Update: Budgets, Fault Lines, and Mental Health

It’s been 9 months since we first launched in April 2020 - we’ve completed our first gestational cycle 🍼! We want to celebrate by giving you some highlights of these past few months. Whilst we wouldn’t have chosen to start this endeavour during a global pandemic, we have been so lucky to come into existence at the same moment that so many organisations have needed support navigating these extremely difficult times.

What we’ve learned

We’ve learned so much from the projects we’ve worked on and the partners we’ve worked with - here are some noticings: 

  • We saw a surge of interest from organisations looking to engage in work around organisational culture; diversity, inclusion, justice, and liberation; technology; and intersectional comms framing. We attributed this to the events of this year - the pandemic and resulting shift to different ways of working exposed any existing fault lines, and the Black Lives Matter uprising resulted in a push from staff for their organisations to engage more urgently and intentionally in issues of racial justice. 

  • We noticed that those organisations who had already begun considering and working on these issue areas before the pandemic were much better positioned once it hit - in terms of team morale, organisational stability, and efficacy. 

  • Organisations were often able to fund this work using unused resources from travel or meeting budget lines. We will be encouraging the organisations we work with to create separate budget lines for organisational transformation work, so these efforts can continue into next year and far beyond. 

  • Teams that have made space to acknowledge this year’s impact on staff mental health and put mechanisms in place that acknowledge and preempt any adjustments that need to be made have fared better, and built the foundation of psychological safety that allows teams to get to know each other and have fun together too.

Highlights

REPORT: COVID-19 and social movements 

In May 2020, we were commissioned by the New Economy Organisers Network (NEON) to produce a report looking at how social movements in the UK are responding to COVID-19.

This report builds on existing NEON thinking and frameworks looking at how actors from across the housing, migration and climate movements are responding to the coronavirus crisis.  

The report provides an analysis of the insights gathered from interviews we conducted focused primarily on the challenges experienced due to the crisis and ensuing lockdown, the ways in which work shifted, and the opportunities that materialised.  

FILM: A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair

In June 2020, Hoda was hired to lead on developing and implementing a global distribution strategy for the film Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair, an animated short film that dares to dream of a future in which 2020 is a historic turning point, where the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic and global uprisings against racism drive us to build back a better society in which no one is sacrificed and everyone is essential.

The film is a sequel to the 2019 Emmy-nominated short film “A Message From the Future” with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and features the art of Molly Crabapple and directors Kim Boekbinder and Jim Batt, with the political storytelling of Naomi Klein, Avi Lewis, and Opal Tometi. The cast of narrators from around the world includes Tometi, Emma Thompson, Gael García Bernal, and the Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey.

LEADERSHIP ASSESSMENT & SUPPORT: JCWI & Liberty 

In May and June 2020, Hanna was hired by both the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, and Liberty, to work on similar projects - to support two highly functioning management teams step into more strategic leadership roles.

After a diagnostic assessment phase, each team was delivered with a report, recommendations, workshops and coaching support with the outcomes of closer working relationships, accelerated decision-making, and greater confidence in their impact strategies. 

Other clients we’ve worked with in the last nine months have included C40, Digital Democracy, Fair Share, FRIDA, Free Tibet, Global Catholic Climate Movement, Global Strategic Climate Communications, Greenpeace International, Irish Network Against Racism, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Just Associates, Liberty, MAIA, Mozilla Foundation, the National Union of Students and Peace Direct. 

What’s coming up

Here’s a peek into some of what we’re up to in the next month: 

  • We are excited to be working on a new report together for the New Economy Organisers Network on the ‘culture wars.’

  • Hanna’s workshop on remote organising and ‘Zoom Trauma’ will soon be uploaded to the Civic Square Dream Library.

  • Hoda will be working to support the Climate Visuals Countdown, which is a photography initiative created by Countdown and Climate Visuals, providing support in the design of this initiative to help ensure it is diverse, equitable and inclusive. 

How to get in touch 

Thoughts, questions, ideas for how to work together? Email us at hello@wealign.net. Or you can email us individually at hanna@wealign.net and hoda@wealign.net. 

Lastly, we are so grateful to be able to do this work in partnership. Even when we are working on projects independently, having the space to support each other in all that we do has proven to be invaluable.  

With love and solidarity, 

Hanna and Hoda

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Testimonials

NEON worked closely with Align to produce our Covid-19 & Social Movements report in summer 2020. From the outset of the relationship, Align were professional, thorough and insightful, laying out a detailed project plan and being clear and communicative about the work they were doing. The project remained on track and the report produced was of a very high standard and exactly matched the brief perfectly - and the many stakeholders that Align worked with on behalf of NEON were treated in line with our values of solidarity, generosity and respect, which are clearly values Align live and work by also. I would absolutely recommend Align as partners, and will definitely be seeking to work with them again in the future! - Ayeisha Thomas-Smith, Director of Movement-Building, New Economy Organisers Network

We worked with Hoda to assist us with a major transition in our communications team. Her deep listening skills, strong insights, and organizational experience was just what we needed to navigate the multiple layers of this change. I especially was impressed with the emotional intelligence she brought, which ensured us to be sensitive to often hidden issues, and allowed us to make the best decisions for our staff and organization - Christina Leaño, Associate Director, Global Catholic Climate Movement

Hanna combines a thoughtful, insightful and strategic mind with a warm, generous and open approach. Her work with the Senior Management Team at Liberty was excellent – she brought wisdom and clarity to our discussions and really transformed the way that we think about a whole range of things, from decision making to leadership styles to building trusting and strategic teams in a virtual world. We all really valued our time with Hanna and highly recommend her to other teams who want to get better and better at navigating a complex world in a strategic, anti-oppressive, reflective and values-driven way - Martha Spurrier, Director, Liberty 


Hoda Baraka