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CWC Approach

The culturally grounded approach to effective community building involves the overlapping nature of each strategy. 

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This symbol embodies the core principles of the Cultural Wellness approach. It represents a unique way of distributing responsibility, making decisions, and promoting growth based on African cultural values. Unlike traditional Western business structures, this approach emphasizes shared authority and self-reflection, without a rigid hierarchy. It guides how the organization governs itself, measures excellence, and achieves its goals of fostering healthier people, communities, and systems. This symbol encourages open discussions about how the organization operates and uses its resources to make a lasting impact.

The Symbol:

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The spiral represents The People’s Theory of Sickness and the Cultural Wellness Approach. Based in cultural community-based research, CWC s community engaged knowledge declares only one problem to solve
which illustrates the path between Sickness, Disease and Health as a spiral. The peoples theory states “loss of community and culture, begins a spiral downwards, resulting in losing a sense of belonging, connection to others, and the ability to make change in your own and your families own lives. The upward spiral reconnects individuals to themselves, community and culture as the solution to the problem. This approach is key to governance and accountability within the operations including policies and performance of the people and the organization

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The Three C’s are Cash/Capacity, Culture, and Connection. Over nearly 30 years, more than 100,000 people have engaged in the Cultural Wellness Process, and have produced extensive knowledge around what makes the process successful. CWC identifies three elements that must all be present and held in balance if the work is
going to succeed. These three are Health, Heritage, and Harmony.

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Programming is strategically offered in three schools that address the full spectrum of the organization's socio-ecological approach to healing: Health Institute, Invisible College, and Community Development Corporation. The Three Schools and The Three Learning Environments align with the People’s Theory of Sickness and the Cultural Wellness Approach.

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Practice and participation occurs within three primary Learning Environments that represent the strategies employed within the Three Schools to realize the Mission ,vision, goals, and objectives, and to bring each to life in the people and the community. These three learning environments are: Harvesting experiential knowledge to ground organic curriculum, Elder Coaching, Customized courses through Classes and Cohorts; Navigation and Research Knowledge production; and Systems to Connect People and the Built Environment.

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Non-Hierarchical Team Structure is reflected in the four key groups that govern and manage the organization through a network of overlapping, iterative working teams with a high level of communication and a culture of llearning from every experience. At least a dozen working teams can be sorted into three categories: governance teams, administrative teams, and engagement teams. Home Site is a weekly meeting in which representatives from all teams come together to gather and share information. Within all teams, ongoing use of Balanced Scorecard methods collectivly evaluate performance. During the preparation for all study gatherings, an emphasis on understanding Qualitative and Quantitative history is shared among members participating.

Self Study and Accountability

The photo below is the scence of the Weighting of the Heart seen in temples in Ancient Kemetic. It shows  the heart being weighted to see if it is as light as feather.

 
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Who We Serve
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