Upcoming Events

Native Wisdom with Kelly Daniels

Join The Resilient Activist and
Kelly Daniels
with the
Blue River Forest Experience
for an inspired conversation to enhance your
deep connection to nature

Kelly will touch on:

• the history of her property, how she manages it and runs a forest school
• Forest Therapy concepts and training
• her Native American heritage and indigenous wisdom about living in relationship with the land, as well as stories about her time at Standing Rock and the environmental impact of the installation of oil pipelines on the native communities who live there
• collaboration with the Heartland Conservation Alliance
• resilience practices she uses and teaches

This event is scheduled to be held via Zoom. When you register for this event, you will receive the Zoom meeting ID.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Climate of Community

True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery

Sunday, December 27, 2020

3:00-5:00 pm CST on Zoom 

Register here for the Zoom link:

“Climate anxiety” and “eco-grief” refer to the widespread distress people experience as the realities of the climate crisis set in.  Fear of what is to come and a sense of helplessness can wear us down.  We are often overwhelmed, unsure how to do anything meaningful enough to make the large scale and fast changes needed to turn this around.

Climate of Community is a grassroots group, a combined effort of a previous group based in Lawrence, KS and The Resilient Activist organization. Many other organizations are partnering, sponsoring, supporting us as well.

The process of how we go about developing community is integral in effectively responding to the climate crisis.

We are working to create a climate of Community

so the community can work effectively for the Climate.

This program is open to anyone in any location! With the power of online meetings, community groups can be defined by more than just geographic proximity.

Climate of Community is working to help our community, based on five concepts:

1. We bear the burden of difficult things better as a bonded community than we can ever do as individuals;
2. Sharing our stories authentically is part of the bonding and healing process that keeps us strong and effective;
3. Finding our personal power and linking that with community power is the most effective we can be in addressing broad-scale difficulties;
4. There are many paths to community bonding and healing, arising from diverse traditions and methods, and the more diverse our approaches the stronger we will be and remain.
5. True Power is not “power over” others but “power to” advocate for and serve what matters to us.

In this event, Dr. Barbara Gilbert will teach and facilitate a process for moving from despair, grief, or anxiety to empowerment. We will also work to further develop connections among participants. Your voice–all voices–are essential to our strength.

In future events, other paths to moving from distress to empowerment regarding the climate crisis will be offered. In addition, we are working to help small local neighborhood groups and affinity groups form and will support them to be strong and effective.

Barbara Gilbert, PhD is a clinical psychologist currently in private practice in Lawrence, Kansas and has practiced clinically for 35 years. She also has experience addressing larger-scale barriers to healthy functioning of the whole community.  She offers a psychology-based path to True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery. Connect with Dr. Gilbert at this link.

Co-Sponsors:  The Resilient Activist, Haskell Indian Nations University; University of Kansas Center for Compassionate and Sustainable Communities; Lawrence, KS Public Library.

Partners:  Sunrise Movement-Lawrence; City of Lawrence, KS Sustainability Office; Be Moved Studio

Climate of Community

True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery

Sunday, January 31, 2021

3:00-5:00 pm CST on Zoom 

Register here for the Zoom link:

“Climate anxiety” and “eco-grief” refer to the widespread distress people experience as the realities of the climate crisis set in.  Fear of what is to come and a sense of helplessness can wear us down.  We are often overwhelmed, unsure how to do anything meaningful enough to make the large scale and fast changes needed to turn this around.

In this January 2021 session, Dr. Barbara Gilbert will review the True Power Paradigm as it relates to eco-anxiety and grief.  She will describe the role of these emotions in effective empowerment to address the Climate Crisis.  This session builds on what was addressed in the December 2020 session but participants will be able to follow along with the material and the exercises even if they didn’t attend in December.

In addition, we will have representatives from organizations that are taking action to address the Climate Crisis.  They will describe what they are doing and how you can get involved if their mission fits you.  The goal is to identify what matters most to you about the Climate Crisis and start to develop your plan of action both personally and in community.

