To Establish PEACE by way of YOGA
Donation protected
IMPORTANT UPDATES: Upon Extreme Reflection, I am going to be shifting my yoga training option to South Boston Yoga's Winter 2017 200HR weekend Intensive Teacher Training. Set cost of this training is $3000.
This is not a training that is housed in the traditional 'Bikram' Practice; however, I intend to work elements of Hot 26 Posture Series into my own teachings as I embark on this journey to create something that is an evolved state of conscious and inclusive yoga.
Anything that is raised beyond the $3000 mark will go directly to secure space for The Well.
There is no time limit on this giving campaign. However, the goal is to have all funding raised by the end of January. Go Fund Me takes a 5% fee off of all contributions. If folks would like to give directly to me please be in touch at : [email redacted] and we can discuss options
This is Round2 of fundraising to establish the educational foundation for PEACE rooted in the practice and study of yoga. The goal is to establish a well ecosystem within communities by creating THE WELL -A community owned space that will serve as an economic engine for local entrepreneurs and youth, and will act as an open space for safety and healing.
My name is Erin Kay Anderson. I am 34 years old and the oldest of 4. I was born in Billings, Montana and spent my summers in Minnesota where my parents were born and raised. I lived in a trailer at the end of a dirt road outside Billing's city limits until the age of 10 when my parents moved us into the city. I attended Billings Senior High and throughout high school I was the President of the Montana Lutheran Youth Organization. Upon graduation in 2000, I moved to Waltham, MA where I lived and worked at Daryl Christopher in Weston inside HealthPoint for a year gaining residency before enrolling at UMASS-Amherst.
I studied American History and Sociology with a concentration on African American Art. I worked throughout college at a local outdoor sporting goods store, the Mountain Goat, and a local restaurant - Carmelina’s, and did my 3year work study at Hampshire Country United Way
After graduating I moved to Denver, Colorado where I worked for the Rape Assistance and Awareness Program, before taking another position at ArtReach – as the assistant to the executive director and moved into the role of individual giving coordinator.
I moved to Missoula, Montana in the Summer of 2007, prior to the acceptance into the Master’s Program in Intercultural Youth and Family Development (2007-2009). Throughout my practice, I worked at Youth Homes – a residential therapeutic home for at-risk youth and Trapper Creek Job Corp where my goal was the extension of their learning day through programming in arts, yoga, wellness, and intergenerational conversations. After graduating I traveled across the country and landed back in Western Massachusetts. I went back to pick up hours at the Mountain Goat, while looking for a more permanent position in the city.
A position in Boston did not come quickly enough so in 2010, I moved to Minneapolis to serve an 11month term of service with the AmeriCorps - Capacity Corp whose direct relationship was housed in the State/National Organization - Rebuilding Together.
I moved back to Boston in the summer of 2011 to help my best friend and husband launch the startup Go Local Metro Boston – a local loyalty initiative, first originating in Austin, Texas - whose local Boston backbone was grassroots and was to stimulate economic capacity within Boston starting with Roxbury and Dorchester.
In June of 2012, Malia Lazu called to offer me the position as Program Manager with Epicenter Community , at the time known as Future Boston. I did not hesitate in my acceptance. I have worked for the past 3 years alongside Malia in her sustaining of Future Boston, to its transformation and growth of Epicenter Community – coordinating events through the former program #AssembleBOS, tracking and overseeing the distribution of liquor licenses at the City of Boston through #ActivateBOS, and managing and overseeing all social media platforms and interns.
I chose to leave the organization in August of this year (2016) in order to continue my life journey, and take all that I have learned and come to know through my life work -professional and personal to launch a B:Corp Business Model that will work to establish PEACE on a local level, built to have global impact. The educational establishment of PEACE coupled with the goal of establishing THE WELL.
You can read more about the model and rationale behind the establishment of The Well below. This round of fundraising is attached to the Pilot in the establishment of this economic structure that is rooted in PEACE.
About this project
The patterns of American Economics & colonization have adopted the term ‘gentrification,’ which is the recognized pattern that with ‘development’ of black, brown, and minority communities comes physical and spiritual displacement of black & brown men, women, families, and cultural space.
This process of economic displacement is happening all over our country. For the sake of this pilot we will be examining the current events in Boston, but the conversation will remain open for application in other cities if the model is proven to be effective.
The Well
Our goal is to create a comprehensive model for wellness that starts with the investment in education and collaborative models of economic uplift - event partnership, resource sharing, cultivation of well students & a steady revenue stream based on membership and good will.
