2022 Wellness & Healing Justice Jam
Image description for accessibility: a graphic of two outstretched hands, palms up, in various shades of brown, green, orange, and blue accompanied by the words “save the date: Wellness & Healing Justice Jam, August 23-27, 2022, Watershed Center, NY”
APPLY TODAY — 4 SPACES LEFT!
Calling social workers, therapists, body and energy workers, counselors, wellness educators, sex liberators, physicians, doctors, nurses, acupuncturists, chiropractors, somatic healers, osteopaths, herbalists, and so many other diverse healers to the Wellness and Healing Justice Jam — a gathering for people working at the intersections of healing arts, community advocacy, and counseling. We’ll come together to share our challenges and breakthroughs in our work; nurture ourselves; support and inspire each other; explore our identities as practitioners, healers, and whole people; figure out ways to be more sustainable; find intersections for future collaborations; build a more resilient network; and much more!
* Note: We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 reality and will only meet in person if it is safe to do so. More details below.
APPLY TODAY
WHAT IS A JAM?
In music, a jam is a creative, live gathering of musicians who together spontaneously create a new sound, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Like that, YES! Jams are places where diverse leaders and visionaries bring together their passions, openness, and unique perspectives. In spontaneous connection, we weave layers of experience, wisdom, heart, and spirit to create some real magic. The Jam asks that all the players are present and ready to listen deeply to each other and share what’s alive for them. From there, so much learning, unlearning, healing, growing, understanding, imagining, and more emerges! All of which has vital impacts on our lives, our families and communities, our workplaces and contributions, and the world as a whole.
YES! Jams have been happening since 1999. YES! collaborates with other like-hearted peers around the world to co-create Jams where diverse visionaries and social changemakers combine their inspirations and skills to create something greater than the sum of their parts. To date, more than 185 Jams have been held on six continents and online, bringing together young and intergenerational leaders from more than 85 nations.
The Jam is not a conference, seminar, or a typical meeting — it is something unique. The Jam is dedicated time at a beautiful retreat center to think and feel deeply about social change in this field, in our world, in our communities, and in ourselves. There are transformative conversations and there is a lot of fun, art, and creativity. There is dancing and embodiment, group explorations, and co-creations, as well as solo time and internal reflection.
The Jam works on 3 three levels:
On the personal level, we enter into an open space to reflect on our life journeys and what makes us who we are today. Here, we have an opportunity to deepen our purpose, ask meaningful questions, unlearn our fears and blocks, access our hearts, and open our minds to move more boldly in the world.
On the interpersonal level, we come together to share our cultures, our creativity, our collaborative spirits, our stories, and our struggles so we can deepen in our understanding of and connection to each other. We look at our conflicts and differences and find potential breakthroughs and synergies through which to have a greater sense of the whole.
On the systemic level, we become clearer about the importance of our work in the world and its potential for even deeper, more meaningful impact. We connect the dots, co-create shared visions, and build bridges to move towards thriving, just and regenerative ways of life for all. We learn ways to make our contributions more thriving and potent and get the support we need to dream and actualize into new dimensions.
Every Jam is an open space where the gifts and needs of the people who show up can emerge.
For the Wellness and Healing Justice Jam, we will explore and deepen into these questions:
How did I come to be a practitioner in this field? What does healing mean to me?
How do we work with and/or through existing institutions, especially if they don’t align with our values all the time?
How do we collaborate and create flexible co-learning communities as healers/practitioners across mediums, modalities, and issue focuses?
How do we create an enduring support network of people using their healing passions for social change? How are we to be sustainable and valued in the field?
How do we manage burnout and vicarious trauma – individually, collectively, and intergenerationally? How are we navigating the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic and the current state of the world?
How can we co-create different and visionary systems of care, locally and beyond? How are envisioning sustainable self-care and community-care practices for our flourishing?
And what questions are you bringing to the Jam? Your questions are ALL welcome.
WHO IS THIS JAM FOR?
