Zoom Link: https://bit.ly/KCOasis

Musical guest: Amber Martin (https://www.ambermartinmusic.net/)

Community moment: JT Eberhard

Featured speaker: Joy Ellsworth, “Environmental Justice”

Joy will share insights that an East KC neighborhood association president and a Yankton Dakota Chief brought to her organization, Clement Waters Retreat, during the pandemic, regarding what actions for environmental justice can be taken by people at different starting points (of affluence, cultural background, socio-political influence, etc.).

Joy Ellsworth is a founder of Clement Waters Retreat, a nonprofit organization arranging activities that help people discern holistic ways to act as good stewards of nature, of their communities, and of themselves as their own first change agent. The organization’s theory of change is heavily influenced by the lived experience and values of American population groups who have had to resist and rise above traumas and cyclical and generational poverty. The organization’s founding was spurred by a zero-cost fluke healing in the Ellsworth family. An urban-to-rural move in 2013 had forced necessary lifestyle changes that effectively eliminated the sight-threatening symptoms of cofounder Luke Ellsworth’s auto-immune disorder. Joy noticed similarities of practice since she had, 10 years prior, instinctively utilized nature therapy methods to self-treat assault-incurred PTSD. Joy has since become a certified nature therapy guide by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy. Joy holds an MPA in Nonprofit Management from the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at UMKC, and continuing certificates and coursework from the Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership.

*By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Oasis Code of Conduct (http://www.kcoasis.org/about-oasis/code-of-conduct/).