2023 Reflection- Winter Update
Published on November 11, 2023 by Samaria King
1. What did you accomplish during 2023? How did you use money?
2023 was the start of our 4th season at DCMA. We entered into the year with the goal of continuing to strengthen and grow our programs and community with the addition of our Herbalism in Community Cohort. This programs goal was to train a cohort of community herbalists who would take a deeper dive into herbalism and use this knowledge to support both the DCMA community and their individual communities and families. Folks who joined the cohort met once a month for class from May to October, assisted with our community medicine making days, plant fest and community pop ups. During the cohort they learned the basics of making herbal medicine, deepened their relationship and understanding of medicinal herbs and worked together to build community. In October we graduated 20 people from the cohort. With the added support of our cohort members and volunteers we were able to
2023 was the start of our 4th season at DCMA. We entered into the year with the goal of continuing to strengthen and grow our programs and community with the addition of our Herbalism in Community Cohort. This programs goal was to train a cohort of community herbalists who would take a deeper dive into herbalism and use this knowledge to support both the DCMA community and their individual communities and families. Folks who joined the cohort met once a month for class from May to October, assisted with our community medicine making days, plant fest and community pop ups. During the cohort they learned the basics of making herbal medicine, deepened their relationship and understanding of medicinal herbs and worked together to build community. In October we graduated 20 people from the cohort. With the added support of our cohort members and volunteers we were able to
- Grow 3,000+ seedlings that were distributed to more than 250 people.
- Hold 17 workshops (including our 5 cohort classes) and had 250+ people in attendance throughout the season.
- Distribute 900 glycerites; 600 at our July and Sept pop ups, 150 to seniors and 150 to local organizers
- Distribute 500+ tea blends made at 3 pop ups
- Distribute 250+ herbal products to seniors
- Have 1000+ people impacted by programming
- Tend to our medicinal herb garden throughout the season, harvesting the plants for medicine making workshops and community distribution
- Receive fresh and dried herbs for our products and pop ups from 12 local community growers
- Maintain 30 partnerships with local community based organizations, practitioners, and farms.
Money that we raised through grants and donations was used to support this programming. We were able to purchase supplies for all of our programs, provide leadership stipends for our organizing team for the first time, and pay our teachers.
2. What challenges did you face during 2023? What did your Collective learn? How did you change or grow?
The biggest challenge for 2023 was creating a realistic schedule for our programming. We worked through this challenge by communicating our needs on a regular basis and shifting plans when things felt like they were too much. We continued to build and strengthen our relationship and trust on the leadership team and worked to expand our base by bringing in more support.
3. What are your plans for 2024? Anything exciting coming up?
In 2024 we will continue to expand upon our programs. We will bring in a new Herbalism in Community Cohort and provide a level 2 training for the community herbalists who graduated from our program this year. In 2024 we also hope to
-Continue to expand our product line to include more products for children and seniors
-Offer more workshops for youth and seniors
- Create a toolkit for other herbal mutual aid groups and connect with more folks doing this work in other parts of the country/world.
- Grow our rapid response team
- Design a website and much more!