Not a Silent Spring

This week, the light is providing a sense of energy and hope, as it touches the purpling mountains with their millions of buds and as-yet-unformed leaves awaiting the signal to pop out. Sap is running, geese are flying north (I heard them in the night. I thought they only flew during the day!), daffodils are seven inches tall already, and delicately dangling snowdrops linger alongside the last snow hidden in the shadows. I live close enough to the natural world to notice these things. When will the forsythia bloom? Soon.

Would it have been easier if the onslaught of executive orders had arrived now, rather than at the darkest, coldest time of the year? Until 1933, inauguration day was held on March 4th, a much more appropriate time to mark new beginnings. But in the interest of a faster transition, less “lame duck” and more speedy action, it was moved. This year it felt particularly cruel to ask us to move that fast, to process what was happening at a time when we were still needing hibernation.

I walked to the Saugerties Lighthouse a few days ago, early in the morning. A bald eagle defied gravity for a long, slow glide down to a tall, bare tree. The air was electric with birdsong. This was no Silent Spring. Why was I able to hear this gorgeous cacophony? Federal regulation of polluting technologies and investment in clean tech; federal protection of the environment; and federal funding for research that helps us try to understand the complexities and interdependencies of the ecologies we depend on, and the natural sites that restore us. Right now, decades of environmental policy is being rolled back, in a matter of weeks.

 So, as we enter this season of renewal, as we perform rituals to shed the old, I wish for us all to step boldly into alertness, action, joy, and connection. Join GWI over the coming months as we continue to provide forums for discussion and learning, workshops to strengthen skills necessary for a new way of working together, and a continuous commitment to celebrating the beauty of this world we love while protecting it, and each other, from harm.

On Today’s Economic Blackout

We stand in solidarity with our communities as we work to disrupt and reform our economic system. During today’s economic blackout, we encourage everyone to embrace the principles of Just Transition and recognize the power of everyday people to drive change. 

Just Transition calls us to envision and co-create a regenerative economy that focuses on people and planet. True well-being means rethinking how we share resources and cooperate.

Deep democracy is the ground for a regenerative economy. Practicing deep democracy beyond periodic elections, through active, ongoing involvement ensures that we the people have a voice and are able to influence and affect decisions that shape our lives and our communities.

So, beyond today, we invite you to explore and share ways to consume less and buy more responsibly—whether by choosing second-hand, repurposing outdated goods, or gifting unused items to those in need.

GWI workers share their thoughts on what this day means to them:

In light of what’s unfolding in our country, I keep turning toward the question: what is solidarity? It seems to involve choosing to be affected whether or not harmful actions are directly impacting me (yet), along the lines of what affects one of us affects all of us. Because I’m not always clear about how to put insights that arise into action, today I am glad to be participating in the economic boycott in solidarity! – Susan

In a capitalist society, the only sanctioned course of action left to us is to not participate. When we buy and use again the next day, our lack of participation for a day may not disrupt the system much at all. But this is a show of solidarity and that action does mean something. – Micah

In choosing to participate in the economic boycott, I have been thinking about the Angela Davis quote, “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time”. This is one day, but with it comes an intentional long-term commitment to change my consumption habits and to more actively participate in alternative models of resource sharing. – Mariam

Joining the Blackout seems like the smallest, easiest thing I can do, but it’s about so much more than taking a break from feeding corporate greed and oppression. This is a collective action, and by taking part I am standing in solidarity with my community and supporting all things local. – Mass

In mainstream wisdom, retail corporations rely on customers to survive and thrive. But more and more, they behave as if their actual customers are their shareholders, corporate boards, CEOs, and political allies offering deregulation of protections for land and working people. I’m curious what message they hear today. – Hélène

Today may only be one day on our long journey. But today invites us to move with intention. It invites us to be of service to our communities and to ourselves. It invites us to connect and to create differently, because if we want something different, we have to build differently. – Aja

P.S. Join us on March 14th to be connected to community members seeking change, and learn more about Just Transition, in our introductory session: Just Transition Primer

GWI’s Year in Review : 2024

It was an extraordinarily full year for us at GWI. We hold so much gratitude for the resilient and caring network of partners, leaders, supporters, community members, and initiatives that have inspired and worked with us to manifest more just and generous ways of working, collaborating, and, well, being. It’s that big!

