alliance (LCCA), from the Loita Maasai community in Loita, Narok County, Kenya, attended The Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès in November 2023. Listen to his journey of learning, inner reflection, and motivation as he shares his reflections on the gathering.
The LCCA promotess culture and climate adaptations in Africa and in particular, Kenya. It enables indigenous communities to promote their bio-cultural rights and supports them to be economically and culturally resilient, capable of managing their land systems and biodiversity. By building this solid base, providing leadership, technical and facilitative support, and using Participatory Video, LCCA creates a space to connect all indigenous communities and enable them to gain influence on climate issues affecting them, maintain their languages and use indigenous knowledge systems to manage their lands, social change and shape their future.
EXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHEREXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHER
Dive Into Stories From Around the World
Discover the Wellbeing Movement in Africa Discover the Wellbeing Movement in Africa
Meet and hear stories from the changemakers championing the wellbeing movement in Africa.
Building a Brighter Future for The Gambia, Africa, and Beyond Building a Brighter Future for The Gambia, Africa, and Beyond
Stories from the Hearth
Guest post by:
Dr. Margor A. Green-Harris, MD
Medical Officer, Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital
🌍 Banjul, The Gambia
Once upon a time, in the heart of Sengeal “Rew Taranga” a diverse group of changemakers gathered for The Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès —a transformative event that promised to reshape the future of the continent. Among them was I, a passionate advocate for social and behavioral change and holistic wellbeing.
As the Summit unfolded, I immersed myself in a rich tapestry of workshops, discussions, and cultural exchanges. I eagerly participated in sessions on yoga and mindfulness, recognizing their potential to enhance my wellbeing and activism.
During a panel discussion on “The Africa We Want,” I experienced a profound shift in perspective. Inspired by the vision of a continent united in peace and prosperity, I realized the power of collective action to bring about meaningful change.
However, I also became more aware of the challenges facing grassroots movements and community initiatives. Too often, well-intentioned projects were sometimes derailed by external interests and agendas, leaving local communities disenfranchised.
Determined to make a difference, I resolved to prioritize the voices and needs of my fellow activists and volunteers. I refused to let external sponsors dictate the direction of our work, advocating for autonomy and integrity in all our endeavors.
As The Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès drew to a close, I felt a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. Armed with new insights and connections, I returned to my community with a commitment to holistic wellbeing, grassroots activism, and the Africa we all wanted to see.
And so, inspired by the spirit of unity and determination I had witnessed at the Summit, I continued my journey, knowing that together, we could build a brighter future for The Gambia, Africa and beyond.
EXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHEREXPLORE THE REGIONAL SUMMITS FURTHER
Dive Into Stories From Around the World
Discover the Wellbeing Movement in AfricaDiscover the Wellbeing Movement in Africa
Meet and hear stories from the changemakers championing the wellbeing movement in Africa.
Cultivating a Thriving Inner Landscape Where Our Potential Can Bloom: 7 Learnings on How Mental Health Helps Achieve Social Change and PeacebuildingCultivating a Thriving Inner Landscape Where Our Potential Can Bloom: 7 Learnings on How Mental Health Helps Achieve Social Change and Peacebuilding
Growing up in Colombia, a country with an armed conflict, filled with bombings, massacres, and displacement, I always felt the need to heal our wounds of violence and work towards the construction of peace. Fundación Mi Sangre, co-founded with songwriter and singer Juanes, has been my primary vehicle for pursuing this purpose. Since 2006, Mi Sangre has played a pivotal role in fostering systemic cultural change in Colombia by involving youth and the actors surrounding them as key contributors to personal, community, and systemic transformation. This model equips participants with life, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills, empowering them to co-create positive changes in their communities, including solutions towards peace.
Our work encompasses a multifaceted vision of leadership, emphasizing the development of both individual and collective skills. It involves nurturing awareness, empathy, critical thinking, and curiosity while fostering collaboration. We address the challenges young people face due to living in impoverished and violent environments, providing comprehensive mental health support as a valuable resource for personal and collective transformation. With this emphasis on inner work, mental health, and wellbeing, we have seen positive results not only in our participants’ lives but in the systems all around us.
