Outreach

We partner with nonprofits and community organizations whose work supports the well-being of individuals, communities, and our shared world. Taking CARE, our program of meditation and mindful living, can support the people these organizations serve, and the people within them who carry that work every day. RIM has offered programs with organizations before, and Taking CARE now carries that work forward.

Who we partner with

Organizations working for well-being, in whatever form their work takes. If your mission is to help people, communities, or the world we share to be healthier and more whole, we would be glad to talk.

Who it supports

The people your organization serves, and your own people: the staff, volunteers, and leaders who carry your mission. Caring for others is demanding work. The practice helps people meet it with clarity and steadiness, and in a way that can last.

What participants practice

Taking CARE teaches a few simple, connected skills through guided practice and conversation, so they can be used in the middle of real life: settling the body and mind under pressure; noticing an old reaction while it is happening, with curiosity instead of blame; remembering what matters and responding with care; and looking after ourselves while we look after others.

How a partnership works

We begin with a conversation about your organization, your mission, and what you hope for. We shape the program with you: format, length, language, and examples adapt, and the heart of the practice stays whole. Facilitators who live the practice as well as teach it lead the sessions, in person or online. Afterward we look back together at what served people, and plan what comes next.

Our commitments

Always voluntary. Each person chooses whether and how to take part.

Open to everyone. Taking CARE is secular in the sense the Dalai Lama gives the word: respectful of every religious tradition and of those with no faith, and grounded in common human experience. It is rooted in Buddhist meditation, above all silent illumination, and it asks no belief. We bring practice, not religion.

Held with care. Practice is offered at a workable pace, with a choice in every invitation, and with trauma-sensitive adaptations we develop with each partner.

Alongside, never instead of. The program supports people through hard seasons and works alongside medical and mental health care, never in place of it.

Training in Taking CARE

We also train people to share this practice: facilitating practice sessions, drop-ins, and programs within RIM, and offering Taking CARE beyond it, in their own organizations or alongside us. Sharing the teachings is itself a form of generosity. If you would like to train, we would be glad to hear from you at support@rootedinmindfulness.org.

Cost

We ask partner organizations to give by donation, in the same way everyone at RIM does, and gifts to RIM support our outreach as well.

Start a conversation

If your organization might be a fit, we would be glad to hear from you. Tell us a little about your organization, your mission, and the people you hope this could support.