Climate of Community is a grassroots group, a combined effort of a previous group based in Lawrence, KS, and The Resilient Activist organization. Many other organizations are partnering, sponsoring, supporting us as well.

The process of how we go about developing community is integral in effectively responding to the climate crisis.

We are working to create a climate of Community

so the community can work effectively for the Climate.

This program is open to anyone in any location! With the power of online meetings, community groups can be defined by more than just geographic proximity.

Climate of Community is working to help our community, based on five concepts:

1. We bear the burden of difficult things better as a bonded community than we can ever do as individuals;
2. Sharing our stories authentically is part of the bonding and healing process that keeps us strong and effective;
3. Finding our personal power and linking that with community power is the most effective we can be in addressing broad-scale difficulties;
4. There are many paths to community bonding and healing, arising from diverse traditions and methods, and the more diverse our approaches the stronger we will be and remain.
5. True Power is not “power over” others but “power to” advocate for and serve what matters to us.

Barbara Gilbert, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist currently in private practice in Lawrence, Kansas, and has practiced clinically for 35 years. She also has experience addressing larger-scale barriers to healthy functioning of the whole community.  She offers a psychology-based path to True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery. Connect with Dr. Gilbert at this link.

Co-Sponsors:  The Resilient Activist, Haskell Indian Nations University; University of Kansas Center for Compassionate and Sustainable Communities; Lawrence, KS Public Library.

Partners:  Sunrise Movement-Lawrence; City of Lawrence, KS Sustainability Office; Be Moved Studio

Climate of Community

True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery

With Daniel R. Wildcat, author of

Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge

Sunday, February 28, 2021

3:00-5:00 pm CST on Zoom 

Copies of Red Alert! are available, online or for pickup, through

Red Alert 2.0 – Finding Comfort with our Mother, the Earth.

During the last year people who were already worrying, feeling a general sadness, anxiety, or depression about climate change have now had that situation exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Our social distancing and isolation during the past pandemic year of multiple systemic crises, e.g., economic, political, social justice (BLM), climate change, etc. can lead to a sense of hopelessness and loneliness, sometimes with debilitating effects. Yet, in the midst of these crises, Daniel Wildcat, author of Red Alert: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge, will discuss how one can find hope, beauty, and ways of living well in the midst of uncertainty and insecurity by becoming mindful of our Mother Earth right outside our doors.

Replace fears for food, housing, and homeland security with a sense of homeland maturity that can help us cope with and, more importantly, productively address the challenges we face in a world with multiple crises laid one on top of the other.

Daniel R. Wildcat, Ph.D.

Indigenous & American Indian Studies faculty member

Haskell Indian Nations University

Daniel R. Wildcat is a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma.  His service as teacher and administrator at Haskell spans 35 years.  He has served as adjunct faculty for the Bloch School – UMKC for the past decade. In 1994 he helped form a partnership with the Hazardous Substance Research Center at Kansas State University to create the Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Center as a non-profit Native American research center to facilitate: 1) technology transfer to tribal governments and Native communities, 2) transfer of accurate environmental information to tribes, and 3) research opportunities to tribal college faculty and students throughout the United States.

He is the author and editor of several books: Power and Place: Indian Education In America, with Vine Deloria, Jr.; Destroying Dogma: Vine Deloria’s Legacy on Intellectual America, with Steve Pavlik.  His most recent book, Red Alert: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge, suggests current environmental issues will require the exercise of indigenous ingenuity – indigenuity – and wisdom if humankind is to reduce the environmental damage underway. He is a co-author on the Southern Great Plains chapter of the Fourth National Climate Assessment.

The process of how we go about developing a resilient community is integral in effectively responding to the climate crisis.

We are working to create a climate of Community

so the community can work effectively for the Climate.