From more than 15 years of service to young people in Colombia, here are some of the lessons from our journey that have now become integral to our work.
1. We can support the individual through the collective.
In dealing with trauma and other mental health challenges, some specific cases require individual psychosocial support. However, our organization and country lack the resources to provide it individually at scale. Therefore, we have integrated mental health skills into leadership programs, to offer support in a collective setting while integrating a preventive approach. These programs blend self-discovery and introspection, with safe spaces, fostering social connections and a sense of belonging. The mental health dimension of our leadership programs holds a special place in the hearts of our participants. From our retreats, I recall with emotion their warm hugs, the tears of healing they shed, and the laughter that set their spirits free, all within the safe space we helped create for them.
2. Holistic wellbeing – connecting mind, heart, body, and spirit – is essential.
Our programs prioritize a holistic approach encompassing the mind, heart, body, and spirit. Engaging the mind fosters critical thinking, self-awareness, and informed decision-making. Emotional aspects, represented by the heart, nurture empathy and meaningful relationships. Physical well-being, supported by the body, ensures energy and vitality, offering valuable wisdom through a strong mind-body connection. Nurturing the spirit, which encompasses purpose and resilience, provides inner strength to face challenges. Collectively, these dimensions empower individuals to lead authentically, while achieving significant change. Our young participants have successfully created more than 1,800 change initiatives, achieving profound systemic transformations in areas such as violence prevention, reconciliation, gender equity, migrants’ inclusion, and prevention of forced recruitment to armed groups.
3. The creative arts and nature are our biggest allies.
Creative arts and nature are central to our programs. We offer creative outlets like painting, music, and writing to serve as therapeutic outlets, hellping to alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression. Art encourages mindfulness, fostering social connections and deep interactions. Simultaneously, nature provides purpose and tranquility and teaches the vital concepts of oneness and interconnection. Whether it’s a simple walk in the park, incorporating plants, or outdoor experiences in natural settings, these holistic approaches significantly enhance our program’s effectiveness. My heart fills with gratitude when I remember a participant who shared that she had discovered the wisest counselor in nature and had never received such profound guidance from anyone else.
Credit: Fundación Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells
Credit: Fundación Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells
“My heart fills with gratitude when I remember a participant who shared that she had discovered the wisest counselor in nature and had never received such profound guidance from anyone else.”
4. Mental health and wellbeing have to be cultivated.
From our community engagement, it is clear to us that mental health and wellbeing are not static conditions; they are cultivated over time through a combination of self-awareness, self-care, and positive life choices. To help our communities make these choices, we have developed several strategies, including an open-source library with tools and resources, along with trainer approaches and curriculums for parents and educators, on how to develop 17 different holistic leadership skills. To our surprise, this library, originally created for our team, has more than 2,500 visitors per month, demonstrating its regular use. We also don’t limit our mental health support to our participants: since the pandemic, our full team holds weekly online meetings to share various practices, encouraging us to lead by example and embody the change we want to be in our communities.
5. We must shift paradigms around mental health.
Transforming mental health paradigms is a crucial piece to this puzzle, given historical stigma that discourages those who are struggling from seeking support. To help change this dynamic, we have launched grassroots and national campaigns at Mi Sangre to normalize mental health discussions, emphasizing the importance of open, empathetic, and non-judgmental conversations. Recognizing that change starts at the individual and community levels, we are committed to creating tailored approaches to mental health, considering differences in ethnicity, gender, and age while incorporating local wisdom. We also seek to expand the dialogue on mental health to include wider audiences: inspired by the Wellbeing Summit for Social Change in Bilbao, we co-created the Wellbeing Summit Bogotá in September 2023. Mental health was a central topic at this event, which convened changemakers from the social change, business, academic, and public sectors. We aspire to extend this initiative to other Latin American cities, further advancing this crucial agenda for mental health.
