We are back from four days of gathering in Kansas City as a staff team (including our two fabulous co-chairs) and are so moved by the power of being together in person to call forth our prayers and plans for the seasons ahead. The gathering was a time to land together in ritual time and take stock of the past year since we gathered as an entire Stewardship Council in 2023. So much has changed since then! We are currently brewing up a larger gathering report / annual reflection to share the harvest. It has been a year of major transformations – saying goodbye to long-time Co-Director, Darcy Ottey. Welcoming in new staff member, Julian Chavez. Amplifying and scaling up our work with fiscal sponsorship and grantmaking. And preparing to re-birth ourselves in the new Gregorian year to reflect all the transformation. 

This has been a year of deep, cellular-level reconfiguring. Like a chrysalis, our transformations have largely been on the inside. During our staff retreat we began preparing to unfold the wings of our new being. We took account of resources and finances. Did the deep necessary work of relational tending as a community and organizing body. And begun to root ourselves in all the good work ahead, grounded in the prayers and guidance of our elders, and wider circles of community who supported us to gather. We began planting the seeds for more gatherings to come in 2025 across the spiral, including possibilities for in-person gathering in late Summer / early Fall.

Stay tuned for all of this and more in 2025 by staying in the story with us! There is so much more to come, made possible by the deep, nourishing time in person. We are so honored to get to do this culture building work, and we want you to join us! 

Please join Nourishing Futures and Youth Passageways to support the well-being and spirit-centered work of two dedicated Indigenous matriarchs: Rebecca Chief Eagle and Melissa Goodblanket. 

Both of these women have been relentlessly caring for their families and communities for decades, while also working to build bridges with peoples from other cultures and backgrounds. Both of them hold culture and ceremony at the center of their lives, and share this with those around them. 

Both of them have also faced critical health challenges in recent years, limiting their ability for wage labor and causing significant financial distress. It pains us to see them scrambling to meet their needs, without the support needed to offer their gifts fully. Read more about their stories here. 

Our goal is to raise $15,000 by December 31st. We have already raised $5,108, and we just received word that a generous donor has offered to match additional donations through the end of the year dollar-for-dollar up to $5,000. This means that if you give to this campaign by December 31st, your donation will be doubled - and it puts our goal within reach!  Our contributions will help meet Becky and Melissa’s day-to-day needs, allowing them both to breathe a little easier, and supporting their ongoing work in their communities. Our prayer is that their basic needs be met (plus a little extra) so that they can free their life energy toward the fulfillment of their prayers and callings.  

Please make a gift today, to support these two aunties, mamas, Elders, sisters directly over this holiday season, as we look to longer-term sources of support.

Our Winter session was a big success!
We invite you to join us for the coming seasonal sessions:

Winter Session: February 2025 (dates forthcoming)
Spring Session: May 2025 (dates forthcoming)

Sessions will be recorded and made available to registrants after each call.

Highlight from our Fall session -- Ramon Parish on methods for conflict transformation across cultures!

Save the date for our coming session, January 16th, 10:30-12PM PST!

Youth Passageways, in partnership with Queer Odyssey, continues to circle a growing community of queer guides, edge-walkers and ancestral ritualists --coming together to share our questions, offerings, and the stories of our own queer initiations. This is an emergent community of practice we are calling the Queering Rites Collective.

Together, holding our questions and centering our relations, we are learning to uncover ancient queer lineages and begin to queer the normative ones we have inherited -- asking how to be in community ritual space and build new stories that support our queer communities to be in wholeness in these times.

If you are interested in joining one of our upcoming calls, please reach out to Y (yeshe@youthpassageways.org) or Jett (connect@queerodyssey.org) 

In partnership with Life Comes From It, we blend grantmaking and fiscal sponsorship to empower cultural stewards and practitioners across Turtle Island.

Our fiscal sponsorship and administrative support ensures impactful projects receive the funding they need. This year we processed over $2.4 million, directing flow to spread across 32 different fiscal sponsees and 80+ grantees. More than 90% of these visionaries are BIPOC and actively dedicated to restorative and transformative justice and earth based healing for generational change. The establishment of the trust marks a major transition in our network, focusing our energy towards those engaged directly in community and cultural revitalization work.

Dedicated to empowering our local community to engage with psychedelics in responsible, respectful ways that foster deeper connection and alignment with oneself, others, and the more-than-human world. We advocate for equitable access across diverse contexts, offer relevant training and circles on a free or by donation basis, and cultivate peer support networks to nurture an informed, welcoming community committed to reciprocity, mutual care, and shared learning. 

Seasons greetings outtake from the YPW family! Here is a silly and joyful moment of participating in a "dominant" cultural ritual of the season during the YPW staff retreat! 😆 😂