For many of us, now is a time to reflect on the past year, and plan for the new year. Resolutions are one way to set goals to strive for in the coming months, and something that I find helpful is setting intentions. I attempt to weave my intentions into everything I do.
This year, it’s my intention to center the well-being of people (including myself!), and to focus my energies on moving our field towards being a more nurturing place to be. I believe that by caring for ourselves and our communities, we will make our conservation outcomes more impactful and enduring.
My intentions are closely linked with a collaborative opinion piece called Kinder Conservation (more on those in the coming months!). My colleagues and I reflect on the essential, core importance of people in our collaborative work.
The skills that the collaborative conservation field requires can offer us some amazing tools for centering well-being, including trust, relationship building, and thoughtful facilitation.
- In fostering trust, we seek to understand our own needs and the needs of others, and co-create spaces where those needs can be met in caring ways.
- In relationship-building, we parse out shared goals, hold space for connections, and find resources together. We create community around shared problems and solutions.
- Through thoughtful facilitation, we seek to create spaces where people feel appreciated, valued, and encouraged to share their perspectives.
So, my focus this year will be bringing the expertise of our field into more than how I run meetings. I want to use these skills in ways that support the well-being of myself, my team, and our partners in everything we do.
What are your intentions for 2025? And how does your collaborative practice inform them? Let us know here.
– Aireona Raschke, PhD
This is a part of our ongoing “Notes from the Field” series. Here, our Associate Director of Practice, Aireona, takes short explorations of the CCC’s projects, on-the-ground engagement, research, and what we are learning along the way!
Keep up with this series by subscribing to our monthly CCC newsletter!