An example of posters co-designed with local communities, written in Nasa Yuwe, the language indigenous communities of Toribio, Norte del Cauca, Colombia, with an invitation to reach out to mental health support services. Literal translation: “Weaving the good life. Mental health is harmony, source of inspiration and wisdom”. Credit: Fundación Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells
6. Our personal journeys influence our professional work
Leading Mi Sangre has been a profoundly personal journey.My pursuit of inner growth and wellbeing commenced 18 years ago after facing burnout during my first venture. However, this journey evolved recently when I developed a deeper understanding of trauma’s impact on my work, through participation in the Inner Development Program by The Wellbeing Project. In a retreat with fellow change agents, I was transported back to a poignant childhood memory. I overheard the tragic fate of our neighbors, the parents of children my age who were kidnapped and brutally murdered. The re-emergence of this memory unleashed profound emotions, revealing the lasting impact it had on me. This experience unveiled the roots of certain unhealthy patterns in my entrepreneurial drive – a fear of losing what I cherish, an unconscious drive to do everything to survive and protect my loved ones, and a limiting belief that I must accomplish everything now because tomorrow is uncertain. I have undergone profound transformations as a result. When leaders embark on deep explorations of their inner selves, a much deeper layer of meaning emerges about who we are, what we do, how we pursue it, and, more importantly, how we want to pursue it. I have witnessed numerous stories of leaders similarly elevating their modes of operation (and impact!) by embarking on journeys of inner work.
7. Inner work can help heal systems.
In the pursuit of positive social change and lasting peace, inner work stands as a pivotal force that transcends individual growth to mend the very systems that have been fractured by violence and turmoil. The power of inner work is not confined to self-discovery and personal development; it extends to our collective consciousness and societal structures. Mi Sangre’s work involves weaving ecosystems, bringing together a wide array of participants from the public, private, and third sectors – sometimes even including former enemies and victims – to co-create solutions. Through our methodologies, we have witnessed the potential to transcend differences, hate, and fear in order to act collectively towards peace. By delving into the depths of our inner selves, we unearth the empathy, resilience, and wisdom required to reshape these systems.
“By delving into the depths of our inner selves, we unearth the empathy, resilience, and wisdom required to reshape these systems.”
Both through my work and personal experience, I’ve learned to embrace pain and struggles as inherent aspects of life. However, I’ve also seen the potential for leading a life filled with profound meaning, even in the face of persistent challenges. Equipping leaders with the skills to address trauma, support their mental health, and enable wellbeing is essential. In doing so, we are able to help them cultivate resilience, enabling them to reach their highest human potential, foster healthy relationships, and serve life with freedom and joy.
Looking back at the dream Juares and I had 16 years ago – working towards peace – I am convinced that including inner work in our systemic approach has been pivotal in catalyzing extraordinary leadership. Without it, we may have never been able to advance the reconstruction of our social fabric, influence decision-makers, and help heal systems that impact over 2 million people who have undergone profound transformations toward peace-building and social change. I invite you to explore how mental health, healing, and inner work may transform your work in social change – with a thriving inner landscape, there’s no limit for our how our potential can bloom.
About the authorAbout the author
Meet Catalina Cock Duque
Catalina Cock Duque, a seasoned catalyst for systemic change with over 25 years of experience, is a passionate leader in sustainable development, peace-building, and social impact. Distinguished as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and recognized by Silla Vacía in Colombia, she co-founded Fundación Mi Sangre, impacting over 2 million people in Colombia. As a Co-Founder of Oro Verde and the Alliance for Responsible Mining, Catalina played a pivotal role in establishing the first global certification for artisanal gold mining, expanding its reach to over 10 countries. She holds a BA from the University of Maryland and a Master’s from the London School of Economics, complemented by executive courses in leadership and innovation from top institutions worldwide.