The Well will be founded as a cooperative model where the revenue that is generated through classes, workshops, events, and membership is used to pay teachers, collaborators, and a percentage (discussed and decided by community & collaborators) will be donated to Epicenter Community and the Roxbury Land Trust , and used to create a scholarship program for aspiring yoga and wellness students and entrepreneurs.
We believe it is necessary to give to the organizations that are actively working to preserve space and provide access and opportunity for local residents and whose models are collaborative and decentralized in design.
Current (Macro & Micro) Community Issues:
Trauma
The trauma (Historical & RealTime: Physical, Mental, Emotional, & Fiscal) of local residents - families and children: the economic system of Americans is rooted in physical slavery, which now plagues the general population as an overall slave mentality. Rather than us serving one another, we cater to a fictitious concept that only gives access and set gains for a few. The severity of the effects of over 500 years of economic and human abuse has oppressed populations of families and has created ongoing community issues of violence and ongoing health issues - addiction, early onset diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Access
Lack of access to & cooperative ownership of space: Currently in Boston neighborhoods, there are a number of Individual Health & Wellness professionals and practitioners: yogis, dancers, djs & producers, wellness & body treatment specialists; however, the lack of operational space is limited or costly for most.
Lack of space = Lack of Access to the opportunity for creative reflection, yoga. and dance practice and growth.
Lack of Cohesive Programming:
Lack of access to space makes it challenging for residents to benefit from the plethora of programming that is already in the community. In addition to the lack of space for folks to come together, there is a lack of opportunity for longstanding Bostonians and newly settled neighborhood residents - the college student population and the middle income families and individuals who are moving into the neighborhood to come together to have important community building interaction and awareness raising conversations.
The Well : A New Economic Platform
Our goal is the creation of well beings. A cooperative creator space for Yoga, Movement, & Music.
We provide access to creative space, classes, & techniques that allow both teachers and students to thrive - personally and professionally.
Tailored events & specialty classes will be hosted through a collaborative partnerships at various venues throughout the city and neighborhoods.
Once a permanent space has been established, The Well will continue to cultivate community by promotion of all of our local teachers and groups who are working in collaboration with the space.
Community/Neighborhood culture will drive partnerships and the root of the pilot is based on economic equity, efficacy, and efficiency.
The model is founded on education, modeling of empathy, and expression by way of yoga, movement (dance + fitness), and music.
The model is blend of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, cooperative equitable economics, and the mastered skill of local wellness focused teachers/leaders/instructors/entrepreneurs.
We Believe...
Purpose & Intention are supreme. We must come together with purpose and intention to create local models that invest in personal agency, wealth, and wellness on both a micro and macro scale. When access is increased self-empowerment is reflected. As a result, movement and action to seek and create change is the result.
Everyone deserves the highest quality. In order for us to be a co-existing society it is the responsibility of all society's members; regardless of color, gender, creed, or race to assure that all have access to basic human physiological needs: water, food, shelter (space), movement, art , & education tailored to individual needs. Needs can only be understood by way of emotional intelligence, and mirrored instruction. (Please reference Maslow's Hierarchy of needs)
Alignment & timing are everything. Boston's current rate of growth combined with the access to research, history, and the human brilliance in this city presents us as a (Boston) community with the opportunity to create a model that champions economic prosperity based on programming that invests in reviving of the human spirit, fostering relationships and development of personal agency for action.
Sustainability is key. In order to be sustainable we must be creating collaborative models that are built on local levels and founded on preexisting community strengths and networks. The models must be economically collaborative in their nature and must be thinking about the outcomes 7 generations from today.
Why Now? : Time Based Circumstances
The existing cultural and economic movements that are currently taking place and rapidly expanding within these neighborhoods, all of which are founded on art, food, and social justice
Our existing partnerships and network have allowed us to build a team of supporters that understand the importance of both securing space and those who also have connections to partners outside of the immediate community that can act as partners to house performances for a larger Boston Audience.
The current state of re-colonization in Boston and other cities throughout the country and the exponential amount of development and capital that is entering Boston at this current moment in time.
The How: Timeline
Seeding Phase
October 8th: Kickstarter Release Party curated by PEACE
October 11th: Launch of Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign
Edited: November 14th: Launch of Round2 Go FundMe Campagin.
January 2017-February 2017: The launch of two PEACE event series (TEAM & HEAD)
February 2017 - June 2017: Erin to Attend Weekend Intensive Winter Training at South Boston Yoga
October 2016 - April 2017: Brand Building for the Well and Outreach by Way of Community Events to be curated by PEACE
April 2017: Establishment of Community Shareholders of The Well.
