Cultivating A Belonging Culture

If you would have told me 2 years ago that I would be here, I would have laughed. In grad school (seminary no less) going after not one, but TWO degrees, and making my way through Indiana training and facilitating for some of the most incredible organizations and institutions that I have known.

The name matters a lot to me. Cultivating A Belonging Culture means a great deal. For me, this is what I have always been in search of. In my romantic relationships, my parenting, my careers, and my quiet self-reflection. Belonging is that which keeps hope, resilience, and community alive. We are constantly assessing, searching, and realigning with where, who, what, and that which we belong.

When I left my work working with the disabled community, when I left my work in HIV care, when I left my work in housing, and when I left many of my relationships, the reason was always “I don’t belong here”. That which is sacred and good in me was simply not aligning with the work, the people, or the community which I was engaging with.

When I left 2 decades of social service work, I left with more questions, more trauma, more frustration, and less clarity than ever before. And I knew deeply that I was being given an opportunity to change. Change myself, change the conversations, change the way agencies engage with brave conversations | conflict and violence | and change. I set my sights on a few trainings here and there and then it occurred to me, cultivating belonging was a full-time job that I was already living into. And because healing starts with each person being indispensable, and each agency calls hoping to keep the right magic in the right rooms, I am here with this mission to continue growing, creating, collaborating, and cultivating.

All my love

-Tyne