Celebrating a Year of Growth at Gaia Passages
At Gaia Passages, we are committed to cultivating a culture of appreciation. We give thanks for the gifts and blessings that we receive, the ways in which our community is protected by the seen and unseen world, for our mercies, and for the challenges that give us the opportunity to learn and grow.
As our school-year programs drew to a close, we took a pause to gather together to celebrate all that we’ve received over the past year, and all that we have accomplished walking together in community.
We are humbled and honored by the continued support of our donors, volunteers, staff and board of directors. Without you, we would not be standing here today, celebrating our ability to continue to serve girl-identified youth and their families in a supportive community of intergenerational mentorship. Thank you for making our work possible, and for helping us to cultivate the leaders of tomorrow.
Check out our Gaia Passages Gratitude Video!
This summer, we are celebrating the arc of our journey together over the past year, which began with our Summer 2020 Community Visioning sessions. From there, we followed the golden threads to
- Change our Name from Gaia Girls Passages to Gaia Passages to mirror our inclusion of gender expansive and nonbinary youth;
- Launch a new website;
- Continue our outdoor and online programming with enhanced COVID protocols;
- Successfully navigate a leadership transition from one executive director to a co-directorship in alignment with our model of circle governance;
- Welcome Michelle Woo as our new program director and Kathren Murrell Stevenson as our new operations director;
- Receive the abundance of the harvest with our best ever Giving Tuesday campaign, raising over $16,000 for our scholarship fund and day-to-day operations;
- Establish a new partnership with Yes! Nature-to-Neighborhoods and co-develop with them a new Rites of Passage program serving Richmond Youth of the Global Majority;
- Continue to upgrade our curriculum through the lens of justice, diversity, equity and inclusion;
- Win $5,000 in scholarship funds for our Richmond Roots program at the 2021 Title 9 Pitchfest.
- Center resilience as we worked to strengthen our foundation and prepare for new growth and expansion.
- Offer over $30,000 in scholarships for kiddos to attend our circles.
(Some of) The Gaia Passages Team at our year-end celebration!
Even as we celebrate all that we have accomplished over the past year, we know there is still so much more to do. We are grateful for the opportunity to lean into new partnerships and possibilities as we continue to follow the path of natural and organic growth.
With gratitude to all of you, who make this path of service generative and meaningful. We look forward to continuing to grow our community together.
Gaia Passages would like to take this opportunity to thank the Horner Foundation, the Szekely Foundation, Megan Armstrong, the Hard Yaka Foundation, Save the Redwoods League, Title Nine, Yes! Nature-to-Neighborhoods, and Outward Bound, California for your partnership and support.