Hear from Catalina's experience on taking part of The Wellbeing Summit Bogotá: Hear from Catalina's experience on taking part of The Wellbeing Summit Bogotá:
Wellbeing in West Africa: How We Gather TogetherWellbeing in West Africa: How We Gather Together
Guest post by:
Carina Ndiaye, Chief Partnerships Office, Tostan
In Senegal, we call it Teraanga. It stands for openness and sharing, meaning: “we invite you to come in.” This cultural norm is present throughout the region and across the continent. Words like Ubuntu in southern Africa portray acknowledgment, respect, and coexistence. In Senegal, through Teraanga, the concept behind the Hindi word Namaste (meaning: “the light in me sees the light in you”) is extended and reinforced to say, “what is mine is yours.” This applies not only materialistically but also to the earth, the sun, the sea, and the unseen. From visitor to member, from transitory to influenced, in our culture, the ‘you’ never stands alone. What affects you also affects me and my community, and community includes anyone who walks our way and crosses our path.
As Tostan agreed to host the first African Wellbeing Summit, joining The Wellbeing Project and key partners hosting similar summits around the world, Teraanga has been a foundational concept for us. It is an entry point into the broader West African cultural systems that value people and their shared history and interconnectedness and that prioritize interdependence over independence.
Our upcoming African Regional Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès 2023 reflects our dedication to embracing community-centered models that resonate with our core values. Locally-driven initiatives and capacity development for communities are critical paths forward, as our CEO Elena Bonometti has pointed out. But at the heart of our vision is Teraanga, where openness and sharing guide us in meeting the multifaceted challenges that our world faces. In Senegal, when challenges arise, a community gathering – referred to as a “pénc” in Wolof – is called to bring together the community for discussion. The Summit will be a globally-connected pénc, embodying the essence of African-based, African-led collaboration and growth in wellbeing. This is not just a “nice to have”; it is essential to our collective wellbeing and social cohesion.
There is a deep respect here for where people come from and for who and how they are. Many traditions create space for people to be seen, acknowledged, and recognized. Through greetings, names, joking, showing respect, and almost countless ways of engaging, we witness and reinforce one another. We see more clearly the threads interweaving our collective well-being. These traditions aren’t technical solutions or abstract topics; they are ways of meeting and gathering together, of creating spaces and openings where we can understand one another, share our perspectives and passions, and work better together.
With over 32 years of experience as a Senegal-based organization, welcoming partners from more than 50 countries far beyond Africa’s border, at our Tostan Training Center, we have come to understand that these ways of welcoming, these traditions for creating space, for seeing and being seen, can be powerful. As our global community seeks to find ways to support increased wellbeing in a context of increasing urgency and challenge, we hope our African Regional Wellbeing Summit Dakar-Thiès 2023 can contribute and share these ways of coming together.
Through our collaborative planning for the Summit, we have found some important themes to explore together. These include mental health, digital wellbeing, wellbeing in the workplace, and others. But the success of our conference won’t be limited to topics, action plans, or best practices. It will also depend on how people feel when they leave, how they can sustain connections, and whether they have found some new ways of inviting change into their lives, their organizations, their work, and our world.
About the African Regional Wellbeing Summit in Dakar and Thiès, Senegal
Join us for the first African Regional Wellbeing Summit in Dakar and Thiès, Senegal, hosted by Tostan from November 29th to December 1st, 2023.
The Summit will be an opportunity to engage in workshops, panels, and social moments to explore wellbeing, especially for those working in service for community-led development, from diverse African perspectives. Discover themes including mental health and its impacts on wellbeing, the role of religion, youth, and digital health.
Four Seasons Under One Sky: Arts as a Collective Approach to Creativity and Healing in South Africa Four Seasons Under One Sky: Arts as a Collective Approach to Creativity and Healing in South Africa
Guest post by:
Marlize Swanpoel
Co-Founder & Director, sp(i)eel arts therapies collective (Cape Town, South Africa)
sp(i)eel is an arts therapies collective (including drama, music, dance/movement, and art) of arts therapists, applied arts practitioners, and arts activists addressing intergenerational and complex trauma in South African communities. Over two centuries of colonialism and the oppressive regime of apartheid has left a nation grappling with systemic inequity and intergenerational trauma. Ongoing poverty and high incidences of violence and crime coupled with a dire lack of mental health services are contributing to complex and ongoing trauma, with more than a quarter of South Africans suffering from probable depression (Craig et al, 2022). This mental health crisis our country is facing is a systemic issue, not an individual one, and it needs a collective response. Our approach to mental health is culturally informed and sees people as each other’s greatest resource and source of support. As a result, our ultimate goal is to develop collective resilience that can affect social change.