Climate of Community is working to help our community, based on five concepts:

1. We bear the burden of difficult things better as a bonded community than we can ever do as individuals;
2. Sharing our stories authentically is part of the bonding and healing process that keeps us strong and effective;
3. Finding our personal power and linking that with community power is the most effective we can be in addressing broad-scale difficulties;
4. There are many paths to community bonding and healing, arising from diverse traditions and methods, and the more diverse our approaches the stronger we will be and remain.
5. True Power is not “power over” others but “power to” advocate for and serve what matters to us.

Climate of Community

True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery

With Sarah Jaquette Ray, author of

A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety:

How to keep your cool on a warming planet

Dr. Ray discusses her book, why she wrote it, and what she hopes it does for the climate generation — and anybody else who experiences climate anxiety. She mentions some of the traps we get into that make us feel powerless and despairing and explores some strategies to cultivate resilience and efficacy to face the challenges of climate justice. She offers educators’ tools and experiences through the lens of the  Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators.

Follow-up Programming

Read Aloud: A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety with the Kansas City Kansas Public Library’s Book Club!

Join the KCK Public Library for the reading of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet by Dr. Sarah Jacquette Ray. Online Mondays at 1 pm CDT April 5th-26th. There will be a short discussion period after each reading. The first 20 registrants will have complimentary copies provided to them. These copies will be available at the West Wyandotte Library located at 1737 N. 82nd Street. More information at this link.

You can purchase “A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety” online or for pickup, through

Sarah Jaquette Ray chairs and teaches in the Environmental Studies Department at Humboldt State University. Her current work brings together climate justice and psychology. She is co-founder of the website, an Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators, co-lead on an open-access online teaching resource, NXTerra: Transformative Education for Climate Action, and works with students, activists, professionals, and educators to support the climate generation.

In 2020, she published a book for the climate generation on this research, A Field Guide to Climate Change: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.  She is also author of The Ecological Other: Environmental Exclusion in American Culture (University of Arizona, 2013) and co-editor of three collections: Critical Norths: Space, Nature, Theory (2017), Disability Studies & the Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory (2017), and Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial (2019).

The process of how we go about developing a resilient community is integral in effectively responding to the climate crisis.

We are working to create a climate of Community

so the community can work effectively for the Climate.

Climate of Community is working to help our community, based on five concepts:

1. We bear the burden of difficult things better as a bonded community than we can ever do as individuals;
2. Sharing our stories authentically is part of the bonding and healing process that keeps us strong and effective;
3. Finding our personal power and linking that with community power is the most effective we can be in addressing broad-scale difficulties;
4. There are many paths to community bonding and healing, arising from diverse traditions and methods, and the more diverse our approaches the stronger we will be and remain.
5. True Power is not “power over” others but “power to” advocate for and serve what matters to us.

Climate of Community programming is offered through The Resilient Activist.

Climate of Community

True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery

Power of Respect for Climate Resilience and Recovery

Sunday, April 25, 2021

3:00-5:00 pm CST on Zoom 

Register here for the Zoom link:

“Climate anxiety” and “eco-grief” refer to the widespread distress people experience as the realities of the climate crisis set in.  Fear of what is to come and a sense of helplessness can wear us down.  We are often overwhelmed, unsure how to do anything meaningful enough to make the large-scale and fast changes needed to turn this around.

In this April 2021 session, Dr. Barbara Gilbert will teach the meaning of Respect in the True Power Paradigm and how developing the practice of Respect will empower us at many levels. Practicing Respect for self, others, and all life will empower us to effectively address the eco distress we might be feeling, but also to find and do our part in addressing the climate crisis.

Come join us for discussion, skills, and connection with like-minded others.

Climate of Community is a grassroots group, a combined effort of a previous group based in Lawrence, KS, and The Resilient Activist organization. Many other organizations are partnering, sponsoring, supporting us as well.

The process of how we go about developing community is integral in effectively responding to the climate crisis.

We are working to create a climate of Community

so the community can work effectively for the Climate.

This program is open to anyone in any location! With the power of online meetings, community groups can be defined by more than just geographic proximity.

