5NP Kismet (Partnership Version)

Tribal alcohol and drug counselors learning acudetox in our classroom

We did not expect to be hosting a 5NP training at POCA Tech this summer. We’re just now at the point of drafting the proposed legislation for 5NP in Oregon! But the universe has its own timeline, and apparently it has a soft spot for 5NP. ¹ (Also, prefigurative politics. )

Tribal communities in Oregon have been using 5NP for many years. Due to tribal sovereignty, behavioral health staff have access to acudetox as a tool to address addiction, stress and trauma. Our hope is that a 5NP law for Oregon will give more communities the same kind of access, because everyone needs more tools in their toolboxes.

Oregon Tribal ADS Cohort with trainers Dolores Jimerson and Bob Storrer

A few weeks back, Dolores Jimerson (who’s the Behavioral Health Education Director for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board) reached out about possible training spaces for their tribal CADC1 cohort’s acudetox training, since their usual space was booked. I said, would you like to use our space? We have a vision of someday hosting 5NP trainings in our classroom, and it would be amazing to have a training actually happen there.

She said yes, and the training did happen (this week!), and it was even better than I imagined.

Opening circle of blessing and intention

Clean Field!

I had never actually attended a 5NP training for laypeople before, so I learned a lot! To quote Jamila Wilson, it was a tangible and real experience of empowerment. And it was so uplifting to watch it unfold in our brand new classroom.

Big thanks to Dolores Jimerson, Maya Webber, and the cohort trainees for sharing their photos with us — as well as offering us a chance to embody and prefigure the world we want to live in. (A world where laypeople practice 5NP!)

I wanted to share this with you all not just as a milestone in our 5NP journey, but also as a follow up to earlier posts about the scary entrepreneurial risks we took in signing a ten-year lease on this space. We did so hoping the space would serve not just as our classroom and student clinic, but also as a hub for Oregon 5NP organizing (which we couldn’t have done in our old classroom.) We moved at the end of June, so that was fast! Nice work, space, you’re doing great!

The rent here is much higher than at our previous location, but we gambled on attracting more students by having room for more students. Our deadline for Cohort 11 applications closed last week; we won’t know how many students we have until they actually show up in September because some applications are still in process and there’s always some last minute shuffling. I can tell you, though, that we’ve already admitted more students than we could’ve comfortably fit into our old classroom, and more students have already confirmed than we’ve had enrolled in the last two cohorts. We’re grateful to the universe for the prompt and encouraging feedback!

At one point in the 5NP training, Dolores asked the cohort, “Who wants to take a healthy risk?” I love that phrasing. In hindsight, I feel like that’s the question our new space asked us, and I’m so glad we had the wherewithal to answer, “We do! We want to take a healthy risk!”

1. For more examples of 5NP kismet, see WCA + CODA, Inc: 5NP kismet and 5NP Kismet (Acupuncture School Version).