Through the Rachel’s Network Legacy Award, four longtime movement leaders were sponsored to participate in the Teranga Experience, a restorative seven-day journey in Senegal, West Africa. The Teranga Experience is designed to give movement leaders the time and space to rest, reflect, and reconnect with themselves and their work.
Shamar Bibbins, managing director of The Kresge Foundation’s Environment Program, shares what she’s learned from 12 years in philanthropy, and how we can build a just, green future through place, power, and care.
This year’s Catalyst Award interviews made it clear that the devastating federal funding cuts are putting significant strain on the women in our community. While women of color leaders and their organizations are consistently underfunded even in “normal” times, our applicants are facing even greater stress this year, with bigger funding gaps, and more burnout. Catalyst Program Director Shreya Durvasula offers ways for funders to step up.
Rachel’s Network hosted its first in-person event exclusively for Catalyst awardees and finalists at the Kripalu Center For Yoga & Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in November for a gathering focused on care and restoration for women environmental leaders of color.
Working in the environmental movement isn’t easy—the stakes are high, the challenges vast, and the wins often few and far between. But for Black women in particular, the task is even greater. Rachel’s Network recently provided grants to four burgeoning organizations led by and for Black women in the environmental movement to support advocates’ wellbeing.