Growth & Community Investment Series: 'Wealth' curated by PEACE
July 2017 - October 2017: Continuation of PEACE series to establish brand and awareness around the concept of The Well.
October 2017 - January 2018: Begin Scouting for space working with local affiliates and economists to begin fine tuning an economic model and operational overlay for The Well
Research
We will be conducting ongoing research on Cooperative Economic Models, Tribal Governance Platforms & due to the competitive nature of men and speaking specifically to this pilot model in Boston we will be implementing a study and reflection on the: Coordination of multi-agents with a revenue-cost-sharing mechanism: A Cooperative Game Theory Approach. Our economic model will be under constant review by data analysts and will remain a center of ongoing conversation about feasibility within the The Well Team (Employees, Teachers, and Community Partners)
The history of the Boston community and the drastically changing cultural landscape of Boston neighborhoods will be constantly be taken into regard and will be under review by local collaborators.
Evaluation
As The Well begins to lay a platform, ongoing evaluation with our community partners and measurement of community impact will be visited on a monthly basis to insure traction, retention, and effectiveness.
Partnership Quality & Growth: The Well will work in partnership with local community based organizations and schools to create a model that will operate on a decentralized economic theory that works to create a collaborative model between community entrepreneurs within the wellness industry to include: yoga, dance, fitness, nutrition, art/music, and technology.
The Well is being created because it is important for like-minded community groups to come together to create multiple pools of economic resources for neighborhoods. If the model works it can be replicated by other working city collaborations to replicate the pilot model based on the culture of the neighborhoods and the founding organizations.
Measurement of Economic Impact for Collaborators: The Well is to serve as a cultivating platform for local entrepreneurs and members of the wellness community to invest in community wealth; a center to expand local awareness of individual teachers & practices opportunities
The team will be built out in stages in order to ensure a collaborative dynamic and to ensure that the economic model can handle smaller collaborative groups before building out a larger physical space.
Team Members will include a mix of yoga and dance teachers, wellness & lifestyle event companies, and music producers & will be rooted in the community and their creative practice.
Measurement of Overall Community Impact: Study of trends of wellness initiatives within neighborhoods, look at health trends on a community and city wide scale
Risks and challenges
The Challenges: Like most challenges in the world of startup the access to funding and space is always the biggest question.
Access to education funding to attend yoga training and establishment of space
Curating teams of community stakeholders to oversee and guide the economic cultivation of the space.
This is not a training that is housed in the traditional 'Bikram' Practice; however, I intend to work elements of Hot 26 Posture Series into my own teachings as I embark on this journey to create something that is an evolved state of conscious and inclusive yoga.
Anything that is raised beyond the $3000 mark will go directly to secure space for The Well.
There is no time limit on this giving campaign. However, the goal is to have all funding raised by the end of January. Go Fund Me takes a 5% fee off of all contributions. If folks would like to give directly to me please be in touch at : [email redacted] and we can discuss options
This is Round2 of fundraising to establish the educational foundation for PEACE rooted in the practice and study of yoga. The goal is to establish a well ecosystem within communities by creating THE WELL -A community owned space that will serve as an economic engine for local entrepreneurs and youth, and will act as an open space for safety and healing.
My name is Erin Kay Anderson. I am 34 years old and the oldest of 4. I was born in Billings, Montana and spent my summers in Minnesota where my parents were born and raised. I lived in a trailer at the end of a dirt road outside Billing's city limits until the age of 10 when my parents moved us into the city. I attended Billings Senior High and throughout high school I was the President of the Montana Lutheran Youth Organization. Upon graduation in 2000, I moved to Waltham, MA where I lived and worked at Daryl Christopher in Weston inside HealthPoint for a year gaining residency before enrolling at UMASS-Amherst.
I studied American History and Sociology with a concentration on African American Art. I worked throughout college at a local outdoor sporting goods store, the Mountain Goat, and a local restaurant - Carmelina’s, and did my 3year work study at Hampshire Country United Way
After graduating I moved to Denver, Colorado where I worked for the Rape Assistance and Awareness Program, before taking another position at ArtReach – as the assistant to the executive director and moved into the role of individual giving coordinator.
I moved to Missoula, Montana in the Summer of 2007, prior to the acceptance into the Master’s Program in Intercultural Youth and Family Development (2007-2009). Throughout my practice, I worked at Youth Homes – a residential therapeutic home for at-risk youth and Trapper Creek Job Corp where my goal was the extension of their learning day through programming in arts, yoga, wellness, and intergenerational conversations. After graduating I traveled across the country and landed back in Western Massachusetts. I went back to pick up hours at the Mountain Goat, while looking for a more permanent position in the city.