Because we seek to bring together as diverse a group of healers and practitioners as possible, we are looking for a range of:
Healing modalities (micro and macro, western and traditional, trained and instinctual, etc.)
Years of experience (from ‘barely into the journey’ to ‘been at it for a good part of your life’);
Issues or work focuses (i.e., social justice, community, intergenerational, cross-cultural, holistic, etc.)
Identities and world-views (i.e., diversity in class, ethnicity, race, disability, religion, culture, gender, sexuality, age, etc.)
Work with clients and community populations (i.e., single mothers, elderly, folks experiencing homelessness, incarcerated youth, macro-level systems change, etc.)
WHEN, WHERE, AND HOW MUCH IS THE WELLNESS AND HEALING JUSTICE JAM?
The Jam will take place from Tuesday, August 23 to Saturday, August 27, 2022, at the Watershed Center in Millerton, New York (about 2 hours north of New York City). It is also about an hour from Hartford or Albany airports. It is a naturally beautiful place, away from the hustle and bustle of modern life, both inspiring and rejuvenating. Please be mindful in your travel plans to arrive before noon at any of the New York City airports on the 23rd and depart after 3 pm on the 27th.
It is our deepest hope that we will gather in August in person in a safe way for everyone. If you have any concerns around Covid that you would like to share with us, please do mention it in your application and/or write to us at healingjusticejam[at]gmail.com
The jam is being offered at a sliding scale of $500-$1800 per participant. The full cost of participation in the Wellness and Healing Justice Jam is $1200 per person, to support the costs of food, lodging, childcare and local transport ($550), as well as program organizing and facilitation ($650). In the spirit of transparency, feel free to ask us for our full budget for the breakdown of our costs.
Money should never be a reason to not apply: partial scholarships are available on a limited and first-come, first-serve basis. We also invite work trades and monthly payment plans. We aim to figure out with each applicant the right combination of tuition, work trade, and scholarship that can work for you. The sooner you apply, the sooner we can mutually create a plan that works and the better your chances are of receiving a partial scholarship if you need one. And, if you are able to contribute more, wonderful! The extra amount will go towards our scholarship pool.
How people have supported their costs in the past:
- Utilizing professional development funds
- Ridesharing
- Personal fundraising – reaching out to friends, family, colleagues
- Offering workshops/ skill shares post-JAM to your community/workplace
We share this information to be as transparent as possible about how and where finances are utilized. We invite you to give in a way that makes you feel abundant.
We invite you to give what you can and to give generously; any surplus supports partial scholarships for other participants. If you pay more than the at-cost $1200 amount for tuition, that extra amount is tax-deductible. Note: this tuition does not include travel to the Watershed Center, but we can help with rides to and from the local train station and possible carpools.
Children are also more than welcome to come to the Jam. We will work out specific childcare plans with you, after getting a clearer sense of the needs of your family.
WHO IS PUTTING ON THE WELLNESS & HEALING JUSTICE JAM?
Organizer
Lillian Hanan Al-Bilali has been inspired to deepen her understanding of how diverse communities can become more interconnected and, particularly, how shared experiences create space for dialogue — ever since she participated in the 2010 Leveraging Privilege for Social Change Jam. Since her college years, one of her most consistent passions has been issues of youth empowerment. Her student activism at Hampton University focused on societal inequalities, especially in regard to substandard education and high incarceration rates for youth of color. Following graduation, Hanan became an administrator at Children’s Arts and Science Workshops (CASW), a non-profit agency in New York City. Here, she mentored young people from the Washington Heights and Harlem communities by preparing them for college and for the workforce. Currently living in New York City, Hanan received her Masters in Social Work from the University of Michigan. Her concentration in Social Policy and Evaluations allowed her to focus on strengthening services offered through the non-profit sector at the state and local levels. She continues to make people her priority as a committed collaborator with organizations and initiatives that support underrepresented communities.
