Inclusive Leadership and Healing through Collaborative Action

How can collaborative action support joy and community healing? And what does this mean for how we define and understand leadership? In our next episode, we speak with Reann Gibson, a community-based researcher, community changemaker, and an advocate for social justice in the fields of health equity, food systems, community development and more. Reann reflects on her decades-long work to support food access, transformation justice and community-based participatory research in the Boston area and shares how collaborative action can shift the narrative of leadership, making space for all different types of leaders. We explore with Reann the power of fostering community-controlled and authentic spaces to support long term healing, and how participatory research efforts, such as the Healthy Neighborhood Study, can offer important lessons for creating these opportunities. 

Featured guest:

• Reann Gibson, Community researcher and social justice advocate 
• Host: Ronda Alexander, Director of Operations, NOW at Vital Village Networks

Resources from the episode:

• Learn more about the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition at: https://www.mattapanfoodandfit.org/
• Read more about the Edgewater Food Forest in Mattapan at: https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/05/25/edgewater-food-forest-mattapan-boston-food-forest-coalition
• Learn more about The Healthy Neighborhoods Study at: hns.mit.edu 

Additional Resource:

• Explore the featured Resource from the NOW Resource Library, A Community Builders Toolkit, here: https://www.networksofopportunity.org/resources/A-Community-Builders'-Toolkit 

Produced by: Networks of Opportunity for Child Wellbeing

Music: Want U W/ Me (Instrumental Mix), by Akira Sora, From the Free Music Archive, CC BY 4.0

Edited By: Resonate Recordings