Our name, spieel, is derived from two words that have different meanings in the Afrikaans language: “to play” or “mirror”. To “play and mirror” speaks to several reasons for our use of art as a healing tool. It refers to the function of the arts as a mirror to society for expression, reflection, and understanding. It also speaks to the therapeutic aspect of art therapies, where an art form is applied as a mirror to Self for exploration and understanding. Furthermore, it is through the playful nature of the arts that we can connect with our innate creativity.
It also speaks to the therapeutic aspect of art therapies, where an art form is applied as a mirror to Self for exploration and understanding.
In South Africa, access to therapeutic arts programmes is limited and not accessible to everyone. We aim to enable accessibility to the intentional use of various art forms to further have a positive impact on general health, wellbeing, development, and transformation for all.
Given our deep connection with the arts, our story and impacts can best be shared visually. This photo essay illustrates the journey of healing and wellbeing experienced through our Families and Collective Futures programme. It is a resilience-focused, trauma-informed programme that applies the arts and creativity to build psychosocial support systems. These systems are created through research (in collaboration with Brunel University), training, and the implementation of arts-based groups for children and their social circles.
The journey of this programme is presented within the frame of one of our core guiding metaphors: the four seasons. It represents the following. Firstly, just like the seasons, our mental health and wellbeing are not in a fixed state. We experience constant ups and downs. By accessing tools such as embodied awareness, reflexivity, and regulating skills, we can support ourselves and each other to navigate through these seasons of illness and health.
Secondly, this metaphor understands mental health and wellbeing in the context of the ecosystem. Communities are made up of people in different seasons of life. Collective resilience implies that the pressure to bounce back from hardship is not the sole responsibility of the individual. When one person suffers, it affects everyone. Everyone plays a role in collective health; as a collective, we are stronger together.
Collective resilience implies that the pressure to bounce back from hardship is not the sole responsibility of the individual. When one person suffers, it affects everyone.
Lastly, the seasons mirror people’s relationship with nature, and offer a platform to reflect on cultural and indigenous knowledge embracing nature as a source of healing.
We begin our journey in the season of (re)birth: Spring.
SPRING SPRING
Tending to the Soil So the Seedlings Can Thrive
In a community workshop, participants create an embodied image of Spring. A healing-centered approach to intergenerational trauma in family systems involves the adults developing reflective and regulating skills to take care of their own mental health, so that they are better aware of unhelpful patterns of relating in their families and community.
Arts activist Gershan Lombard facilitates a ritual of gratitude at the end of a community workshop, with the small children keeping a close and curious eye. Culturally-informed psychosocial practice includes honouring indigenous knowledge and spiritual practices of health and wellbeing to share this wisdom with the next generation.
Summer Summer
Young People’s Shining Stories
A group of young women share their story about Summer as a starting point to explore themes of health and wellbeing. It is vital to offer young people multiple ways to share their thoughts and feelings, as words are not always readily available to express their inner worlds. As one participant (grade 11, high school leaner) revealed to us:“You might have noticed that we are a generation that keeps to ourselves, and we don’t trust anyone with our feelings and our thoughts. Especially because we don’t know how to talk about our feelings and our thoughts. You have come to show us that we can also show you through our songs and through our dances how we feel and what we are thinking. And that is freedom.”
A young woman creates her “Glimmer Box”, a tool that supports participants to explore what resources are available to them to support their mental health and wellbeing. These include positive relationships, safe spaces, and activities that regulate their emotional states. Some of these are drawn, painted on stones, or represented by found objects in nature and placed in the box as tangible reminders of available support systems.
“You have come to show us that we can also show you through our songs and through our dances how we feel and what we are thinking. And that is freedom.”
Autumn Autumn
A Season of Trust and Letting Go
A couple rests back-to-back and connects with each other’s breath. Our embodied, trauma-informed practice is drawn from Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory as a way to understand the autonomous nervous system’s responses. This helps us understand our reactions to triggers and to develop tools for regulating and finding safety and connection in the present moment. The couple shared afterwards: “My partner and I are having difficulties in our relationship. This workshop has given us the space to sit and just be with each other, to re-connect, and we were able to talk about things. This had a positive influence on our children and family life.”
