Collective Care and Activism
Everyone involved in any type of professional or work can be vulnerable to job-related burnout, however research asserts that social justice and human rights activists, whose work is filled with unique challenges, can be especially vulnerable to it. For example, leading immigration justice and institutional changes are hard work and the victories can be few and far between, thus people involved in this activism are susceptible to emotional and physical exhaustion.
For a movement or organization in the social justice field to create lasting social change, it requires leaders and supporters who are able to sustain themselves over the long haul. That’s why self and collective care for impact are so important for anyone that is involved in this kind of work.
In the case of immigration justice advocates and activism self and collective care is political. Selfcare is defined as activities we take to improve our daily life. That improvement can be emotional, mental, social, spiritual, or physical. Collective care means to care about members’ welfare — particularly their emotional health — as a communal responsibility of the group rather than the lone task of an individual.
Collective care allows for a space to share radical justice and lived experiences to form trust, yet the value of collective care is overlooked if not shunned. The concept of collective care has been reworked such that taking care of members is stigmatized as dependency. Surely, neoliberalism has played its part in this. One of the big problems of neoliberalism is that it supports an ethic of individual responsibility, and shift responsibility for care (in all its forms)onto individuals.
Collective care informs social justice activists’ efforts and collective well-being are critical to winning changes. This is also the message, I believe, that Headwaters Foundations for Justice is communicating. Headwaters Foundation for Justice is a philanthropic organization located in Minneapolis, MN that serves as a valuable resource for grassroots organizations and donors interested in social justice and ways of bringing about positive changes in their communities. Last week they hosted Immigration Healing Justice Retreat, and I had the opportunity to attend.
The foundation invited around twenty-five leaders and activists to the retreat. They chose Dodge Nature Center as the retreat location making it a perfect setting for attendees to reconnect. The email invite to the retreat promised a one-day retreat with goals and objectives to “provide a space for healing and rejuvenation for individuals doing immigrant justice work; Explore healing justice as a strategy in movement building; Investigate, through art and story, how we might integrate our healing into our collective practices”.
However, since over the last decade plus, I’ve attended many retreats that had a blend of workshop and selfcare activities, I expected this gathering to be the same. Instead and to our pleasant surprise the retreat was actually a day of self and collective care and discovery to recharge ourselves.
Self and Collective Care Go Hand in Hand
In carefully planning this retreat, the foundation’s leaders understood that we could use a day to rest, regroup, reassess how things are going, and refocus. Moreover, offering free and facilitated care retreat for us, Headwaters Foundation demonstrated that our work is appreciated and that more than money there are other ways foundations can support grantees. We were aware that one day won’t reverse the effects of exhaustion long term, but the retreat was a great opportunity for us to unplug and try new self-care practices. Each of us has the opportunity to create a care plan during the retreat. Everything from the food, to the body work, healing art and simple conversations helped us to recharge.
Activism is more powerful when care is the responsibility of organizations, institutions, foundations rather than just one individual. Collective care ensures that frustrations, disappointments and trauma have an outlet and be expressed in healthy way. Spending an entire day with fellow activists and a strong supporter such as Headwaters Foundation was amazing and inspiring to keep the hard work going.
Self and collective care are fundamental to social justice. I am grateful that Headwaters Foundations provided space for us to share experiences and insights about self and collective care. I hope they will continue hosting this type of retreat and hopefully other foundations will evaluate their role in amplifying collective care.
