A MESSAGE FROM OUR FOUNDER
Gratitude, Co-Conspiratorship, Solidarity – This Is US & The Ripple
Can we make a more complete story together in 2024?
As we move towards the end of the year at CoThinkk, we continue to be grateful that you consented to build with us this year as we grappled with how CoThinkk continues to evolve, connect to additional tables, and elevate the very essence of celebrating disruption.
Your consent allowed us to be invited into sacred space, tables, and movements- led by BIPOC leaders and communities- across Western North Carolina, and we know we are just scratching the surface of what could be possible as we all intentionally celebrate, amplify, and normalize our collective work.
As we leaned into a posture of celebrating disruption this year, we were gifted with a beautiful realization that this posture was repositioning our voice, stance, and impact to unapologetically declare that. not only are we celebrating disruption, but this is one powerful component of what it means to be co-conspirators and walk in solidarity with each other and This Is US!
By unapologetically standing together and declaring that this is us, we are naming the normalization of collective practices, required muscle building, and relationships necessary to embody a posture of co- conspirators and solidarity to meet this moment and transform it for the future. We are also naming that to truly embody this stance, co- conspiratorship and solidarity have to work in tandem with one another – challenging each other to think bigger, be bolder, set intentions, commit, and ultimately embody doing our work, and show up in this way every day.
This explicit anchoring continues to create a clear line of sight towards heightening our collective time, talent, and treasure to amplify BIPOC leaders, networks, and partnerships in Asheville and across Western NC in 2024. It is also an opportunity to tell a more complete story regarding the ripple and impact of our collective co-conspiratorship and solidarity over the past ten years in service to planting seeds for the next decade.
2023 Annual Event
CoThinkk on the Uplift Podcast
Member Orientation
As we prepare ourselves for 2024 and our 10th anniversary next year, we have four places that we would like to ask you to join and consent with us in the spirit of co-conspiratorship and solidarity.
- Please help us make a more complete story about the CoThinkk Ripple Effect. Please share your stories of impact, joy, relationships, leadership, etc., that have resulted in your connection, participation, support time, talent, and treasure of CoThinkk over the past ten years. Our network weaving team will be reaching out across communities to document your stories, and we will share a Google form link to enable you to share your stories to help tell the “CoThinkk story” at our annual event in 2024.
- Accept an ongoing invitation for our membership and network weaving team to engage in 1:1 conversations with leaders like you who desire to deepen our collective impact across Western NC. Starting in mid- January, our team will be asking to schedule in- person/zoom/telephone calls with BIPOC leaders to continue to build a powerful network across our communities in 2024. Schedule here if you are interested in spending some time with our team before receiving an email.
- Continue to build upon the work this year and humbly continue to play a role in the ecosystem of change in Asheville and Western North Carolina by becoming a CoThinkk member, supporter, and/or donor.
CoThinkk at the Qualla Boundary
On behalf of the CoThinkk family, we thank you for your partnership, support, and the opportunity to continue to create intentional space and relationships that will allow us to build together in 2024. We continue to, and will always, acknowledge and recognize that being invited into sacred space as a trusted partner is an honor and privilege – we do not take it for granted.
With gratitude,
CoThinkk’s Year in Review
CoThinkk Calling In
Member Meeting
Catching Dreams Workshop
- Eighth Annual Event: Co-Conspiratorship and Solidarity: This is Us
- Check out our press release covering the event, and be on the lookout for a full event recap which we will share in the New Year!
- We awarded 52 grants totaling $208,000 invested into community and BIPOC led initiatives in WNC.
- We grew! CoThinkk welcomed 27 new members.
- CoThinkk made a $40,000 commitment in coaching support for 2024. This last year, we had 12 grantees participate in coaching through our partnership with Coach Diversity Institute.
- CoThinkk’s total investment has reached over $900,000 ($921,500) in the past 8 years.
- CoThinkk presented at the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Asheville summit. Our panelists challenged traditional philanthropic ways of engaging with communities in a discussion around co-conspiratorship and solidarity.
THE POWER OF COACHING
“…a powerful coach supports your proximity to discomfort and navigation of the messy middle
Tracey Greene-Washington, “Pro-Tips: You have to get comfortable in the gray”
in service to unleashing superpowers, catalyzing authentic partnerships, resisting complicity, and mitigating harm to support transformation change within communities, networks, and diverse teams leading some of the most complex work in transformational
change.”
COACHING KICK-OFF
FEBRUARY 21ST, 2023 (6:00 – 8:00 PM EST) CoThinkk will be sharing experiences from former grantees that utilized coaching, information on the process, and exploring what coaching means in a CoThinkk context. There will also be an opportunity to hear from current CDI trained coaches and ask questions.
Learn more about the power of coaching.
Member meeting in Cherokee
Member Mixer
Member Summer Retreat
Digging Deeper Into Western North Carolina
In collaboration with Eagle Market Streets Development Corporation, CoThinkk engaged four dynamic CoThinkkers, Jazmin Rogers, Karis Roberts, Nicole Lee, and Tracy Hopkins, as consultants this year to create a network weaving hub model that was anchored in liberatory practices to add additional organizational capacity in increase our BIPOC membership across Western North Carolina, engage new relationships, and understand what it means to share, build, and wield power collectively across the region. Tera Coffey, Tracey Greene-Washington, and Stephanie Swepson-Twitty support this group.
This emergent model was co-designed in partnership with the hub leadership team this year to provide spaciousness to explore and lean deeper into a question that CoThinkk has been grappling with over the past three years, “What is the best approach/model to support BIPOC leaders/communities leading systems change across all of WNC that is not extractive, supportive, and experiences?”
(left) Nicole Lee, Doula of Entrepreneurship Dare to Rise, LLC (right) Tracy Hopkins, Dare to Rise, LLC
(left) Jazmin Rogers (right) Karis Roberts
We intended to begin conversations with leaders/communities around how CoThinkk could act as a co-conspirator in support of their community-centered systems change work; build authentic, healthy, and equitable relationships; and understand what it looks like to be in genuine solidarity with them.
As a result of our Base-building team’s efforts, CoThinkk received the highest number of grant applications since we began grantmaking in 2016 96! The applicants and grantees reflected the most racial, regional, and gender identity diversity we have ever had, with representation from Asian and Pacific Islander, Black and African- American, Latine, and Native communities. As well as applicants representing the LGBTQIA+ and two-spirited communities and regional diversity that included Buncombe, Polk, Henderson, Rutherford, Haywood, Yancy, Clay, Madison, Macon, Transylvania, McDowell counties, and the Qualla Boundary.
Our Base-building and network-weaving efforts will continue into 2024 as CoThinkk explores how this emerging leadership hub can further support BIPOC leaders throughout WNC, foster shared opportunities for collaboration, and amplify system change to support regional transformation.
Make an End of the Year Donation!
Over the past nine years, CoThinkk has prioritized connecting people of color to resources that accelerate equitable outcomes, particularly through capacity building to create accessible access points for communities to obtain critical resources to deepen the impact of their work.
With your contribution, you’ll be supporting CoThinkk and helping us provide the resources leaders in the region need to do social change work in their communities.
References
CoThinkk co-conspiratorship reference source
CoThink solidarity reference article
CoThinkk solidarity resource reference – “PRINCIPLES OF TRANSFORMATIVE SOLIDARITY PRACTICE”