It’s that dreaded first week of January. We’ve taken down the tinsel, the weather is gray and it can feel like life has lost some of
its glow. My Facebook feed is full of gifs of the morning struggle.
Though I have had the pleasure of doing change-making work for most of my career, I will admit that not every day back to the office has inspired feelings of joy. But at the risk of sounding like one of those Pinterest users who makes every day of her life look like it came straight from a magazine, I am truly excited to be back at work in 2016. I sat down to my desk yesterday with an uncommon zeal, and it’s all because of the amazing work we get to do with clients who are true inspirations.
For example, I can’t wait to see how the new toolkit we worked on with Welcoming America to help welcoming communities talk about race and bias will assist people to make connections and build common ground as we work toward racial justice.
We’re also thinking about how to generate even more interest in our previous toolkit with Welcoming America, which helps communities reframe the story of refugees by reminding people of all that newcomers contribute. Of course that project feels more relevant than ever as community leaders are working to encourage us to be more welcoming in order to support people in tough transitions as well as stimulate our economies and revitalize our neighborhoods. The good news is that some of our leaders have heard the message, and are speaking up about their support of refugees and the communities that welcome them.
And I am on the edge of my seat wondering what Forward Together will be up to next. We’ve had the privilege of augmenting their communications team as they’ve done some amazing work. First was their co-release of the report Who Pays: The True Cost of Incarceration on Families which brought to light the devastating costs of supporting an incarcerated loved one, primarily on women of color. Then we were able to help them tell the story of trans resilience through beautiful and affecting art. This year I know they will continue to challenge our leaders and lawmakers to recognize and respond to the needs of all of our families, particularly those most affected by injustice.
This is just a small slice of the work LightBox Collaborative has done in 2015 and will continue in 2016. Our clients are doing so many kinds of important work: preventing cancer, supporting equitable education from birth through higher ed, and building visibility and power for people of all gender expressions, sexualities and people of color.
So we’re digging right in to 2016. It’s an election year, and the issues we care about are getting more attention than ever. We all need to bring our best selves to our work because the stakes are high and the pressure is on. But we also need to remember what a privilege it is to be able to contribute to making the world a better place.
What are you excited to work on in 2016? How can we help? If you need a kick-start, don’t forget about our editorial calendar and more amazing, free tools we’ve found.
Photo courtesy of Dustin Lee via Unsplash.
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For 2016, Amanda Cooper has resolved to keep kicking butt for our clients and causes, in part through better organizing her electronic files….