In a workshop for mothers and daughters, mothers embody the support of a bridge, coming together to keep a girl above water. This workshop took place during a time of heavy flooding in the area in which some participants had lost their homes. This role-playing offered a way to express the traumatic experience: “The only way to keep safe is when we all look after each other’s children. We are not alone in this world, and your child is my child,” shared one mother. The embodied work where non-verbal communication is encouraged also supported bonding between mothers and daughters: “Girls don’t open up to parents, this exercise helped us to open up to each other,” said a young participant.
“We are not alone in this world, and your child is my child.”
A group embodies the word “women” in Circles of Support, one of our workshops for women. This workshop explores the female menstrual cycle as its four phases are linked with the four seasons, inviting conversations around menstrual and sexual health, menopause, and mental health and wellbeing. These circles are filled with generational knowledge, beauty, hope, and wisdom. One participant expressed her joy: “My experience was that I can be comfortable with myself as a woman. And I can express my feelings and accept my body. To be a woman is great!
Winter Winter
Embracing the Wisdom of the Elderly
A whole community, including the elderly, adults, youth, and children, are enchanted by a storytelling circle. We witnessed a beautiful moment where the children sat and listened to the stories of the elderly, and asked them questions about the history of their community. Such events where the stories of the elderly are centralized, offer a means to narrate collective and cultural history to the next generation.
Elderly men create their own Glimmer Maps to identify their “glimmers”: small moments when we are in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to feel safe or calm – the opposite of triggers. They are made by tracing a hand on paper, followed by a symbol of nature representing the Self drawn into the palm. Each finger represents a glimmer with prompts from nature, for example: air for breath, fire for warmth, love, comfort and rest, water for movement, and earth for grounding. Finally, we connect the glimmers to our community, and include the name of a person who makes us feel safe.
Concluding Concluding
One Cycle, Inspiring Another
A core element of the Families and Collective Futures programme is the creative methodology. One participant reflected that the manner in which we engaged with them has helped people to come out of their shell, as “ons mense neem nie maklik deel nie” (“our people do not engage easily”). To help ease our participants out of these shells, we understand several contributing factors help create a sacred and safe space where mental health and wellbeing can be addressed:
A scaffolded approach to introduce arts-based work;
The invitation to engage in any way that feels comfortable;
The knowledge that attendance is voluntary; and
The modeling of respect, tolerance, and kindness.
The above learnings speak to a healing-centered approach to trauma and essentially it is a message of hope. When we work within the ecosystem in a culturally-informed way, it creates space for innate and indigenous knowledge to be heard and received. As a result, when we understand that healing is available to everyone and happens in relation to each other, we can create circles of psychosocial support that are resilient enough to affect social change.
When we understand that healing is available to everyone and happens in relation to each other, we can create circles of psychosocial support that are resilient enough to affect social change.
We conclude this photo essay with a reflection of a participant on the theme of seasons and the image of a Glimmer Map, made by a young girl. “Every season produces something for the other season so that, in the end, nature can provide for us. Everything is a circle. And we are all part of the cycle.”
About The Author About The Author
Meet Marlize Swanepoel
Marlize Swanepoel is a Dramatherapist and the founding director of sp(i)eel arts therapies collective, an NPO that addresses intergenerational trauma and co-create community-based models of mental health care that are culturally informed and relevant to the South African context. She serves on the Secretariat of the South African National Arts Therapies Association (SANATA) and is a guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town. She is an enthusiastic advocate for the Arts for Health movement in South Africa that speaks to healthcare from a global South perspective. She loves being in spaces of learning, unlearning and dancing.
Grateful: A Journal Reflection on The Wellbeing Project’s Ecosystem Network Grateful: A Journal Reflection on The Wellbeing Project’s Ecosystem Network
Grateful.
In so many ways, this word embodies my feelings and thoughts toward The Wellbeing Project’s Ecosystem Network.
