In this episode, we welcome back Ompowerment Project founder Julia Midland and member of our board of trustees Abi Nolan. This episode is part of a bigger body of work that makes up our forthcoming training Conscious Activism. Abi andJulia discuss their experience and knowledge of how to design a project that addresses social justice and the practicalities of bringing a project into action.
About Abi Nolan
Abi is a social entrepreneur with a devoted interest in how health inequality and social disparity can be tackled through accessible wellbeing services. She is the Founder of Supply Yoga, a London based social enterprise that works hard to democratise access to psychosocial health improving wellness practices for underserved communities across the UK’s capital. Whilst currently on hold due to the C19 pandemic, she is also due to undertake an overseas research fellowship that will catalyse a project titled ‘ Shared social experiences as therapeutic interventions for psychosocial health: a community based model’ - her report will focus on the experiences of displaced communities. In her spare time, she contributes to casework for my local migrant centre and is a Mental Health Advocate with familiar knowledge of the complex, intersectional challenges faced by migrant communities in the UK.
Links to work:
Instagram: @supplyyoga
Website: www.supply.yoga
About Julia:
Julia has worked in international policy and humanitarian aid for over 15 years, evaluating the efficacy of aid programming and assessing impact against intended achievements. Specialising in gender and conflict, she has worked across numerous sectors, including education, humanitarian assistance,governance, health, counter-trafficking, illicit finance, and counter-terrorism. Her work across the globe, with particular expertise in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo,has given her an acute understanding of the problems with the typical aid model, and insight into how to make development programming more sustainable through equitable, community-centered intervention.Julia’s experience working with marginalised communities and her understanding that community-led interventions are more effective, have greater impact, and are more likely to generate sustainable change, led to the foundation of The OMPowerment Project.
Links to work:
Instagram: @jhmidland
Website: www.ompowerment.org
Thankyou for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by TheOMPowerment Project. Special thanks goes to Dave Pickering, Julia Midland, Sally Balfourth and Jessica Green. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams. If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.