The Wellness Center, in collaboration with Ethics & the Common Good, OARS, Spiritual Life, and Residence Life, invite you to the Radical Practice of Care Retreat, a unique 3-day opportunity for connection and reflection on March 15th-17th, 2019 (last weekend of Spring Break). The purpose of this retreat is to explore the ways in which we foster support for ourselves. In turn, we seek to understand how care for oneself is fundamental to and interrelated with caring for others and our communities. Together we will engage in conversations and activities that develop our capacity for care in a manner that is intentional, realistic, and sustainable.

Taking numerous forms over the last 80 years, the notion of care as “self-care” originated in the medical field as a concept for preventative care, before eventually becoming a political act during both the Women’s Rights and Black Liberation movements. At that time, self-care, explicitly in the context of community wellness, was a key weapon against a patriarchal and racist medical and governmental system. By the 2016 election, the number of internet searches for the term doubled- and the concept of self-care officially became mainstream and mass commercialized, ranging from community meal programs to bath bombs. But what does self-care truly constitute? How can we manifest it in order to be better caretakers for others and for our communities? How can we use variations of care to incite meaningful changes in our lives and in the world around us?

The term “Radical Care” seeks to recapture the spirit of holistic self-care. The “radical” speaks specifically to the potential impact of collective care, not simply the intensity of individual actions. Join us to collaboratively explore and re-imagine our individual and communal ideas of trust, support, shame, and storytelling. During the retreat, our goal is to build upon foundational skills such as empathetic listening, mindfulness, and building community networks of support.

The Radical Practice of Care retreat will take place off-campus at Earthdance retreat center from Friday, March 15th to Sunday March 17th, 2019. This retreat is fully funded and includes all meals. To sign up, please fill out this application form.

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