Monthly Archives: April 2025

The Lost Value of Community

What role does community play in your life? Maybe you have a circle of friends or a supportive family. You may have a religious or professional community that is supportive, nurturing or helpful. Maybe your neighborhood nurtures strong ties, or a hobby group of yours feels like ‘your people.’ These networks can be invaluable in our lives, and yet they are rarely held up for the value they offer.

In the recent turmoil, with the uncertainty around government work and government contracting, my own networks began to take on a different character. My friends began sharing memes about the uncertainty and rapidly unfolding events and laughing together as we also supported each other through dramatic changes in our own workplaces. My LinkedIn network began more personable and supportive, and I began to follow updates to keep track of what was happening to my current and former colleagues.

In our local networks, we persistently asked, ‘what can we do differently to address the rapidly changing needs of the people in our network?’

This, my friends, is the core purpose of the Community Conversation series I’ve been building. In each session, participants have an opportunity to talk about the changes afoot, interspersed with grounding exercises that progressively relax us and help us practice skills for managing acute anxiety and distress. Once we are calmer, and we have had our say, and we have a better sense of what people are experiencing, we brainstorm together about how we can support each other differently at this time, ideally in ways that empower people in our networks that may feel as though they’ve had something stripped away.

In one professional group, this meant rethinking professional support in a more horizontal way. What if we formed learning communities for those who want to practice, learn or teach R or Python? What if we created networks for pairing mentors, build networks of lobbyists to speak on behalf of our field, or offer resume review from peer to peer? We spoke about how we embody the knowledge, skills and institutional history of our field, and it is important for us to remember that in our approaches to self and community care. We spoke about having potlucks and cooking for each other instead of just attending costly happy hours. The community conversation series is about collective healing and protecting that which we believe in- in new and exciting ways.

In one church group, the support looks differently. We learn more about each other as we express our experiences and fears, build some collective peace, and learn about what our community members need and have to offer in very different ways. We represent a mix of professions and backgrounds, and we find new ways to protect and support the church family.

These conversations blow my mind, because they involve a deeper level of connection than I have previously seen in these networks. They help people feel valued, empowered, supported, connected and ready for whatever comes their way. People arrive at the groups with the strong emotions they have been carrying on their own shoulders and leaving smiling, laughing and relaxed. This is, at its core, what it means to restore people.

And yet, building these networks further will require funding, volunteer labor or institutional help. The groups themselves need to remain free or close to it. But there are expenses; a zoom account, physical meeting spaces, food for meetings, possibly technological support, etc. Stay tuned in the near future for opportunities to assist.

In the meantime, I encourage you to join our mailing list, to hear about upcoming events and activities or to get involved. We are also available to answer any questions you may have about the initiative.

join our mailing list: https://forms.gle/usQPq46moTo3hmu58

attend a virtual event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/community-conversation-finding-our-footing-in-this-uncertain-time-tickets-1322116238259?aff=oddtdtcreator

You may see the need for these groups but not your place within them. I want you to know that there is room for everyone to come as you are. Experience some peace, and connect more deeply with others in your community. Together we can weather whatever comes our way. Alone, we may just be blown away in the breeze.

Something to believe in

At the beginning of Life of Pi, the main character says he has a story to make you believe in God. Does he? I suppose that depends on your belief system, but the story made for a great book and a gorgeous movie.

I am not someone who believed that things happen for a reason. It might have been true, but the potential truth of it offered no comfort to me. But this year has shaken my doubt. Let me tell you my story.

You know me as a researcher, fundamentally and to my core. I’ve been working in research since 1996, and it has been an adventure, a challenge, and a great love. I’ve had the pleasure of working on fMRI research in its early days, working in Neuropsychology departments at fantastic hospitals, getting to know the nonprofit space, doing research on and in the global and academic Physics and Astronomy communities, doing Usability studies in people’s homes and using eye tracking tools, working across a number of languages on study recruitment materials, working in HIV prevention and treatment, evaluating health communications materials and working with communities to cocreate research studies that serve them.

Oh, the places research can take you! The interest work! The amazing people I’ve met along the way!

This year, things began to change pretty dramatically for the research community around me. We’ve been seeing respected professionals and institutional studies let go and dismissed on a massive scale.

We all want to help support each other and the field in some way, but we’re being stripped of our collective voice. I began to obsess over what I could uniquely offer to help. For a solid week, the topic was omnipresent for me. I thought immediately of the community conversations I’ve led occasionally with my church community. But what could these conversations look like? The answer came in flashes from every corner of my memory. Things strung together in a way I never could have imagined prior.

I’m hearing about the stress and distress we’re suffering through, and I thought of the grounding activities I’ve honed with someone very close to me who’s been battling severe anxiety and depression. I thought of the community gatherings that Iyanla Vanzant used to host on Saturday mornings and the grounding exercises she taught. I thought of my love of meditation and the methods that have been useful to me. I thought of the Nap Ministry and the idea of restoring people to their optimum humanity. I thought of Rachel Cargle and Adrienne Marie Brown and their teaching about the importance of imagination and play.

I wanted to use my qualitative research skills, experience with facilitation, and these principles to create something new, grounded in principles of Community Based Participatory Research.

The goal is to create a space for people to listen and be heard, to heal and to learn healing skills, to dream of a different future and to understand what the community needs and how the community can best support each other. The sessions can be singular for a group or they can become a community building and nurturing series for that group.

I began collecting resources and developed a resource sheet for participants, and I developed a discussion guide that asked few questions and allowed mostly for listening, discussion, and progressive relaxation. These resources are intended to be flexible enough to work with any group.

The next step was to find communities who were interested. To date, I have conducted groups with my church community and a local professional group. The groups blew my mind. People entered with strong emotions, listened and supported each other, relaxed to the point of smiling and laughing and spoke about supporting each other and building community. The groups were very different from each other, each becoming what it needed to be. One group opted to make this into a series, with a second session planned for later this month. The other left me with a full page of ideaa that our professional councils can bring to fruition.

As the communities around me are increasingly affected, I’ve wanted to focus on expanding- but it’s been difficult to balance with a full time, intense job. Well, dear readers, after seeing the last of my clients RIF’d last week I was laid off this week. For me, this was a gift, because this community conversation series is my passion and my purpose.

In the coming weeks, I’m going to focus on ways to find more groups to facilitate, online and in-person. I’m working on designs as well, to raise funds for the project in some kind of way.

How can you help? If you’re interested, you’re welcome. I need support in locating and planning groups, developing a funding strategy and a plan for the merch. Let’s work together to build community, restore peace and purpose, and support and listen to each other.

Thank you for listening ❤️

“All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
is Change.

God
is Change.”


Octavia E. Butler