Table of contents
Community organizing and group leadership is hard work. You’re at your best when you’re taking time to care for yourself. Please don’t forget to put on your own oxygen mask first!
Tap into the community. Ask specific individuals for help or suggestions on who else to ask.
Cristela Garcia-Spitz
Don’t be afraid to say when you’ve taken on too much, and to ask for help. Some people won’t step up until asked directly, and it doesn’t help anyone if you go under.
Jody DeRidder
Readings and Resources
- Self-Care Starter Kit – SUNY Buffalo School of Social Work
- Everyday Feminism’s 5 Self-Care Tips for Activists
- How to Hack it as a Working Parent – Code4Lib Journal
- Becky Yoose’s #c4l16 talk “The Modern Day Sisyphus: #libtech Burnout and You” and selected bibliography
- Stacie Williams, “All Labor is Local” (2016 DLF Forum keynote talk)
- Mindful Occupation: Rising Up Without Burning Out (PDF)
- How to Keep On Keeping On: Sustaining Ourselves in Community Organizing and Social Justice Struggles
Sending Out an SOS
Please contact Team DLF directly and confidentially if you are ever feeling over-stretched. We’ll find ways to continue your good work and give you a break! After all, it takes a #DLFvillage.
Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.
Audre Lorde