Yoo-Jin Kang (강유진) is a first-generation Korean-American and graduate who specializes in integrating trauma-informed care, healing justice, and diversity, equity, and inclusion into organizations and communities. Yoo-Jin holds two Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Maryland Baltimore County in Modern Languages and Linguistics, with a concentration in Spanish, and Interdisciplinary Studies, with a concentration in culture and violence. Yoo-Jin’s background is rooted in intercultural communication, violence prevention, and mindfulness-based healing & facilitation. Yoo-Jin is trained in Reiki energy healing and trauma-sensitive yoga. Yoo-Jin currently leads workplace strategies at Futures Without Violence, where she helps organizations create survivor-centered policies and practices. You can learn more about Yoo-Jin at www.yoojinkang.com
Chetna Mehta (she/they) is a granddaughter of Indian and South African diasporas. Her greatest muses lately have been the planet, the energy of ease, queerness, body wisdom, honesty, grief, spiders, and freedom. Their training, education and experiences span social sciences, counseling psychology, yoga philosophy and practice from a liberation-oriented perspective, cultural exchange, leadership and mentorship, somatics, expressive healing arts, ceremony and ritual, and cultivating peaceful circles. Chetna continues learning in mindful compassion, authentic creative expression, culturally-aware and strengths-based therapeutic approaches, growing and gardening, and ancient wisdom from her lineages and mitochondrial dna.
Gert Comfrey does facilitation and healing labor at the estuary of psychotherapy, community organizing, and spiritual care. They are a therapist in private practice, as well as a Circle facilitator and continuing education trainer. They were raised in Central Pennsylvania (Susquehannock land) and have lived in the South on unceded Cherokee, Shawnee, and Yuchi land in Nashville, TN for 15 years. During that time, Gert has learned from and been shaped by intersectional liberation movements including feminist, abolitionist, queer, disability justice, transformative justice, healing justice, anarchist, and anti-capitalist frameworks. To rest, Gert spends time in their garden, making art, and cuddling their cats Trouble Jane and Ronnie the Bear.
Sky Yardeni is a Social Worker, Wilderness Therapist, and Clinical Mental Health Counselor from Israel. Sky works with individuals, families, and groups with backgrounds of grief, trauma, addictions, incarceration, systemic marginalization, and mental health in outdoor settings on a daily basis, and approaches his work with an open heart to facilitate healing and change. His passion lies at the intersection of nature, healing, and social justice. Sky is a climber and adventurer at heart and is passionate about being a part of beloved community.
Roan Elspeth Coughtry (they/them) is a writer, facilitator, coach and healing artist. With a background in somatics, social work and community organizing, their work weaves together ancestral healing, embodied practice, and the liberatory power of desire. As a queer and nonbinary sex educator, they center the importance of pleasure, desire, and reclamation of the body as essential practices toward healing and liberation. Roan works individually with clients as a coach and healing artist, and they work specifically with white folks in the US around ancestral healing and co-creating white anti-racist culture and practices. Among other things, they’re a facilitant of global YES! Jams, a writer for the international feminist organization VOICE, and a member of the visionary Decolonize Race Project. They’re a forever nerd and are currently studying herbalism, Scottish Gaelic, linguistics, and Celtic mythology and folklore. You can find out more about their work at www.roancoughtry.com.
Shilpa Jain is currently rooting herself in Oakland/Berkeley, CA. For 11+ years, she served as the Executive Director of YES!, working with social changemakers at the meeting point of internal, interpersonal and systemic change, and aiming to co-create thriving, just and balanced ways of life for all. Prior to taking on this role, Shilpa spent two years as the Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds and ten years as a learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples’ Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, based in Udaipur, India, where she served as coordinator of the Swapathgami (Walkouts-Walkons) Network. She has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings with hundreds of young leaders from over 50 countries. She is passionate about dance and music, organic and natural farming, upcycling and zero waste living, asking appreciative questions and being in community. A focus on healing, forgiveness, compassion, love and wholeness permeates all of her work and life.
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