A position in Boston did not come quickly enough so in 2010, I moved to Minneapolis to serve an 11month term of service with the AmeriCorps - Capacity Corp whose direct relationship was housed in the State/National Organization - Rebuilding Together.
I moved back to Boston in the summer of 2011 to help my best friend and husband launch the startup Go Local Metro Boston – a local loyalty initiative, first originating in Austin, Texas - whose local Boston backbone was grassroots and was to stimulate economic capacity within Boston starting with Roxbury and Dorchester.
In June of 2012, Malia Lazu called to offer me the position as Program Manager with Epicenter Community , at the time known as Future Boston. I did not hesitate in my acceptance. I have worked for the past 3 years alongside Malia in her sustaining of Future Boston, to its transformation and growth of Epicenter Community – coordinating events through the former program #AssembleBOS, tracking and overseeing the distribution of liquor licenses at the City of Boston through #ActivateBOS, and managing and overseeing all social media platforms and interns.
I chose to leave the organization in August of this year (2016) in order to continue my life journey, and take all that I have learned and come to know through my life work -professional and personal to launch a B:Corp Business Model that will work to establish PEACE on a local level, built to have global impact. The educational establishment of PEACE coupled with the goal of establishing THE WELL.
You can read more about the model and rationale behind the establishment of The Well below. This round of fundraising is attached to the Pilot in the establishment of this economic structure that is rooted in PEACE.
About this project
The patterns of American Economics & colonization have adopted the term ‘gentrification,’ which is the recognized pattern that with ‘development’ of black, brown, and minority communities comes physical and spiritual displacement of black & brown men, women, families, and cultural space.
This process of economic displacement is happening all over our country. For the sake of this pilot we will be examining the current events in Boston, but the conversation will remain open for application in other cities if the model is proven to be effective.
The Well
Our goal is to create a comprehensive model for wellness that starts with the investment in education and collaborative models of economic uplift - event partnership, resource sharing, cultivation of well students & a steady revenue stream based on membership and good will.
The Well will be founded as a cooperative model where the revenue that is generated through classes, workshops, events, and membership is used to pay teachers, collaborators, and a percentage (discussed and decided by community & collaborators) will be donated to Epicenter Community and the Roxbury Land Trust , and used to create a scholarship program for aspiring yoga and wellness students and entrepreneurs.
We believe it is necessary to give to the organizations that are actively working to preserve space and provide access and opportunity for local residents and whose models are collaborative and decentralized in design.
Current (Macro & Micro) Community Issues:
Trauma
The trauma (Historical & RealTime: Physical, Mental, Emotional, & Fiscal) of local residents - families and children: the economic system of Americans is rooted in physical slavery, which now plagues the general population as an overall slave mentality. Rather than us serving one another, we cater to a fictitious concept that only gives access and set gains for a few. The severity of the effects of over 500 years of economic and human abuse has oppressed populations of families and has created ongoing community issues of violence and ongoing health issues - addiction, early onset diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Access
Lack of access to & cooperative ownership of space: Currently in Boston neighborhoods, there are a number of Individual Health & Wellness professionals and practitioners: yogis, dancers, djs & producers, wellness & body treatment specialists; however, the lack of operational space is limited or costly for most.
Lack of space = Lack of Access to the opportunity for creative reflection, yoga. and dance practice and growth.
Lack of Cohesive Programming:
Lack of access to space makes it challenging for residents to benefit from the plethora of programming that is already in the community. In addition to the lack of space for folks to come together, there is a lack of opportunity for longstanding Bostonians and newly settled neighborhood residents - the college student population and the middle income families and individuals who are moving into the neighborhood to come together to have important community building interaction and awareness raising conversations.
The Well : A New Economic Platform
Our goal is the creation of well beings. A cooperative creator space for Yoga, Movement, & Music.
We provide access to creative space, classes, & techniques that allow both teachers and students to thrive - personally and professionally.
Tailored events & specialty classes will be hosted through a collaborative partnerships at various venues throughout the city and neighborhoods.
Once a permanent space has been established, The Well will continue to cultivate community by promotion of all of our local teachers and groups who are working in collaboration with the space.
Community/Neighborhood culture will drive partnerships and the root of the pilot is based on economic equity, efficacy, and efficiency.
The model is founded on education, modeling of empathy, and expression by way of yoga, movement (dance + fitness), and music.
The model is blend of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, cooperative equitable economics, and the mastered skill of local wellness focused teachers/leaders/instructors/entrepreneurs.
We Believe...
