Movement Health

Community care is rooted in the belief that communities have the knowledge to best serve themselves, and how those communities choose to care for one another has a strong impact on the overall health of community members.

Community care asks us to go one step further – to show compassion in a world that often doesn’t, to value people over profit or productivity, and to be invested in finding community-centered solutions that benefit our collective wellness.

At Rebellious Root, we believe in holding space for collective care and joy because that too is part of the work. We heard you when you said that your work does not allow for care throughout the day, and that often leads to burnout. This section focuses on some of the barriers to centering care right now and a few quick ways to incorporate care into everyday work.

“I cannot sit and care for my body without being concerned with what happens to the bodies of my [siblings]. We are connected… It is our responsibility not as individuals, but as communities to create structures in which self-care changes to community care. In which we are cared-for and able to care for others.” Naya Maya

Below are a few ways to incorporate collective wellbeing into your space:

Joy Charting – create a chart that lists different ways that you are committed to centering joy/wellness on a daily basis, weekly basis and monthly basis. As you complete those items, you fill in the corresponding box.  The key here is to keep your chart in a place that is visible so that you can be reminded to do these things. An example of the chart is in appendix D.

Suggestions for daily items could be “appreciate flowers on my morning walk” or even “morning walk”. Suggestions for weekly items could be “have a tech-free dinner with my family”. Suggestions for monthly items could be “try a new recipe or restaurant”.

Wellness Wheel – Our wellness has many components. Using this wellness wheel with your team, start to explore the ways that people may be needing support to head to parts of their individual wellness.

Movement Health Bingo – Our bingo cards emerged during our Courageous Queer Futures as a way to infuse joy, creativity, and fun as a part of our movement building strategies. Use this bingo – or remix your own – in the appendix E.