Happy New Year! How are you doing? Genuinely take stock. If you feel rough around the edges, you’re not alone. This time of year is mentally and emotionally difficult for many, and the last few years have been hard. The people you work with are probably feeling it, too, so if things are tense in your organization right now, that’s valid. It’s equally valid to want professional relationships that are honest, supportive, and just, especially since we spend so much time and energy at work.
Read MoreHappy New Year! How are you doing? Genuinely take stock. If you feel rough around the edges, you’re not alone. This time of year is mentally and emotionally difficult for many, and the last few years have been hard. The people you work with are probably feeling it, too, so if things are tense in your organization right now, that’s valid. It’s equally valid to want professional relationships that are honest, supportive, and just, especially since we spend so much time and energy at work.
Read MoreThis issue is dedicated to the amazing people who contribute to the work of Social Justice Synergy. Each person on our team offers their skills, knowledge, time, and insight to pursue justice alongside and within our partner organizations, and throughout the small worlds we occupy. Liberation work is only possible with collective power; so when you see me, you see them too.
Read MoreCarter G. Woodson created Negro History Week (which is now Black History Month) for us to learn about and celebrate Black people’s vast contributions to society and national history. I’d like to invite organizational leaders to observe the occasion by actually honoring the Black people you see each day.
How might this look in practice? Closing offices in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, Emancipation Day, and other significant days is a start.
Read MoreHappy New Year! How are you doing? Genuinely take stock. If you feel rough around the edges, you’re not alone. This time of year is mentally and emotionally difficult for many, and the last few years have been hard. The people you work with are probably feeling it, too, so if things are tense in your organization right now, that’s valid. It’s equally valid to want professional relationships that are honest, supportive, and just, especially since we spend so much time and energy at work.
Read MoreWe’ve made it through another year! I want to personally thank you for your commitment to creating and protecting justice within your workplaces, communities, and in your ways of being. I hope that the resources and food for thought from Social Justice Synergy have been helpful to your efforts. This time of year is complicated for many, but it can sometimes be an opportunity to pause and reflect. At SJS we’re reflecting on the great work we’ve witnessed and supported in our clients and partners over the past year. Regardless of whether we’ve worked together, I hope that when you take stock of your efforts, you like what you see emerging.
Read MoreHow do you shape change? In your organizations and workplaces, are changes anticipated and carefully prepared for, or are actions mostly reactionary and opportunistic? How much does your organization embrace societal change by adjusting policies, procedures, and/or the internal culture accordingly? How much flexibility, understanding, and care is provided for folks as changes happen in their personal lives, in the organization, and in the world?
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I’m just back from a family road trip! We were three, sometimes four generations traveling around, enjoying new experiences with each other. I made awe-inspiring memories and enjoyed the time off, but what stuck with me most was the importance of rest. And not just in the usual contexts, but really holding space and being intentional, and even aggressive, about honoring that need to rest.
Like many of you, when I found out about the supreme court's decision I was disgusted, angered and worried. I was concerned for what life would be like for me, for my children, for my community, for everyone who wants control of their own body. Then the rest of the court’s rulings came down and I felt even more discouraged.
Read MoreI am excited to be in conversation with you all again. Lately I’ve been thinking about accountability, and how part of accountability is showing up; it means being present with your people. So consider this monthly newsletter my way of being accountable to, and for, all of us who are interested in the work of ending oppression.
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