Move it Forward Mon., Radical Community Care
Angie Alt joins us for this month’s Move it Forward Monday to discuss radical community care. Angie is a writer, community care activist, independent researcher, and former health coach. After a decade helping clients manage chronic illness through nutrition and lifestyle, she shifted her focus from teaching individuals about self-care toward community care centered work. Angie now writes a weekly newsletter, Notes from a Neighbor, on new ways to frame the pressing health and wellness challenges we face collectively and the small, slow, simple actions we can take to meaningfully respond.
Some takeaways from our discussion on IG Live -
- Expanding our concept of neighbor beyond geography is critical! Angie is inspired by the work of Joachim Prinz who saw neighbor as a moral concept, and Fred Rogers / Mr. Rogers who created community through TV at a time when it was unheard of…
- Community care is also practicing awareness about threats to your community. It’s like a muscle you develop over time, expanding your consciousness gradually.
- Manage activist overwhelm by diving deeper into learning about issues like gun violence, police brutality, etc. and then take small steps for change in community with others who also want to make a difference.
- Community is medicine! Research shows people who are in areas where folks live longer (also called Blue Zones) - Loma Linda, CA, Okinawa, Japan, etc., have healthy communal relationships.
- It can’t end at self care; we need to also care and connect with our community.
- Comfort with discomfit is critical for change, and that looks like making space for shame around big issues like gun violence.
- Digital community can become a bridge; we also have to work at deepening our relationships in real life.
- IG pages Angie recommends: @wokescientist , @thenapministry (and Tricia Hersey’s 📚 book: Rest is Resistance).
- Stay connected with @angie.alt and support her newsletter, Notes from a Neighbor on Substack by subscribing.