There is no snapshot that can do justice to it all, and to what we have accomplished in collaboration with you. But we want to share a few highlights from our programs and activities this past year in these areas: 

  • Fostering Deep Democracy
  • Partnering with Orgs and Initiatives Advancing a Just Transition
  • Incubating a Community-Designed Fund
  • Empowering Good Work through Fiscal Sponsorship
  • Shining A Light on Good Work in Action
  • Nurturing Community Space: The Greenhouse

All of our offerings come from a belief that we can create hands-on, innovative change in our lives, organizations, and communities, if we center justice, deep democracy, collaboration, and care. 

We hope you share this mission with us, and that you will choose to support the Good Work coming in 2025 with a contribution today.

Donate to Support Good Work!

Fostering Deep Democracy

In a time of increasing focus on the destructive impacts of inequitable and undemocratic systems in our society, our work to foster deep democracy in everyday spaces is more vital than ever.

We offered our core workshops to hundreds of people in the region (and online), helping to deepen understanding of how to share power, how to retool policies and practices to implement democratic collaboration, and how to build capacity for effective, connecting communication in times of conflict. We continue to align our work with Just Transition and provide experiences, lectures, and workshops to clarify and strengthen the movement across the region.

Our core workshops are:

It was wonderful. As a decision maker in my organization, this workshop was much-needed reflection time on our collective work and our path forward.
Kristin F.
Participant, Just Transition Primer
This has been so powerful for me - personally and professionally! It helped me understand all the pieces we need to address as a team and as individuals in a supported environment in order to move in the direction of shared leadership. I love knowing that other organizations are grappling with the same issues we are, and are working toward innovative solutions that center our humanity, equity and shared learning.
Katy K.
Participant, Democracy at Work

Partnering with Orgs and Initiatives Advancing a Just Transition

We send gratitude to all the organizations we have worked with this year, through tailored programs, coaching, and onsite workshops. Here is a partial list of those that have taken steps this year towards committing to Just Transition and starting to implement what we call “deep democracy” in how they operate:

  • Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Earth Designs Cooperative, Hudson River Watershed Alliance, CCE Orange, Celebrating African Spirit, Central Virginia Community Justice, Guardians of Flushing Bay, Place Corps, Scenic Hudson, Land to Learn, Zena Democratic School, YMCA Farm Project, Kingston Food Coop, Circularly, Ulster County Department of Mental Health, HV Food Systems Coalition, Nature Connection, Kingston Executive Director Circle, BARD College, Vassar College, SUNY New Paltz, Union College…
I left yesterday feeling inspired, with incredible tools allowing me to continue to dream, stay connected to our world, and to also navigate conflict.
Alex H.
Participant, JT Primer, Master Community Builder Program
GWI has created intimate, safe, human centered spaces to explore big ideas—with simple, practical tools that inspire collaborative tangible solutions.
Riley
Participant, Applying Just Transition to Your Work, Scenic Hudson

Incubating a Community-Designed Fund

It is with a sense of awe that we witness this transition: our community fund design project odyssey came to fruition! After a 9-month learning journey and collaborative process, 18 members of the Kingston community put the finishing touches and their blessing on a community-centered grant fund that has now evolved into Kingston Common Futures. So many things aligned to make this happen.

In order to help launch this new initiative, GWI stood up a more complex form of fiscal sponsorship in record time (Model A, for you FS nerds out there!) and has been supporting every step of the way as an incubation partner. We are thrilled to see this spark of an idea that started years ago manifest into a beautiful community-driven, democratic fund. There is so much to celebrate about this project and we look forward to continuing to act as a key support to Kingston Common Futures in the years to come.

