Nurturing a holistic and transformative workplace
What has Health Justice learned on our collective care journey?
Text in graphic blocks along the left that reads “Nurturing a holistic and transformative workplace. Actively working towards integration of collective care in all aspects of the organization is hard but so rewarding.” To the right of the text is an image of a person with long hair petting their small dog.
Two years ago, we shared in this blog post that Health Justice is working to prioritize collective care in our workplace. We want to explore “finding tangible ways to resist the focus on urgency, efficiency, and outputs that often dominates the non-profit sector, leading to burnout, harm, and ableist practices.”
The work that we do requires a combination of many things. It requires care, thoughtfulness, passion, humility, and creativity. It also requires perseverance, flexibility, and curiosity. We need to be open to growth by embracing learning and unlearning. Each person on our team brings their whole self with them to Health Justice and we honour everyone’s unique experiences and expertise. There is a diversity of needs and ways of working within the team that offers opportunities to explore transformational approaches.
Throughout this blog post we have woven in quotes from Health Justice team members on their collective care reflections to honour the collective voice.
What does collective care mean to us?
Collective care for Health Justice is a foundational approach to how we work. Our aim is to centre the wellbeing of the organizational community including the team members and everyone involved in our organization, by shifting away from oppressive and colonial practices. Collective care is an approach that requires us to continually reflect on our structures and processes and make changes where necessary. There is an understanding that it is a shared responsibility for everyone involved and that we are all interconnected through our work at Health Justice.
How can we approach collective care as an organization?
“Existing within systems that reinforce individualism and conformity means that it can be hard to find ways to push back against that, especially in a workplace. Collective care has been helpful in feeling like I’m a part of a community that can push for change.”
Here’s how we started to approach collective care with intention in our workplace
Health Justice’s core structure and values have brought together a community of staff and contributors that enjoy working relationally. Everyone offers care and support to each other, but it was never formalized as an approach or supported with dedicated resources. Through our strategic planning process in 2024, we recognized that the organization has an opportunity to contribute to collective care within the team and strengthen our commitment to embed care into all aspects of the work we do.
Introducing a new role: Collective Care Lead
With the trust of the team and financial support of the Vancouver Foundation, along with existing organizational resources, we developed a new part-time Collective Care Lead role. This role signifies the organization’s commitment to prioritize care and our willingness to learn grow, and nurture a holistic and transformative workplace. It is also about “Making intentional space for relationship building and maintenance and not losing sight of the importance of tangents, check ins, etc.” as reflected by a Health Justice team member.
For a visual representation of our collective care starting point, this is the Health Justice collective care mood board. All the elements, textures, and sensations are interconnected to express the breadth and depth of what we want to do.
Health Justice Collective Care Mood Board | All collage images sourced from Comox Valley Collective Magazine Volume 42, Summer 2025 issue.
Art description: The artwork is created in portrait orientation. The photographic images are cutout from a magazine and collaged on top of the rectangular base. The following images are in the background going clockwise: Top left is dense green ferns in a forest with white yarrow. Top centre is solid sky blue. Top right is dark brown tree branches covered in green moss. In the centre to mid-right is a brown wooden bridge in a forest. Bottom right there is large green ferns on the forest floor and on the bottom left is a rapidly moving river going north to south surrounded by green trees on both sides. Centre-left is orange flames from a fire. In the foreground on top of the images near the upper centre is white bubble letters that spell out C-A-R-E with a small red heart above. On top of the images on the bottom is two cutouts that look like puzzle pieces made of teal tiled walls.
Here’s what we’ve done so far
We started planning the collective care approach based on the thoughtful and inspiring discussions from our organizational strategic planning process in 2024. Those conversations involved the Health Justice team members, lived experienced governance members, and board members.
To further identify the primary areas of collective care work to focus on we hosted conversations with the team members to discuss individual needs and offers. This has been an ongoing dialogue with the team as work and life situations shift.
We started with the following primary areas of collective care:
Team connection
Collective joy – infusing some lightness and joy
Collective survival - mutual aid and care, recognizing our whole selves
Sustainability - organizational and individual workload
Structural supports – processes, procedures, policies, addressing accessibility needs, and organizational efforts
Meeting & work planning support – share experiences and learnings
Decolonization & transformation – reflection/recognition as an organization on where we are at and being intentional about how we move forward
Health Justice does most of our work virtually which challenges us to be creative in how we support the team. We didn’t want our collective care efforts to feel like we were adding more to everyone’s workload, and we wanted everyone to be able to exercise their agency to choose what they wanted to participate in. The reality is that it cannot just be one thing that suits or meets the needs of all team members. So, we decided to provide a variety of collective care offerings.
