Amanda Cassiday and Chris Woehrle met at GWI’s Rooted Resources festival in May. A short time later, inspired with an idea for an online moneyless marketplace designed to build in-person community, the two collaborated to create Engather, a place where human connections replace cash transactions. On this episode of The Good Work Hour, they join co-hosts Terri and Helene to discuss the meaning of “gift economy”, what we’ve lost by reducing many community-based interactions into financial transactions, and how Engather seeks to be a place where a thriving culture of mutual support grows.

It wasn’t until Amanda Cassiday (she/her) lived in a rural village in Burkina Faso that she experienced the resilient power of community, and learned that positive, abundant outcomes are not possible without cultivating the conditions that allow individuals, teams, and communities to thrive. For 15 years, this approach has been a driving force in Amanda’s personal and professional life, from facilitating a woman-led microfinance group in Takaledougou that continues to operate since 2009, to leading design teams responsible for some of the most successful launches in Johnson & Johnson’s history, bringing purpose and consumer needs to the heart of strategy & innovation. She is also a maker, a student of gardening and permaculture, and a mentor and investor to entrepreneurs.

Chris Woehrle (he/him) is a digital product designer, business founder, and community gardener/organizer. In 2010, he paused his design career to found & run a successful natural foods business. His current focus is finding ways to connect people through meaningful community projects. He also likes to grow vegetables, cook, and build things with wood and stone.

Website: Engather

Hosted by Susan and Terri

In October 2020, our guests recognized the need to address and dismantle systemic racist practices throughout the Arlington Central School District. These two parents of students in the District joined with others and OnPAR (Arlington Partners Against Racism) was born. Our guests share their stories of how this grassroots organization was catalyzed and its many successful initiatives which have branched out to influence other school districts throughout Dutchess County. They also share wisdom from their experience of being committed anti-racist activists. For them, this work is emotional, all in, and ongoing. While it requires a constant push, it also includes moments of possibility, meaning, beauty and joy.    

As a Senior Manager and Notary Public at Dutchess Outreach, Nyhisha Gibbs serves as the “Chief Operating Officer” as she vets, coordinates, and schedules over 1,000 volunteers annually to serve and support Dutchess Outreach’s programs. A native of East New York, Brooklyn, she resides in the Mid-Hudson Valley with her spouse and four sons. Nyhisha earned a BA in Political Science from North Carolina State University in Raleigh and her Master of Public Administration from John Jay College of Criminal Justice in NYC. Nyhisha serves as a member of a number of community organizations.

Eva Woods Peiró is Professor of Hispanic Studies at Vassar College whose teaching and research focus on Iberian and Latin American film and media. Her campus-community work has involved chairing the Engaged Pluralism’s working group, “Bridging Local and Global Communities”; organizing Undoing Racism workshops; teaching Building Inclusive Communities with Latinx Poughkeepsie; working with and serving as a Board of Directors member for Conversations Unbound; co-founding the Poughkeepsie-Oaxaca City Friendship Committee Initiative; and committing herself to ongoing education around racial literacy, Intergroup Dialogue, racially just and equitable spaces, and most recently, the Arc of White Womanhood.

OnPAR

Many decisions we make personally, and collectively as a community, effect how well we will be able to sustain ourselves and our planet over the long term. At The O Zone in Red Hook, community members have the opportunity to learn about community-based and personal options for engaging in sustainability practices, whether through The O Zone’s bulk-refill store, Community Compost CSA program, or product-making workshops. On this episode of The Good Work Hour, Amelia Legare, the founder of the  O Zone shares her journey of establishing a business grounded in partnerships, love of community, and care for the planet.

Amelia Legare owns and operates a plastic-free, bulk-refill market & sustainability center called The O Zone. It is located in the open nature of the Hudson Valley, on Pitcher Lane in Red Hook. The O Zone brings together sustainability, health and education. Amelia has worked toward creating a space for the community to make healthy lifestyle choices, to exchange ideas of how to live in harmony with nature instead of at the expense of it, and welcomes everyone to contribute during a time when we need to protect our environment more than ever. Through The O Zone’s many services & offerings, she hopes to inspire & incentivize sustainable action within her growing community.

Website: theozonehv.com

IG: @theozonecenter

FB: theozonehv

When Deirdra “Jen” Brown talks about her work in the world, the phrase “for the greater good” comes up regularly: it’s what she believes and what she practices. In this interview, Deirdra talks about her work as a lawyer within a system fraught with injustice, starting out in criminal defense and now taking up civil rights cases related to discrimination and mistreatment in the workplace. Alongside being an attorney, she is actively engaged in addressing one of the most challenging issues – racism and the toxic ideology of White supremacy. She is a steering committee member and facilitator of the Race Unity Circle in Poughkeepsie, which she founded with friends in 2014 after the murder of Michael Brown, and involved in a number of other related community initiatives (see links below). She shares her passion to facilitate collective learning, encourage systematic investigation the truth, and grow capacity to sustainably engage in difficult conversations along with her wisdom on how and why she chooses to orient to and maintain a connection with hope and put into practice values she sees as essential to collaboration, like: consultation, detached candor, courtesy, humility, moderation, patience, and persistence. 

Law Office

The Race Unity Circle

Celebrating the African Spirit

End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN)

On this episode of The Good Work Hour, co-hosts Terri & Susan welcome guest, Tamika Dunkley.

 Tamika is the Owner of Seasoned Delicious Foods which is an ambitious and dynamic Gourmet Foods Company, based in Kingston offering vegan and heart-healthy products that provide people with various medical issues an opportunity to ‘enjoy food again’ in addition to appealing to the mainstream market.

She also founded Seasoned Gives, a non-profit whose mission is simple, yet revolutionary: educate, incubate and promote entrepreneurship for the BIPOC community and women, creating lasting solutions to poverty, hunger, and social injustice through education, ownership, and self-sufficiency.At the heart of Seasoned Gives is the steadfast belief that economic justice is an essential—and often overlooked—piece of the social justice movement.

If you’re looking for some Caribbean yumminess, have entrepreneurial mentorship to offer or want to be an entrepreneurial mentee, are interested in improving your financial literacy, or want to add some social justice spice to your life, connecting with Tamika is a great place to start!

Full bio:

Tamika Dunkley is the co-founder of Seasoned Delicious Foods, a food product manufacturer in the Hudson Valley. That has now opened a brick and mortar multi-use facility in Lake Katrine. But while “the food is their bread and butter”, the non-profit work is her heart. A portion of all sales go directly to Seasoned Gives, the non-profit branch that was established to provide financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and job/life skills training with a special focus on BIPOC and women community members. Providing education on economics and how it effects communities of color through “Circulation of Our Dollar” events and seminars. Tamika has also been instrumental in the development of food equity and justice programs. In Ulster County she hosts a “Support Your Neighbor Program”, that has now distributed tens of thousands of pounds of food and meals to those in need. She is also co-founder of the Annual Caribbean Carnival in Saugerties, which brings art, music and food in addition to cultural education to Ulster County and beyond.Currently she is the vice chair of Ulster County Workforce Development, on the board of Black Farmers United, Ulster Community College Foundations, Blackout Coalition, HVEDC, Ulster Strong and YWCA. Advisory for Hudson Valley Agribusiness Development Corporation, Hudson Valley Women in Business and the NYS Cannabis Board. She has been instrumental in social justice initiatives and advocacy work such as the Board of Saugerties Police Reform Commission.