The experience of designing a fund for my own city, together with my neighbors, has been immensely meaningful and has reminded me that building a more equitable and just future begins by democratizing wealth and transforming relationships in our own communities. It has also been challenging, and required difficult, vulnerable, and sometimes painful conversations about money, power, and how resources are and ought to be distributed in Kingston. I’m reflecting on how communities are - as adrienne marie brown says so well - “a place to practice the future,” with all the joy and struggle that that entails. It’s difficult to express just how much I have learned from this process.
Rosalie F.
Community fund design group member
The Community Fund Design Group upon completing the first six months of collaboration and learning.
There has been an incredible amount of value derived from my experience developing a community fund alongside my neighbors. I can think back on the many experiences of tension, joy, confusion, and making connections that warms my soul. This project is way more than bringing a bunch of strangers together to change things. It's also about the change we make in ourselves, our worldview, and our collective courage to change what we can directly affect.
Joél D.
Community fund design group member

Fiscal Sponsorship

Speaking of fiscal sponsorship, our (Model C) fiscally sponsored projects have raised $430K this year to date – and we celebrate their Good Work! We started our fiscal sponsorship program in 2018 to make it easier for mission-aligned initiatives to access charitable dollars by removing administrative burdens and helping hone their first fundraising proposals. We have helped 33 projects raise $8.4M to date. We are hiring a new colleague to support the increase in transactions and compliance that this welcome growth demands. Stay tuned for an introduction to them in the new year!

  • Our current active fiscal sponsorship projects are: Center for Post Carbon Logistics, Alliance for a Viable Future, Kingston Food Coop, Rhinebeck Farmers Market Scholarship, Rock Steady Farm, Faithfully Sustainable, Trust Up, Rosendale Heart & Soul, Hummingbird Healing Arts, COOP Concept, BreakBread, Old Ford Farm, What matters?, Engather, I Matter, Lechate Collaborative, Sevan Lloyd Pack, Rise & Root Farm, Community Music Therapy Project, Neighboring Tree Project.

Shining A Light on Good Work in Action

We continue to uplift and shine a light on examples, stories, people, and artists who are embodying and manifesting Just Transition through their Good Work. Our weekly radio show, the Good Work Hour, has been on the air on Tuesday evenings for five years now! This year we had over 30 different guests on the show talking about their passions: cooperative housing models to fight gentrification, harnessing the power of food systems to address the climate crisis, rest as resistance, and so much more. All episodes are archived and available for streaming. We also hosted author talks in collaboration with Radio Kingston and Rough Draft, bringing important national voices into our community like Dr. Resmaa Menakem & T. Mychael Rambo and Dougald Hine. We are going to be bringing more authors to the area – let us know if there is someone you want to hear from!

Nurturing Community Space

The Greenhouse, our community hub at 65 St. James in Kingston! This beloved building, clad in its signature colorful exterior – a mural courtesy of the O+ Festival – has fully emerged as the homebase for the movement we always envisioned. With over 150 community events, workshops, meetings, and celebrations, space offered on a sliding scale or for free, the building was buzzing with activity this year. We offered the upstairs spaces to four resident organizations, providing them an affordable place to convene and work. We partnered with community members and organizations to offer sound healing, art exhibitions, Theatre of the Oppressed, and Climate Grief meetings, while the community offered meditation, book clubs, and other learning and healing experiences. With new amenities added to the building this year, like great outdoor seating and a lounge space for smaller meetings, we evolved to meet the needs of our community and provided a special and welcoming space for all.

All the students were so pleased with the space. They were comfortable and delighted to be there. It is difficult to explain our feelings and our love of the space. Thank you for allowing us to create this for the community. We are so truly grateful for this opportunity.
Community Group
Ongoing Reiki class

Internal Resilience

Last, but certainly not least, GWI is working on our own sustainability and capacity to persevere through the tumultuous times ahead. With that in mind, in 2025 we will be clarifying how we all make strategic decisions together in shared leadership, and practicing ever closer collaboration with our board and our larger network of supporters to diversify how we fund our work. If you haven’t already, please consider making a gift before the end of the year to support the incredible work shared above and to come.

We thank you for your support and partnership!

Donate to Support Good Work!

Carnivale

I have had the good fortune of attending three carnivals in the past year and a half. They didn’t feature rides or attractions or non-stop action. There was no cotton candy, funnel cake, or coin toss…

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