Purpose & Intention are supreme. We must come together with purpose and intention to create local models that invest in personal agency, wealth, and wellness on both a micro and macro scale. When access is increased self-empowerment is reflected. As a result, movement and action to seek and create change is the result.
Everyone deserves the highest quality. In order for us to be a co-existing society it is the responsibility of all society's members; regardless of color, gender, creed, or race to assure that all have access to basic human physiological needs: water, food, shelter (space), movement, art , & education tailored to individual needs. Needs can only be understood by way of emotional intelligence, and mirrored instruction. (Please reference Maslow's Hierarchy of needs)
Alignment & timing are everything. Boston's current rate of growth combined with the access to research, history, and the human brilliance in this city presents us as a (Boston) community with the opportunity to create a model that champions economic prosperity based on programming that invests in reviving of the human spirit, fostering relationships and development of personal agency for action.
Sustainability is key. In order to be sustainable we must be creating collaborative models that are built on local levels and founded on preexisting community strengths and networks. The models must be economically collaborative in their nature and must be thinking about the outcomes 7 generations from today.
Why Now? : Time Based Circumstances
The existing cultural and economic movements that are currently taking place and rapidly expanding within these neighborhoods, all of which are founded on art, food, and social justice
Our existing partnerships and network have allowed us to build a team of supporters that understand the importance of both securing space and those who also have connections to partners outside of the immediate community that can act as partners to house performances for a larger Boston Audience.
The current state of re-colonization in Boston and other cities throughout the country and the exponential amount of development and capital that is entering Boston at this current moment in time.
The How: Timeline
Seeding Phase
October 8th: Kickstarter Release Party curated by PEACE
October 11th: Launch of Kickstarter Fundraising Campaign
Edited: November 14th: Launch of Round2 Go FundMe Campagin.
January 2017-February 2017: The launch of two PEACE event series (TEAM & HEAD)
February 2017 - June 2017: Erin to Attend Weekend Intensive Winter Training at South Boston Yoga
October 2016 - April 2017: Brand Building for the Well and Outreach by Way of Community Events to be curated by PEACE
April 2017: Establishment of Community Shareholders of The Well.
Growth & Community Investment Series: 'Wealth' curated by PEACE
July 2017 - October 2017: Continuation of PEACE series to establish brand and awareness around the concept of The Well.
October 2017 - January 2018: Begin Scouting for space working with local affiliates and economists to begin fine tuning an economic model and operational overlay for The Well
Research
We will be conducting ongoing research on Cooperative Economic Models, Tribal Governance Platforms & due to the competitive nature of men and speaking specifically to this pilot model in Boston we will be implementing a study and reflection on the: Coordination of multi-agents with a revenue-cost-sharing mechanism: A Cooperative Game Theory Approach. Our economic model will be under constant review by data analysts and will remain a center of ongoing conversation about feasibility within the The Well Team (Employees, Teachers, and Community Partners)
The history of the Boston community and the drastically changing cultural landscape of Boston neighborhoods will be constantly be taken into regard and will be under review by local collaborators.
Evaluation
As The Well begins to lay a platform, ongoing evaluation with our community partners and measurement of community impact will be visited on a monthly basis to insure traction, retention, and effectiveness.
Partnership Quality & Growth: The Well will work in partnership with local community based organizations and schools to create a model that will operate on a decentralized economic theory that works to create a collaborative model between community entrepreneurs within the wellness industry to include: yoga, dance, fitness, nutrition, art/music, and technology.
The Well is being created because it is important for like-minded community groups to come together to create multiple pools of economic resources for neighborhoods. If the model works it can be replicated by other working city collaborations to replicate the pilot model based on the culture of the neighborhoods and the founding organizations.
Measurement of Economic Impact for Collaborators: The Well is to serve as a cultivating platform for local entrepreneurs and members of the wellness community to invest in community wealth; a center to expand local awareness of individual teachers & practices opportunities
The team will be built out in stages in order to ensure a collaborative dynamic and to ensure that the economic model can handle smaller collaborative groups before building out a larger physical space.
Team Members will include a mix of yoga and dance teachers, wellness & lifestyle event companies, and music producers & will be rooted in the community and their creative practice.
Measurement of Overall Community Impact: Study of trends of wellness initiatives within neighborhoods, look at health trends on a community and city wide scale
Risks and challenges
The Challenges: Like most challenges in the world of startup the access to funding and space is always the biggest question.
Access to education funding to attend yoga training and establishment of space
Curating teams of community stakeholders to oversee and guide the economic cultivation of the space.
Organizer
Erin Kay Anderson
Organizer
Boston, MA
