I have known Sami Aaron, founder of The Resilient Activist, for many years and reconnected with her when she led a meditation class at my workplace.
After the session, I lamented about my lack of recent activism, partly due to my days being filled with work and raising children, but mostly because taking action felt so daunting—could I really make an impact?
As Sami was forming The Resilient Activist, I kept peppering her with questions about resources and guides and people to talk to. It felt as though I had been swimming in dark waters and was finally surfacing to catch my breath and look around at the landscape. I’ve been doing a lot of research and catching up with the status of the world and am now ready to focus on where I want to act.
Realizing I’m probably not the only one searching for good resources, Sami and I discussed how these might be shared as a tool in the resiliency toolbox.
Starting a Resources List
So, we started a resource to share our favorites, be they books, movies, podcasts, apps, websites, or organizations. It covers the spectrum from mental health to climate action and from Justice/Equity/Diversity/Inclusion to meditation. There are lots of resources in the Kansas City/Lawrence areas, along with many that are national or international. We invite you to take a look and to share your favorites by notifying us by email and we’ll get them added!
This is a database with lots of filters available for you to sort by the topic of interest (mental health, native plants, etc.), the audience (general, therapists, school-age kids), or the type of information (book, organization, app, etc.). Simply choose your filters and do a search!
How to Use It
How would you use this resource? Let’s say you’re wondering what area, of all the areas of concern in the world, would make the most impact on climate change. Search under “About / Climate Change”.
Or if you’re looking for a good book around the topic of Race and Equity, choose “Book” under “Resource Type” to give you a great start. Or choose “About” and “JEDI”.
You can search through our resource listings either by keyword or by browsing through categories. We’ve classified each of the resources according to subject, geographic area covered, type of resource (book, website, organization, etc.), the strategies or expertise highlighted, and the target audience (age, profession, etc.).
You can choose to narrow your search by one or more of those categories; for instance, you may choose to search for organizations working on food security in the Kansas City area, choose “About / Food” then “Kansas City Metro” under “Geography”.
If you search for something that we don’t have in our listings, you’ll see a “No Entries Found” message that will let you know what selections (if any) you made in any of our categories, and invite you to try another search. We are refining this site all the time – adding more records and tweaking the criteria – so check back often.
If you find what you’re looking for later somewhere else, you might share it with us by email so we can add it to our listings.
And now, it’s time to open your gift!
Our thanks to Drawdown of the Heartland, a Kansas City area group, for providing the original “KC Organizations” data that was the basis for this resource list.
