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 from participants in our care 101 workshop. This page also includes thoughts shared during our self and community care learning circle, and navigating turnover in student groups learning circle. Included are _______________

Knowledge from the HUB's care 101 workshop

Participants in our care 101 workshop were asked "Have you ever left, or thought about leaving, the climate movement for a period of time? Why?" They shared the following...

1. Collective liberation: we all win when we oppose ableism	Disabled people are oppressed by the same systems of power we are fighting across movements. Ableism denies people with a physical or mental impairment opportunities to care for themselves. It is deeply rooted in capitalism, colonialism and white supremacy.  Disability justice is anti-capitalist. It opposed the push for productivity, extraction and commodifying our bodies for labour and building wealth.
2. Not actively unlearning and practicing = replicating oppression	We want to fight marginalization, not contribute to it. Within movement spaces, we must actively work to unlearn behaviours that reinforce oppression to fight against it. This includes practicing an access culture and challenging internalized ableism, racism, homophobia etc.  Internalized ableism prompts: do we reward some people over others because they can contribute more time and effort? Do we favour their voices over those who have to care for their health, need to work a second job, have caretaking responsibilities etc.? Access goes beyond disability. There's a reason primarily white folks are accessing climate activist spaces.
3. Prioritizing and leadership of marginalized people	The needs of those who do not benefit from our current oppressive systems must be prioritized as decision makers for a just world that prioritizes people and the planet. Those most affected by forms of oppression are best suited to define how we can operate our society more equitably. Disabled, black, brown, trans etc. people live through some of the most challenging consequences of capitalism and the climate crisis.
4. Meeting everyone’s needs = more people power	On a strategic note: We will not mobilize the mass we need without considering disability justice, access needs and building cultures of care that actively challenge internalized oppression. If people do not see their immediate survival needs being prioritized by your campaign, they will not want to join. Otherwise, those who would be interested in organizing may be unable to join, or continue, if their access and care needs are not considered.  Putting the planning in today means greater and sustained participation tomorrow. We are all likely to experience chronic or acute disability or access needs in our lives, whether from old age, stress, illness or an accident.
5. Organizers burn out when opposing ableism isn't prioritized	Non-disabled organizers are impacted by ableism too. Oppressive systems have their own way of defining what value and care mean, and who is deserving, and when. Internalized ableism uses productivity and sameness to define our worth. Doing too much to achieve too much can lead to burnout; a major problem in movement spaces. Disabled queer and trans communities of colour have already been preparing for the survival of their communities through disasters. They teach each other skills in resilience-based, care-based organizing to strategically create the changes that we need for our futures. These skills are necessary for other organizers to learn from.
6. Disability justice is intersectionally related to all other fights for justice.	The oppressive conditions we’re living in can be disabling themselves. For example... Chronic stress can be disabling. Neurodivergent people (ADHD, dyslexia, autism, anxiety) are more likely than neurotypical people to experience physical health problems.  Racism can be disabling (e.g. Ralph Yarl, a 16-year-old black child, experienced a brain injury after being shot by a racist white man). Colonialism can be disabling (e.g. Aamijiwnaang First Nation has been impacted by settler colonialism, capitalism and environmental racism. Over 60 petrochemical facilities can be found within a 25 km2 area. Community members face high rates of cancer, respiratory illness and reproductive health issues). Living in poverty can be disabling. It significantly increases the likelihood of developing chronic or acute health problems (e.g. limited access to healthy foods, shelter, clean air and water, chronic stress etc).

Other struggles take priority (e.g. job loss, family emergencies, caretaking with limited support and capacity, etc). Other injustice takes priority and isn't addressed through climate involvement (e.g. police violence, poverty etc). Climate movement can feel depoliticized/disconnected from other social struggles

Lack of conflict resolution processes/engagement

More privileged perspectives holding more/all space Whiteness of climate spaces

Lack of COVID precautions and/or care for meeting accessibility needs

A never-ending sense of urgency = limited experiences of rest/care/free time Burnout Feeling disconnected socially from team members

Lack of clarity on what focus/tactics to take Hopelessness (could be attributed to not slowing down to reflect on effectiveness of strategy)

Imposter syndrome/efforts not acknowledged or appreciated

Knowledge from learning circles

Navigating turnover learning circle

When asked about incorporating more social and fun activities to build relationships, students who participated in learning circle suggested…

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 Have a different theme for each meeting (hat, pijamas...) Use interactive online tools to share thoughts

Not exceeding meeting times so as not to exhaust people

Extended time for check-ins and check-outs with fun questions like “what plant do you feel like?”

Connect through discussing emotions like shared frustrations and joys

Holding actions without the pressure of going bigger, larger. Hold small actions and focus on the relationships that actions deepen. For example, an easy activity to organize is a banner drop with picture taking. The point is to gather people.

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.

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