My colleague, Kyla Carlsen, and I joined the Ecosystem Network in September of 2022. Though we joined this community of passionate, thoughtful, and dedicated changemakers for a short amount of time compared to when the network first begun, never did I once feel like an intruder.
From the beginning, we were greeted with such warmth and open arms that I knew virtually attending the Wellbeing Forums would be calls that I would eagerly anticipate every quarter. It did not take long for me to be captivated by the illumination of the Ecosystem Network because of the caring people creating and holding this space for changemakers to connect in such an intentional and authentic way.
One of the things I admired most about the network was the way this space was held for members to connect. I don’t ever recall joining a session where we immediately rushed into business or the tasks at hand. Instead, we were encouraged to participate in a collective grounding exercise or share how we were showing up in the space on that day. Taking this intentional pause to get grounded or share how we were honestly feeling was so astonishing to me.
Often in the nonprofit sector, we are hurrying through the day moving from one task or meeting to the next. This simple yet meaningful practice opened my eyes to how I could interact with my colleagues and facilitate meetings within my work differently. While meeting with members of the Collective Leaders Learning Circle program hosted by Co.act Detroit (pictured above), I was able to support with leading wellness practices for our group during some of our convenings. I felt confident to lead these practices thanks to my interactions and experience with members in the Ecosystem Network.
As a participant in this network, I loved being able to connect with other changemakers around the world. It was inspiring to hear about the work others were engaged in and the way they passionately served their communities. I still recall being amazed by Marlize Swanepowel’s presentation on the work she and her team does at Sp(i)eel concerning intergenerational trauma. Being able to connect with others over important and universal topics has made this experience such an insightful one.
One of my favorite gatherings as part of this network was when Anubha Agarwal of The Wellbeing Project shared findings from the Organizational Exploratory Program (OEP). This session resonated with me so deeply because one part of my work at Co.act is to lead our Nonprofit Wellbeing Series, which uplifts the vital connection between self and community care in the nonprofit community. To have the opportunity to hear about another’s wellbeing program and the lessons that have emerged was one I did not take for granted. I appreciated her transparency and that I was able to share some of the similar themes I saw in my work as well. Experiences like these continue to remind me why having collective space for people to convene and share is important.
As bittersweet as it is to say, “farewell” to the Ecosystem Network, I am grateful that there are still spaces for us to connect under The Wellbeing Project, such as through the Inner Wellbeing for Social Change group. To find ourselves in nourishing networks or spaces rooted in community and connectivity that are handled with so much care is something I treasure deeply. It is what I will miss most about the Ecosystem Network. While every beginning has an ending, I am grateful that the spirit of the Ecosystem Network will live on across the work of The Wellbeing Project and through the mindful practices and resources of its members. I have found so much joy, understanding, and inspiration from being a part of this community that I am forever changed and eternally grateful.
About The Author About The Author
Meet Charnae Sanders
Charnae Sanders, a devoted community advocate and Program Manager at Co.act Detroit, is deeply committed to fostering connections and empowering individuals. Her dedication to community development in her hometown of Detroit is evident through her work in curating impactful programs and events, including the Nonprofit Wellbeing Series. As a passionate contributor to the Rest and Liberation Initiative, she actively promotes holistic wellbeing and empowerment, particularly within BIPOC communities.
Charnae’s active involvement in various professional initiatives, such as the Young Nonprofit Professionals Network of Detroit and The Social Innovation Forum’s Community Organizations Reimagining Ecosystem (CORE) cohort, reflects her continuous efforts in promoting growth and leadership development. Her diverse experiences, including her time with the Challenge Detroit fellowship program and The Black Healing Justice Project, have further enriched her understanding of social impact and community engagement.
Prior to her role at Co.act Detroit, Charnae served as the Public Programs Coordinator at the Detroit Historical Society, utilizing her background in journalism from Central Michigan University. Her passion for writing and poetry has led to publications in renowned outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and Detroit Free Press. In her leisure time, she finds joy in writing, traveling, and experiencing the vibrant culture of her beloved city.