Our offerings have included:
Creating an informal virtual Collective Care chat space where team members can connect and share tips, reflections, learning resources, experiences of “work wins”, mutual aid, and more.
Hosting bi-weekly virtual open art studio that offers team members creative pause time and the opportunity to connect, process, and reflect
Hosting weekly drop-in virtual co-working sessions
Hosting virtual get togethers
Sending periodic thematic care packages in the mail to the team members
Reaching out to team members and holding space when there is a need
Planning and hosting celebrations to acknowledge team members and Health Justice work
Planning and supporting team learning opportunities
“I really appreciate all of the time and effort that is being put into collective care. I thought the care packages were such a nice touch throughout the last year—it’s a treat to receive something cute and thoughtful in the mail!”
We also made efforts to address collective care systemically in the organization by:
Reviewing and revising organizational policies with a lens of collective care and decolonization
Making changes to our work processes to focus on collective well-being including our hiring process
Seeking out and participating in external collective care learning and connection opportunities
“I also appreciate how so far, collective care has helped reduce how often the little jobs tend to get overlooked that help an organization function. It turns typically thankless roles into ones full of thanks.”
What have we learned from this experience?
Actively working towards integration of collective care in all aspects of the organization is hard. It requires a dynamic approach that is constantly shifting, learning, and growing with the team even when things change across the team and for each team member. It also requires meaningful participation from all members of the team with the understanding that everyone is navigating life with colonized upbringings and systemic oppression, so we all have ways we can grow. It takes intention to prioritize collective care when situations are chaotic or there is pressure to deliver on commitments. There can be a natural resistance to building new habits and we have learned that there is no defined path and no one right or wrong way to do things. We see collective care as an active form of resistance and reclaiming. The work embraces compassion, letting go of perfectionism, trying new things, and being okay with progress and growth not being linear.
Although the work is hard, it is also so rewarding. Our collective care efforts opened opportunities to celebrate each other and our work together.
“I’m feeling a lot of appreciation-for-appreciation today! I think people on this team are fantastic at recognizing each other’s strengths and contributions and at hyping each other up, and it’s really nice not just to be on the receiving end of (although obviously it’s meaningful to feel valued by your coworkers) but also just to be around. I feel like I get a boost from hearing other people sharing the things they admire in each other and having opportunities to express it, like a bunch of mirrors concentrating a beam of light. I think this is also the flip side of feeling able to express feeling bad, disagreeing, etc, because I think it’s easier to be open about positive things when you can be open in general.”
“I’ve never felt as seen and cherished by a group of coworkers than I did during my Work Anniversary Celebration. People recognized my contributions with love and specificity, contributions that I had always believed were invisible or underappreciated. I get to work with the most brilliant, kind, determined, and thoughtful coworkers in the world. I have trouble expressing my immense gratitude for the work they do and the care they show.”
What’s next for Health Justice’s collective care journey?
There is still a need for more practices that will support collective care to be identified and implemented to help the organization continue its shift away from grind culture. This includes a need for continual self-reflection as an organization and implementation of structural elements like workplace policies and decision-making practices. By co-creating a workplace with our team members, governance groups, and contributors we will continue the commitment to work towards nurturing a transformative and holistic workplace with the intention of weaving collective care into all aspects of how we work.
This artwork is a found word collage to represent Health Justice’s collective care experience.
Our Collective Care Journey | All collage images sourced from Comox Valley Collective Magazine Volume 42, Summer 2025 issue.
Art description: The artwork is created in portrait orientation on a black construction paper background. The images are words that are cutout from a magazine and glued in a list from top to bottom on the right side of the paper. The words in a variety of fonts are: Collective. Discover. Initiative. Gathering. Passionate. Meaningful human connection. Contribute. Struggle together. Engaging. Celebrating team. Creating own story. Authentic. Inspired. Memories. The magic. Learning. Future. Meet Me. Explore. Community. Connect. Reflections. Support.
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