We had a fabulous inaugural town hall & support session today. Appreciate these lovely ladies for holding it down when I needed to step away to put out a small family fire! While we didn't record the whole session, there was a really great question/reflection that I wanted to be sure to capture. With permission from @Cheryl Wozniak and @Kristin Bigras, I wanted to share this clip. In matters of accompliceship in turbulent times when it seems like no one is being spared, it's important for us to remember that no matter how close an incident hits to home, social dynamics continue to exist. While we are all impacted and no two lived experiences are exactly alike, recognizing these dynamics and knowing when to decenter (and stay out of the center, period) is critical to the effectiveness of your advocacy. While you may *feel* a sense of identity, deep empathy or parallelism with a particular struggle, it's not always right for the moment to lead with this conversation—especially if you are of a predominantly privileged background or are in a position to guide or coach others through a difficult experience. It IS, however, important to use that gut emotion as information to guide a line of questioning that keeps the marginalized individual at the center of the issue being discussed. Use empathy as a catalyst, not a cover. Let me know what comes up for you as you hear this clip. 💛 A reminder that we'll be back next Thursday 1/22, same time (1pm CST/8pm CEST) for our next session. Link to register in the calendar tab. Looking forward to seeing more of you there!

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Hi 🤗 thanks Erin for inviting me to this community and for encouraging me to share! I'm currently, since one month, on a small island in south of Philippines and one week ago on monday morning a fire destroyed several small family owned shops 😪 on a beach we went to almost every day for either scubadiving or swimming 🥽🏝 I started a GoFundMe to support the local families affected ❤️‍🩹 all info in the link⬇️ If you are able to donate some euros that would mean a LOT for these people 🫶🏻 https://gofund.me/07cb42a7e It's the first time I do an online fundraising and I can feel it sparks something in me to collaborate and come together 👭 I know there's so so many people in need around the world and I felt very called to do this for these families since I can help them directly here and now☀️ I'm leaving the island on thursday early morning local time so there's only 1 day left to contribute if you like. On Wendsday morning local time I'll withdraw cash and give directly to the families ❤️