Mission and Vision
Radical Rest Mission
Radical Rest provides communal trauma healing experiences and education to Black, Indigenous and Peoples of Color (BIPOC) folks in the Portland Metro Area.
Radical Rest uplifts access to healing for Portland area black and brown communities with free to low cost communal healing events led by BIPOC healer-facilitators who center healing justice. Radical Rest uses the principles of somatics, experiential learning and trauma-informed practices to provide trauma healing spaces that reduce isolation, build resilience, expand knowledge of ancestral and healthful life practices and grow trust in self, others and the natural world. We encourage structural change in wellness work through fostering trust in oneself and the collective, through contemplation and embodiment and, of course, through rest.
Radical Rest Vision
Leading with love, Radical Rest is dreaming a future in which body-mind-spirit-community-environment are understood to be inextricably interconnected and central to wellness. We conceive of a time when the legacy of capitalism, settler and extraction colonization and body supremacy no longer define our orientation to our bodies or delivery of wellness services. We see a world where wellness work is structural, preventative, culturally-relevant, community-driven and is equally accessible to all.
Our Values
Radical Rest - holds that healing justice is at the heart of a generative liberatory movement….
Belonging and safety are at the heart of healing justice. White supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, colonization and other forms of socialized oppressions seek to divide, disempower and dissociate all beings from the one body we have and to separate that body from the body of the natural world.
Radical Rest - believes in the words of Audre Lorde self care “is self preservation and that is an act of political warfare”. If we are too sick, exhausted, self harming and hopeless, we are easier beings to control in the servitude of oppressive systems and institutions.
Radical Rest - believes in the wisdom of stillness, retreat, self reflection, mindfulness and pleasure…
Against oppressive capitalist institutions and worldviews demanding constant doing, expansion, growth, and action. Radical Rest knows a healthy ecosystem of humans is rooted in healthy interconnected ecosystems of the natural world. Our bodies cannot be separated from the wellness of the planet. We acknowledge that all living beings have personhood, not just humans alone.
Radical Rest - centers the needs of and works to redefine health access for Black, Indigenous, and Peoples of Color (BIPOC) folks, acknowledging the impacts of intersectional identities. Marginalization was decided for us by worldviews beyond our control. We can cultivate identities beyond “other” in our whole, alive, vital and dynamic bodies. We believe when there is equalization and access to community-driven care for the most disenfranchised, everyone thrives.
Radical Rest understands that health has been defined under the lens of western white allopathic medicine…
We seek to expand the definitions of health to include offerings of communal, holistic, natural, spiritual and traditional/indigenous medicine ways, to reclaim our ancestral knowledge of healing and to redefine the understanding of health justice beyond the institutional wellness infrastructure.
Radical Rest is not perfect, is evolving from seed, is open to feedback about what’s working and what isn’t and is accountable to the people served. We believe in feeding what works. We believe in 'rupture and repair' and 'impact over intention' and engaging in 'principled struggle' when harm happens. While the work of macropolicy change is imperative to liberatory movements, it is nothing if not met with the individual’s space for safety, groundedness, play, patience, connection and compassion. These factors are the seeds from which all liberatory movements should grow.
We believe in the body...
That breathes, cries, sings, works, births, reaches, kicks, loves, eats, plays, fucks, makes, thinks, prays, rests, pushes, watches, works, shits, sleeps, tries, throws, flirts, fights, waits, wishes, screams, grows, runs, builds, reads, sits, speaks, learns, walks, gives, dances, yearns, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc...
