Woven is a local non-profit organization dedicated to transforming and healing individuals and our community. Woven’s stated mission is “to empower individuals to discover and actualize wholeness through creative exploration, human connection, and community support.”
Woven’s active leaders acknowledge their organization is both very young and growing at a unique pace. “The typical non-profit grind and exhaustion is not our thing,” says Woven director Aislynn Blair. “Our rhythm is based on people power. And joy. It’s based on the pace of a team instead of the usual individualistic views typically imposed on others. Woven’s approach takes more time.”
Blair planted seeds for Woven in early 2020 when she invited a large, varied group of friends and associates to her home to share in her personal vision for building a transformative charitable organization. At that session, Blair says she “presented a vision born from my lived experience mirrored to me in nearly every person I’ve met in my life: the story of the inevitable suffering that all humans incur.”
Forty-nine people attended the event. Blair asked them all, “Who is coming with me to create this vision?” Each responded by sharing personal views regarding her project.
Woven’s leaders have since been shaping and reshaping goals and strategies. A group of roughly eight to 10 key members meets weekly to refine organizational plans in fresh visioning sessions. The plans include offering community events and experiences that mirror six foundational modalities underpinning their organization: Nourishment, Wings of Wisdom, Knowledge, Creation, Elemental Alchemy, and Embodiment.
Over the past winter Woven hosted a trio of film screenings with panel discussions at the Broadway Metro. Each film in the series addressed a subject central to Woven’s core mission. Woven also recently secured funds to establish the LCC Wellness Center as a resource for addiction recovery. Plans include providing center users with architectural concepts, arts-oriented learning, and multimedia resources as recovery tools.
The next several months will also see Woven orchestrate a series of public tea gatherings
aptly named Communi Tea, Vulnerabili Tea, and Equa Tea. The events are designed to progressively promote exploration of fundamental Woven mission concepts.
