Can you feel it? Fall is just around the corner, our daylight is waning and summer vacations are winding down — it’s back to school time! Maybe it is a kindergartner or even a high school senior, sharing experiences with them of firsts or lasts. Or in my case, newly graduated high school and college kids, starting new adventures further and further away from the nest and the familiar rhythms of life. But don’t worry, I won’t go down that path of empty nest with you all here!
Our work nest is changing too. Recently our team enjoyed a beautiful late summer afternoon at a local park celebrating Scott Forslund, who has led our team and the work of the Institute since the beginning. After seven years, Scott is moving to a new season of life: retirement, full-time grand ‘pappa’, and happy hiking trail days, with a team theme of parting gifts to help him fully embrace his new ‘role’! In my new role as interim director, I will not even begin to fill his big shoes. Our team will remain small(er) and mighty. Together we are looking forward to building on the Institute’s vision and purpose and the opportunity to create new partnerships as Providence Swedish, continuing a meaningful and sustainable path in creating clinical/community linkages that both broaden and deepen the conversation about what it means to be healthy and where health happens.
The changing seasons of life, transitions, pandemic upheavals; they seem to be all around, all the time, and maybe now I am just a little more aware. How do we relate to all of that? How do we relate to ourselves, how do we relate to each other? It really is all about relationships.
As we put final preparations together for our Eighth Annual Edge of Amazing (EOA) Health and Well-being Summit, held virtually on Wednesday, October 5, 2022, we invite you to join us as we explore JUST Relationships: Transformation Practice for Understanding and Resilience, with Nanci Luna Jiménez, Founder & President, Luna Jiménez Institute for Social Transformation. Nanci, our keynote, will explore the importance of listening and emotional healing, for ourselves and others, as we deepen authenticity and trust. She will invite us to risk vulnerability as we center just relationships in our renewed commitment to increase equity. Learn more about Nanci here.
Nanci’s keynote will be followed by a keynote panel discussion of local equity and well-being leaders, moderated by Mark Wakai and featuring Liz Baxter, Shari Dworkin, Douglas Raiford and Karina Gasperin – who will be Exploring the Power and Practice of Trusted Relationships in Creating Equitable, Healthy and Inclusive Communities. Learn more about the Keynote Panel here.
Our workshops feature our relationship with money: community based financial coaching models and inequities of medical crowdfunding. Our relationships with community: bringing care to the community and community-based conservation efforts. And, of course, our relationship with the next generation and our mental/emotional well-being: strong, heard and resilient. Learn more about the workshops here.
Finally, we will close out Edge of Amazing with a celebration of what really brings us together, FOOD! Join us for a VIRTUAL anti-inflammatory cooking and nutrition class from our partners at Verdant Health Commission – and taught by Sound Dietitians’ owner, Megan Ellison, MS, RDN, CDCES.
Fall is coming soon, register for the 8th annual Edge of Amazing today! Hope to see you there and wishing you well,
Jessica (Jess) Burt
Interim Executive Director
Providence Institute for a Healthier Community
