We don’t have to do things the same way: reimagining organizational wellness
At the nINA Collective, our mission is: through modeling that another way is possible, we transform, support, and create systems and structures that are built around racial equity. Over the last year, we have had countless opportunities to lean all the way into this mission with other organizations and within our own. We are in a global pandemic, the 3rd reconstruction/2nd civil rights movement, and we cannot do work as usual, nor should we.
This last year has left all of us exhausted and drained, but it has very specifically impacted our members of color who are not only navigating a global pandemic, but are also living in a society and doing a job that calls on them to regularly assert their very humanity.
But we don’t have to do things the same way.
We get to choose.
We choose to stop. We chose to go inward. We choose to refuel and reset.
At nINA, we often use the language of decolonizing, and one of the things we mean when we use this term is interrupting white supremacy culture in our own bodies and brains (and supporting each other in doing the same). White supremacy culture is not working to support our individual or collective wellness. The culture of quantity over quality, the false belief that busyness = productivity are taking a mental and physical toll.
So when we started to see the toll this year, and this work, and this country was taking on our members, we had to pause and explore - what does another way look like? A way that centers relationships, values, and our shared humanity. 2020 taught us that we don’t have to do things the same way and there is nothing more important than self and community wellness. So what are we going to do about it?
We started by grounding into our values. We don’t feel like we have the one answer, but we wanted to share some of what we are trying in order to live into our values:
We closed our organization for two weeks in December and plan to close for three weeks this July so people can take time for themselves and their family without competing demands - and hopefully take some time away from screens.
We check in at all meetings. It is built into the agenda/expectations so we can ask for, and offer each other, what is needed.
We always co-facilitate meetings and trainings in multi-racial teams to support each other and the work.
We are planning a retreat in nature where we can center, re-calibrate, and hopefully have some fun too.
We have normalized the head, heart, body framework - where we are all encouraged to notice and experience emotions, pay attention to our body and breath, and share hard truths...etc
We are working to hire additional support so that our team is not consistently operating above reasonable capacity.
Understanding that we all have different levels of organizational power and financial privilege, we invite you to consider how you can center your own wellness, and perhaps advocate for organizational decisions or policies that center the wellness of others.