Climate of Community is working to help our community, based on five concepts:

1. We bear the burden of difficult things better as a bonded community than we can ever do as individuals;
2. Sharing our stories authentically is part of the bonding and healing process that keeps us strong and effective;
3. Finding our personal power and linking that with community power is the most effective we can be in addressing broad-scale difficulties;
4. There are many paths to community bonding and healing, arising from diverse traditions and methods, and the more diverse our approaches the stronger we will be and remain.
5. True Power is not “power over” others but “power to” advocate for and serve what matters to us.

Barbara Gilbert, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist currently in private practice in Lawrence, Kansas, and has practiced clinically for 35 years. She also has experience addressing larger-scale barriers to healthy functioning of the whole community.  She offers a psychology-based path to True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery. Connect with Dr. Gilbert at this link.

Co-Sponsors:  The Resilient Activist, Haskell Indian Nations University; University of Kansas Center for Compassionate and Sustainable Communities; Lawrence, KS Public Library.

Partners:  Sunrise Movement-Lawrence; City of Lawrence, KS Sustainability Office; Be Moved Studio

Climate of Community

True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery

Environmental Justice and Racism:

What Are They and How They Affect You

In partnership with the

Kansas City Kansas Public Library

Thursday, April 29, 2021

6:00 – 7:30 pm CDT On Zoom

Join the Kansas City, KS Public Library and The Resilient Activist for a panel discussion on environmental justice and racism with Sarah Jaquette Ray, author of “A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet”. 

The virtual event follows a reading of Dr. Ray’s book and will be open to anyone who is interested in learning and talking about the impact of the environment on our communities. Please join our panelists, Sami Aaron, Barbara Gilbert, Carly McCracken, and Sarah Ray for what is sure to be an enlightening and engaging conversation.

Register here:

This event is a follow-up to the KCK Public Library’s month-long reading in April 2021 of “A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet“.

You can purchase “A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety” online or for pickup, through

Sarah Jaquette Ray chairs and teaches in the Environmental Studies Department at Humboldt State University. Her current work brings together climate justice and psychology. She is co-founder of the website, an Existential Toolkit for Climate Justice Educators, co-lead on an open-access online teaching resource, NXTerra: Transformative Education for Climate Action, and works with students, activists, professionals, and educators to support the climate generation.

In 2020, she published a book for the climate generation on this research, A Field Guide to Climate Change: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.  She is also author of The Ecological Other: Environmental Exclusion in American Culture (University of Arizona, 2013) and co-editor of three collections: Critical Norths: Space, Nature, Theory (2017), Disability Studies & the Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory (2017), and Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial (2019).

Barbara Gilbert, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist currently in private practice in Lawrence, Kansas, and has practiced clinically for 35 years. She also has experience addressing larger-scale barriers to healthy functioning of the whole community.  She offers a psychology-based path to True Power for Climate Resilience and Recovery. Connect with Dr. Gilbert at this link.

Carly McCracken is the Reader’s Services & Literacy Librarian at Kansas City, Kansas Public Library. Carly has a bachelor’s degree in conservation biology and a master’s in library and information science.

Sami Aaron is the founder and Executive Director of The Resilient Activist.

The process of how we go about developing a resilient community is integral in effectively responding to the climate crisis.

We are working to create a climate of Community

so the community can work effectively for the Climate.

Climate of Community is working to help our community, based on five concepts:

1. We bear the burden of difficult things better as a bonded community than we can ever do as individuals;
2. Sharing our stories authentically is part of the bonding and healing process that keeps us strong and effective;
3. Finding our personal power and linking that with community power is the most effective we can be in addressing broad-scale difficulties;
4. There are many paths to community bonding and healing, arising from diverse traditions and methods, and the more diverse our approaches the stronger we will be and remain.
5. True Power is not “power over” others but “power to” advocate for and serve what matters to us.

Climate of Community programming is offered through The Resilient Activist.