wellness Archives - Dignity and Power Now

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Forever Rooted: Leadership, Storytelling, and Skill-Building

Forever Rooted is a program for formerly incarcerated people where we meet once a week for seven weeks and go over a curriculum that consists of leadership building, storytelling, and facilitation skill-building and encourages folks to become active in their own communities.

We understand that fresh out of prison people are waiting on that first call to say that they’re hired, which makes participating in a voluntary program like Forever Rooted challenging. Our recent cohort began with a nice number of participants and ended with around the same number of people, finishing strong. Through perseverance and dedication every person that graduated this year didn’t miss a single day! Shoutout to our previous graduates, Todd and Al, for showing up and supporting our most recent group.

Forever Rooted Spring 2018 Graduation

This last Forever Rooted cohort was active in our signature gathering events where we gathered signatures to put the Reform L.A. Jails and Community Reinvestment Initiative on the ballot in 2020. Among other things, the initiative if passed would grant subpoena power to the L.A. Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission. Forever Rooted participants were also active at our monthly Member Engagement Meetings and our Freedom Harvest summer pop-up arts and wellness events that take place outside the county jails. This group of folks was great and I was also blessed with a great intern. Grateful for everyone that helped my work and the program flourish!

T.E.A.M. work! (Together Everyone Achieves More)

If you have recently gotten out of prison and want to participate in our next free Forever Rooted program please contact me here.

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Witnessing Wellness

Witnessing is a word that gets used a lot these days in social justice circles. Like many of our words that come into fashion, it can be easy for them to lose their meaning and or it can be hard to really figure out what that word looks like in action.

Institutions like jails, prisons, and detention centers are made to hide away and prevent witnessing.

So it felt very powerful to set up outside Lynwood Jail on February 10th and bear witness to the very regular trials, tribulations, and heartbreak that people experience visiting their loved ones inside. It felt very powerful to be able to offer support in the form of food, water, and gifts that support health. We gave out 30 DPN wellness kits with a Rest Easy Tea and a Cleansing Body Scrub. We listened to people talk about their families and what their incarcerated loved ones are going through.

This month we were a small group and without tables to boot. But we were able to connect with a lot of people who are interested in building people power and resistance to caging people.

Most of the folks we spoke to had family inside who were dealing with mental health problems. It was heartbreaking to hear how often that was the case. All the more motivation and fire to fuel the jail fight. LA County’s plan to use billions of dollars to make a jail for mentally ill people are blueprints for tragedy, further heartbreak, and injustice.

Let’s take care of ourselves and each other so that we can keep up the fight.

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Unplug, Breathe, and Plug-In

Here at DPN we have been busy organizing ourselves to respond to all that is happening in our own families, communities, and world. I’d like to share with you a few things you can to do to dig deeper into your paths as movement makers and creators.

1. Unplug

It is too easy to keep our eyes on bright screens right now. So many of us are worried about our lives, our partners, families, neighbors. Unplug from the screen to make moments for yourself, to connect with your loved ones in person if possible, and reconnect to your higher being and mother nature.

2. Take Deeper Breaths

Breath is your own personal refresh button. Refresh, refresh, refresh, restart. Every moment is an opportunity to connect with yourself and what most matters to you. If breath is hard to find these days, remember that you have tools that can help you. Crystals, sage, incense, flowers, and other plants are all waiting for you to help you breathe deeper into your self and your truth.

3. Plug-in to Meaningful Movement Work!

Listen to your heart, your gut instinct. What is it saying you want to fight for, or fight louder for? Choose your issue, look for organizations and groups doing the frontline work and get involved. Unplugging and breathing can help connect you to the work that has been waiting for you to pick up! Now more than ever we need folks on all the front lines. Front lines are at home, in our neighborhood, our city, county, country, and beyond!

Sending prayers of light, love, and deep joy from the DPN office.
Come by or call if you need support or wish to get involved!

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