See Ya 2019, Coffee in 2020?
Hola 👋🏾
It’s been an amazing year for Radical Health! Can you believe it’s been 4 years since we started? I wish we could have shared everything we did this year here and kept you updated, but we’ve been so busy doing the work that I haven’t sent an email like this in 18 months! 🤦🏾♀️
Let’s play catch up with 2 truths and a lie:
- I recently sat down for dinner a few weeks ago across from Viola Davis, Gayle King and Helen Mirren and as the special guest of Hannah from Transfernation.
- I just completed a Roddenberry Fellowship (Radical Health now boldly goes, with Star Trek money).
- I was recently appointed as a Commissioner on the New York City Commission on Gender Equity. (don’t worry Radical Health is still my full time gig 😜)
🚨Spoiler alert! They’re all true.
I’m finally coming up for air as we turn the corner into 2020, with a SQUAD.
We’ve grown our team we brought on a Head of Programs, a Managing Director, a Business and Strategy Lead, and an Executive Assistant to help us build this city on rock and roll hip hop, as we start the new decade.
What I really want to tell you about is an awesome training we just finished up in Tacoma, Washington, that I’m hoping we can replicate across the country next year. It literally represents my ancestors’ wildest dreams coming true, and for me, it’s been really moving, inspiring, and super-transformative to be a part of.
It answers the big question: How do we heal the healers? How do we also give them the tools to keep healing in their communities?
It all started when Henry Jaregui, (who is not called Henry Jamiroquai*, but who I consider a public health “Space Cowboy” of sorts, spreading his own “interplanetary good vibe zone”), an organizer at Tacoma-Pierce Country Health Department, heard me talking about our radical health indigenous listening circles on a Revolutionary Fitness podcast 3 years ago! (If you’re in NYC, say Hi to Shawn and Jenny)
Henry had been part of other indigenous health circles, or circulos de salud, and he really wanted to bring Radical Health into the department, based on what he heard.
What he said was that in the work that he does, (and no, he wasn’t specifically talking about his department, so nobody should take offense!) folks do tend to collect knowledge as if it were trophies, and it’s usually the folks at the top who go through these sorts of trainings, and then…well…hoard that knowledge. 😬But he really wanted to distribute access to healing equitably.
💁🏾♀️So. We just did two three-day trainings in Tacoma on how to run restorative health circles, training 47 people from the department, community-based organizations, higher education and colleges, doulas, midwives, alternatives-to-incarceration leaders, homeless service organizers, direct outreach organizers, and even some community members.
To describe the conversations as meaningful would be an understatement. Folks marked these trainings as a transformative moment in their personal and professional lives. Everyone was so grateful and excited to have conversations around health, and to have space held for them in a way that both gave them skills and trainings that they could take forward, but also gave them some space to connect with one another, and heal themselves as they do this work.
👇🏽Look at these powerful people!
Now, they’re going to take that technique out into their communities. And as you’re reading this, some of them have already held circles of their own. So we’re immediately seeing impact happening, and it’s beautiful to do that with folks who ordinarily get ignored, or who wouldn’t be considered in a traditional healthcare setting. 🥰
I should also tell you that in Washington State , they have a thing called bikini coffee. I Google “coffee”, and I ended up getting a lot more than coffee. That’s all I’ll say. 👙☕️
I cannot wait to catch up in the new year. If you’d like to meet with me or ANYONE on my new team, we can schedule it here. I promise to bring the coffee, the NYC version. 😂
Salud y paz,
Ivelyse
✈️ Catch us on the Road
🗓 January 2020:
Are you going to JPM2020? We’ll be in San Fran the week of January 12. Let’s connect there. Are you or do you know a WOC in health attending JPM? I’m working with some friends to host a little salon soiree and would love to invite you. Reply here with JPM Salon and I’ll add you to the list.
March 2020: SXSW in Austin, TX
April 2020: Digital Summit Seattle, April 15–16, 2020
Thank you for rocking with us on this journey.
Spread the love and let’s build together.
