When Words Are Not Enough

A project in collaboration with the DOWH Community Outreach Programme

I am really excited to share a new initiative we're working on with The Moving Well, an organisation that aims to increase access to embodied practices for healing, empowerment and community building in Toronto.  Right now we're creating programming for women who have experienced violence, using therapeutic movement practices and the body to foster growth.

We've entered into the Aviva Community Fund competition to help fund this new initiative and want to ask for your votes so we can positively touch the lives of many!

Please take a moment to visit our project and the website.  You can sign up to get 15 votes (I discovered it's way easier to go through your facebook account if you have one!).  You can vote for different great initiatives across the country and even vote for us more than once if you want!  Also please do forward to your friends and networks who would also be supportive of our work!

Much gratitude to you in advance,

http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf12762

Twyla

Photo by Erica Ross

In community.

By community.

For community.

Program Updates!

The DOWH Community Outreach program held its first ever fundraiser on the April 9, 2011. Many community members helped make the event a success, raising almost $1300 for the program!

Special thanks goes to:

• Allison Barriscale for her donation of 3 assessments and entrainments with Lifesource Chiropractic Studio
• Amy Sedgwick for her donation of a workshop with Red Tent Sisters
• Andrew Baker for his donations of a personal training session and a Reconnective Healing session 
• Brooke Yantzi for her donation of Groove Dance classes 
• Catherine Raine for her donations of a painting and homemade cards;
• Danielle Sade for her donation of a natural botanicals creams and lotions workshop with Healing Fragrances 
• Della Bitove for helping with set-up and door
• Dionne Jobin for her donation of a Shiatsu Massage 
• Downward Dog Yoga Studio for their donation of a 10 class pass
• Erica Ross for her donation of 2 spots for her Dance Our Way Home Bellylicious workshop, and for her amazing all-around help and DJ’ing 
• Marcela Crowe for her donation of a meditation workshop with Clairvision 
• Michael McCarthy for his donations of a Photography session and a Framed Photograph with Devi Photography
• Nan Keyser for holding space with her beautiful musical offerings
• Paul Lara for his donation of a Reiki session with Qi Belly
• Paul Overy for his donation of a Trager session
• Patricia Kambitsch for her art donation
• Robin Linton for her contribution of baked goods and help with event set-up
• Roula Said for her donation of a 6 class pass with Om Laila Belly Dance
• Sadie “Spins” Yancey, with Hoop Toronto, for her donation of a hula hoop
• Sagewalker for her donation of a necklace
• Serena Oakley for her donation of a 6 class dance card with Shakti Sisters Yoga
• Shaunasie Gervase for her donation of homemade earrings
• Suzanne Wyman for her donation of an organic shoulder top from Yes World Boutique Boutique
• Tanya Kowalenko for her help with outreach, advertising and putting the silent auction together
• Tracey Tief for her donation of a gift basket and 50 gift certificates for Anarres Health 
• Valerie Moysey for her donation of a necklace
• And all those who couldn’t make the event but donated to the cause online

What a substantial list of generous contributors!  These individuals, as well as the many who attended the event, have all helped to ensure the sustainability and vitality of the DOWH Community Outreach program. 

If you haven't yet had a chance, you can still donate. Look for the DONATE button below.     
 
The success of the fundraiser and the arrival of spring promise much exciting new growth for the program!
 
With the help of your contributions, Twyla will build on the momentum of the program thus far, which includes collaboration with the North York Women’s Centre, a group for women who have had an abortion, and other dance offerings in the community, including Flemingdon Park Community Centre. 

The program is now housed at the Centre for Social Innovation, a super place which has been offering up much prospect for growth, connections and partnership, including a new collaboration between DOWH and Naomi Tessler with Branch Out Theatre.
 
We are now working on planning programming for youth, developing further collaborations with local organisations serving women, and exploring innovative ways of furthering our reach!
 
Keep an eye out for more about the budding program’s development as it blossoms!!

About DOWH Community Outreach

The practice of Dance Our Way Home is centered around community and envisions one where ALL women are included and ALL women are given the space to dance their way home.

