Inclusive Leadership and Healing through Collaborative Action

08/10/23 • 18 min

How can collaborative action support joy and community healing? And what does this mean for how we define and understand leadership? In our next episode, we speak with Reann Gibson, a community-based researcher, community changemaker, and an advocate for social justice in the fields of health equity, food systems, community development and more. Reann reflects on her decades-long work to support food access, transformation justice and community-based participatory research in the Boston area and shares how collaborative action can shift the narrative of leadership, making space for all different types of leaders. We explore with Reann the power of fostering community-controlled and authentic spaces to support long term healing, and how participatory research efforts, such as the Healthy Neighborhood Study, can offer important lessons for creating these opportunities.

Featured guest:

Reann Gibson, Community researcher and social justice advocate
Host: Ronda Alexander, Director of Operations, NOW at Vital Village Networks

Resources from the episode:

Learn more about the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition at: https://www.mattapanfoodandfit.org/
Read more about the Edgewater Food Forest in Mattapan at: https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/05/25/edgewater-food-forest-mattapan-boston-food-forest-coalition
Learn more about The Healthy Neighborhoods Study at: hns.mit.edu

Additional Resource:

Explore the featured Resource from the NOW Resource Library, A Community Builders Toolkit, here: https://www.networksofopportunity.org/resources/A-Community-Builders'-Toolkit

Produced by: Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing

Music: Want U W/ Me (Instrumental Mix), by Akira Sora, From the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0

Edited By: Resonate Recordings

Featured guest:

Reann Gibson, Community researcher and social justice advocate
Host: Ronda Alexander, Director of Operations, NOW at Vital Village Networks

Resources from the episode:

Learn more about the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition at: https://www.mattapanfoodandfit.org/
Read more about the Edgewater Food Forest in Mattapan at: https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/05/25/edgewater-food-forest-mattapan-boston-food-forest-coalition
Learn more about The Healthy Neighborhoods Study at: hns.mit.edu

Additional Resource:

Explore the featured Resource from the NOW Resource Library, A Community Builders Toolkit, here: https://www.networksofopportunity.org/resources/A-Community-Builders'-Toolkit

Produced by: Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing

Music: Want U W/ Me (Instrumental Mix), by Akira Sora, From the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0

Edited By: Resonate Recordings

Previous Episode

Powerful Pathways Part 2: Collective Imagination to Build a Just Future

In our second episode of the season, we continue the conversation with Allentza Michel, of Powerful Pathways, who reflects on the evolution of creative placemaking and community-led design work and her hopes for the future. We unpack the challenges faced in advancing systems change and navigating the fear of change in transforming oppressive systems. Allentza discusses the critical role of imagination, and how Powerful Pathways is creating spaces and opportunities to bring people together across differences, to be able to collectively imagine and build a just future together.
Featured guest:

Allentza Michel, Powerful Pathways
Host: Ronda Alexander, Director of Operations, NOW at Vital Village Networks

Learn more and stay connected at: https://powerfulpathways.org/
Produced by: Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing
Music: Want U W/ Me (Instrumental Mix), by Akira Sora, From the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0
Edited By: Resonate Recordings

Next Episode

Community Ownership of Change: Supporting Co-Design in Research

Tune into the next part of our conversation with Reann Gibson, a community-based researcher, community changemaker, and social justice advocate in Boston and beyond. Reann delves further into her experiences with facilitating community-based participatory research and coalition building efforts, asking the critical question, “What does it mean to create spaces with community ownership of change?” particularly in the realm of health and wellbeing research. We explore what it looks like to create spaces where community members have the resources -- and the power -- to co-design research, and other community initiatives, and how collaboration rather than competition can help foster innovation and transformation.

Featured guest: