Building cultures of care
This page was created to support activists in building towards cultures of care in their groups. Activist burnout continues to be a major problem in movement spaces, leading to increased internal conflict, decreased retention and ineffective efforts, among other issues. This page is a work in progress that will be added to over time. The information included comes from existing organizer databases and resources by movement thinkers, plus thoughts shared during our care 101 workshop, care learning circle and navigating turnover in student groups learning circle. Included are _______________
Knowledge from learning circles
When asked about incorporating more social and fun activities to build relationships, learning circle participants suggested…
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As someone who started a group during the pandemic, in my experience it was important to designate someone or a group to organizing social events. When people stopped coming to online social events, we included social time in the online meetings. People were demotivated from the online time, so we had to include it in the meetings
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Not exceeding meeting times so as not to exhaust people |
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Extended time for check-ins and check-outs with fun questions like “what plant do you feel like?” |
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Connect through discussing emotions like shared frustrations and joys |
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Holding actions without the pressure of going bigger, larger. Hold small actions and focus on the relationships that actions deepen.
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Escalation of relationship building tactics: start by planning things like an email campaign or phone zap (no relationship building), then something like an open letter campaign, distributed and signed (opportunity to build relationships), and then organize a demonstration. |
If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.
