RSVP to the 2021 Community Health Village: Sustainable Networks and Movements
We are incredibly grateful to everyone that submitted proposals—your work is invaluable and there will be many future opportunities for individuals to share their work and experiences on community health!
Sustainable Networks & Movements
This inaugural village offers sessions that share knowledge and perspectives from mental healthcare practitioners and other experts, with a focus on helping us better understand how to achieve healthy and sustainable work environments in our communities and spaces. The Village was designed based on the findings of our 2020 Community Health Report, looking at the health and wellbeing of digital rights defenders around the world.
Sessions are scheduled for the entire month of November 2021. They offer different modalities of healing and are presented in different formats, times, and dates - some sessions are educational while others are hands-on workshops. We encourage you to attend as many as you can, to better understand the scope of healing pathways available.
How to RSVP
You must RSVP for each session individually, noting that some sessions have a limit of participants. More sessions may be added to this program. Note, sessions will take place on either Zoom or BigBlueButton.
Upcoming Sessions
Notes of each session will be stored on our wiki, including slide decks and worksheets used.
Peter Steudtner
December 2
Care is Resistance: From being detained as a "terrorist" to the coping-with-prison-guide
Speaker: Peter Steudtner
8:00 - 9:30 am EST / 13:00 - 14:30 UTC
In 2017 Peter Steudtner was detained for four months together with 9 others on false terrorism charges in Turkey during a holistic security training for Turkish Human Rights Defenders. It is self- and community care is that carries political detainees, their families and communities through times of detention and arrest. Coming from the experience of the #Istanbul10, this workshop will combine storytelling with small exercises and options for experience exchange and mutual envisioning steps for self- and community resilience.
Past Sessions
Mathero Nkhalamba
November 2 & 4
Understanding & Designing your Mental Health Plan
Speaker: Mathero Nkhalamba
Registration for these workshops have been closed!
Two sessions available:
November 2 - Tuesday: 13:00 - 14:00 UTC
November 4 - Thursday: 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm EST
Mathero holds a PhD in psychology, and has lived in various countries, from Malawi to Wales. This experience allows her to approach discussion of mental health from a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective. In this session, she will help demystify diverse types of healing practices, with an eye towards cultural and religious considerations, and help you understand how to design your own mental health plan.
Resources from session:
Notes, link to slide deck
https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/mental-health-maintenance-plan.pdf
https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/self-care-assessment.pdf
Ilaj
November 9
Regenerative Activism
Speaker: Ilaj, Ulex Project
9:00 - 11:00 am EST / 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
This workshop will bring participants together to explore collective and personal tools which can make our activism more effective and sustainable, while ensuring that our organizations and movements reflect the values we are fighting for. This workshop is particularly useful for organizational and project leads that are looking for ways to prevent burnout on their teams, and ensure we are effective in the long haul. The workshop builds on Ulex Project LGBTQI+ psycho-social resilience and holistic security programme.
November 10
Imagining Alternative Worlds through Activism
Speaker: Nour Abou-Jaoude, Julia W Szagdaj, Anna Lathrop
9:00 - 10:30 am EST / 14:00 - 15:30 UTC
* Please note that this workshop is capped at 15 people
Join transdisciplinary designers Nour Abou-Jaoude, Julia W. Szagdaj, and Anna Lathrop, as they take us on a journey to imagine and make concrete a future filled with joy and hope. Using music, poetry, and speculative language, participants will be led through their pasts into envisioning their alternative futures. This approach is inspired by designer James Auger who coined the term “perpetual bridge” - the space between the world as we want it to be and the world as it is now. This newly created alternative “world” acts as a space for hope and inspiration, sprouting new questions, strategies, tactics and relationships.
RSVP & learn more about Imagining Alternative Worlds through Activism
Nana Marina Cruz
November 11
Mayan Healing Ceremony
Speaker: Nana Marina Cruz
10:00 - 11:15 am EST / 15:00 - 16:15 UTC
Nana Marina, a Ajq’iij, or Mayan spiritual guide from Guatemala, will be conducting a wisdom and peace for human rights and digital rights defenders. The Mayans are recognized as being the guardians of the sacred fire through ceremonies focused on the Mayan calendar. During the ceremony we will offer and ask for balance, wisdom, peace, love. We will also ask for wisdom to continue walking in our mission, invoking the heart of the sky, heart of the earth, heart of the water, heart of the water, heart of the fire, heart of air, and all the energies of the Mayan calendar. While the event will be in Spanish and Mayan, everyone is invited to come! For this event, you should create a small altar with maybe some plant life and a small candle if you want!
Dalal Alhomaizi & Alaa Alhomaizi
November 16
Dealing with Distress in the Digital Rights Community: What can you do as a community leader?
Speaker: Dalal Alhomaizi & Alaa Alhomaizi
9:00 - 11:00 am EST / 13:00 - 15:00 UTC
This workshop is targeted towards community leaders and community managers who lead and care for members of the digital rights activist community, particularly those from vulnerable and marginalized communities. Participants will be trained on the basics of peer-led psychosocial support and community engagement using the principles of Interpersonal Counseling (IPC), which is an intervention designed by Dr. Helen Verdeli, the Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director, Global Mental Health Lab at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is adapted from Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT).
Participants will also learn how to identify and provide support to community members suffering from mental health distress, recognize when higher levels of support from mental health professionals are needed, and address mental health stigma in the community.
Leila Ghaddar
November 18
Embodied Connection
Speaker: Leila Ghaddar
9:00 - 11:00 am EST / 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
* Please note this workshop is limited to 16 people
Leila Ghadder is a holistic therapist who combines various modalities to attend to the wholeness of an individual for healing, including the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies. In this session, she will take you on a trance-like journey of breathwork, movement, play, and creativity, guiding you into cultivating safety within your body, and consequently with your external environment.
RSVP & learn more about Embodied Connection
Marianne Koch
November 23
Dealing with Conflicts in Activist Groups and Teams
Speaker: Marianne Koch
9:00 - 11:00 am EST / 14:00 - 16:00 UTC
* Please note this workshop is limited to 12 people
Conflicts in teams and groups can be exhausting. In this workshop we want to take the very first steps on how to deal with conflicts in a constructive and respectful way. How to talk about conflicts without escalating through mutual accusations and interpretations? What settings are needed? What about power dynamics and different approaches to conflicts in diverse groups – how can a team create a climate that enables everyone to speak up.
RSVP & learn more Dealing with Conflicts in Activists Groups and Teams