The barriers that keep women from accessing this healing and transformative practice are many, however, and stem from socio-economic, geographical, cultural sources. The Community Outreach component was born from the desire to overcome such barriers and to truly make the practice of Dance Our Way Home available to all women.

Are you involved with a community of women

who you think could benefit from the practice

 but you’re not quite sure what it would look like?

Why not try it out for free?

Since the best way to understand the experiential practice is to actually experience it, the Community Outreach program is currently offering interested groups and agencies a free DOWH sample session.

The only requirement from the agency’s/group’s end is an openness to try something new. 

After you’ve had an opportunity to try DOWH, your agency/group can better determine if it resonates with your community. If, at that point, you decide it is a good fit with the work you’re currently doing, we would then establish what structure would work best for your group as well as the cost for the workshops/classes (which are offered on a sliding scale).

The actual series that would be offered to your community would first begin with a dialogue with the women, exploring their present needs and determining the ways in which they could best benefit from DOWH’s practice. Working from a community-centred, culturally-appropriate, participant-informed, anti-oppression approach, DOWH will tailor the workshops and/or classes to the group, maintaining an open channel of communication throughout the process.

Contact Twyla Kowalenko, Community Outreach Director, 
at twyla@danceourwayhome.com in order to arrange your free session!

Be Part of the Change!

The program is also actively fundraising to ensure the sustainability of the initiative. Your donation to this great cause would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Do you have personal contacts or associations with community-based organizations in the GTA serving the needs of women who you feel might be a good candidate for our collaborative project?

Do you have experience in community development, communications or fund development and want to get involved?

Do you have a passion you want to share? An idea you’d love to discuss?  A community you’d love to see served?

Please contact Twyla Kowalenko, Community Outreach Director at twyla@danceourwayhome.com to get involved! You can also visit the FORUM to share your thoughts!

We look forward to welcoming you into the community!

Read Twyla's blog!  

First Message from Twyla Kowalenko, DOWH's Community Outreach Director:

For the last ten years DOWH, created by Erica Ross and Nan Keyser, has been a core body image group at Sheena’s Place, a support organization for people with disordered eating and body image issues. From its success as a group, it has since blossomed into a practice available to the wider community of women within Toronto. DOWH’s evolution continually inspires women to explore their own growth and strength by connecting to themselves, each other, and their community. The women who have been touched by DOWH can clearly attest to its power as a healing and transformative practice. A practice, which unfortunately is all too often not accessible to those who could stand to benefit most from its exploration.

The next step in Dance Our Way Home’s expansion is being taken with the expressed intent of reaching such women. Dance and movement are the least utilised of the expressive arts healing modalities, despite clear evidence of the strength and efficacy of an embodied approach to individual, group and social change. By reaching out and forging collaborative relationships with community agencies, so many more women will be able to explore the adaptable practice of DOWH. Each new community it touches will be a rich source of learning for DOWH as we grow the practice together as women.

Specifically we envision the expansion beginning by dialogues with interested groups of women, exploring their present needs and determining the ways in which they could best benefit from DOWH’s practice. Working from a community-centred, culturally-appropriate, participant-informed approach, DOWH will develop and offer workshops and/or classes to the group, maintaining an open channel of communication with the group throughout the process.

The other component of this intent to grow further into the community consists of a DOWH Immersion: Facilitator Certification & Wisdom Path Training to be launched this fall, giving trainees an opportunity to deepen their own embodied exploration while developing the theory and skills necessary to share the practice with the larger community.

Together, these two pieces create the structure necessary to grow the practice of DOWH both inwardly and outwardly. Every woman who enters the practice, either as a facilitator or a participant, brings her own wisdom and strength and it is in our sharing, in our community as women, that we can continually enrich and expand this practice for both ourselves and all women who are touched by the practice as its spiral grows.

I am so excited to share this powerful, feminine-centred practice that has positively affected my own life immensely. Please talk to me if you’d like to find out more!!

If you have any personal contacts or associations with community-based organizations in the GTA serving the needs of women who you feel might be a good candidate for our collaborative project, I would love a chance to connect with them!

You can contact me at twyla@danceourwayhome.com and you can join the FORUM and share your thoughts.

Thank you!