The Traumatic Stress Research Consortium
Towards the end of 2023, I was invited to produce a column based on my fellowship experiences in Colombia for The Traumatic Stress Research Consortium (TSRC) at the Kinsey Institute, Indiana University.
Reflections
NUKA in Alaska
NUKA is an Alaska Native word that means ’strong giant structures and living things’ and is the name of the model of care developed by Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage, Alaska’s biggest city.
A call for more and more throughout 2024
We spent almost every Friday of 2023 at Praxis, a vital organisation that has been providing London’s refugee and migrant communities with expert housing, immigration and social support for more than 35 years.
Fundaciòn Dunna
Fundacion Dunna has been designing social innovation models for mental health, psychosocial attention, and peaceful coexistence for communities affected by violence in Colombia for more than 13 years.
SAIFI
It is an unyielding commitment to the healing of their community that drives Edward Doglia and Dahlia Ochoa to cultivate such magic in Bosa, southwest Bogotá.
Casa Matria
Casa Matria are active agents for political, economic and social change in the city, their work pushes for policy reform that will restore the rights of and protect the experience of a safe life for the most marginalised populations of women in Cali.
Cali
Divided, wild and pacey, Caleño culture is rooted, yes in salsa, but also in a mercilessly revolutionary spirit that runs very deep and very proud.
Riohacha
Riohacha is the capital of the most northerly Colombian department of La Guajira, home to a unique landscape of desert and beach rich with indigenous Wayuú custom and craft.
Bogotá
After a very slow beginning spent surviving the initial knock of jet lag, acclimatising to the altitude and feeling small at the sight of the surrounding mountains, I am ready - at long last.
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Community, connection + the cooperative model
In a marketplace marred by big business homogeneity, the co-operative model is increasingly valued as the sustainable answer to independent business survival
Climbing the walls
I’ve been seeking strength, escape and some semblance of play to dilute a sobering case of late onset covid-disruption-concussion.
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Venturing beyond oneself
Fostering relatedness to the outside world can foster a relatedness to others, it reiterates how a sense of place is closely tied into a sense of community.
Bringing the Body Online
How people step up and adapt in the aftermath of disaster is testament to how the existing paradigm can shift dramatically.
A love letter to a future us
The following raw, deeper-than-you-bargained-for insights are rooted in my experience as the founder of a health and wellbeing social enterprise fighting back against a tide of social, economic, epidemiological curve balls.
Comfort, coping + crafting something new
Our healthcare system is increasingly willing to accept non clinical mental health interventions as valuable, especially amid the quickly shifting discourse around health equity.
Overcoming Loneliness in London
One wouldn’t imagine a city that is home to 9 million Londoners, a lively, bustling place, could be characterised by its widespread acute loneliness, something that is already being described as a growing epidemic.
Grief, Anxiety + Seeking Sustainability
I’ll never be grateful to have been flung so savagely into the path of grief, but I’ve learnt a hell of a lot from it.
A new model for whole community wellness
Born out of founder Abi Nolan’s starkly contrasting experiences in the UK charity sector and the New York yoga scene, Supply was created to find a middle path.