Aligned: WCA and NAYA Action Fund
For this post, I thought I’d try something a little different and recap a conversation I had recently with Will Miller, the Executive Director of one of WCA’s newest organizational partners, NAYA Action Fund. NAYA Action Fund engages in political advocacy and builds electoral power in partnership with the Native community throughout Oregon and Washington.
I love talking to Will, and I bet you would also. Let’s see if I can translate our chat into newsletter form.
Me: So tell me what you think about acupuncture.
Will: I love it so much! It’s an opportunity to practice self care and love myself. I’m always on the go and acupuncture is an hour of quiet that allows me to restore myself and my spirit, so that I can continue to be of service to community.
Acupuncture’s not only healing to the body but nourishing to the soul.
I first heard about WCA from other NAYA staff who utilized your services. Somebody would mention, I’m going to WCA after work today, and then people would bond over getting acupuncture. WCA is a community-led, community-driven opportunity to practice holistic healing. It’s such a natural fit.
Me: It’s why this is such a good partnership -- it’s so easy and natural.
Will: It’s really natural because our values align and the vision we have for community healing aligns. Both organizations are about working to take down structural barriers, using our tools to the best of our ability.
NAYA Action Fund centers health and healing and so does WCA. We’re in lockstep to provide healing opportunities for members of our community.
The work that we’re doing together builds synergy and opportunity for community to work through community’s deepest issues, like trauma and addiction. Offering opportunities for community holistic healing -- we want people to thrive and grow and heal from things that hold them back.
Me: Speaking of thriving, NAYA as a whole offers so much support to WCA, just like other small businesses in Cully, as part of its community economic development work. Especially during the pandemic, that was a really big deal. That kind of support is one of the reasons I feel lucky to live in Cully -- I know small businesses in other neighborhoods don’t have that. A closer relationship with NAYA in general was one of the good things, for WCA, that came out of the pandemic.
Will: NAYA’s work with small businesses is about being a resource in community, to be of service to community. Cully is one of the most diverse areas of the city, it’s a place where people of various identities and backgrounds come together. It’s about working to uplift and create prosperity at all levels for this wide range of people.
Me: WCA benefits from that in all kinds of ways. Which reminds me of something else we have in common -- we’re both members of the Camille Trummer Fan Club. I met Camille through volunteering for the Cully Boulevard Alliance, and now she’s helping WCA with our organizational partnerships.
Will: Love Camille. NAYA Action Fund engaged her to do consulting for community engagement/ community development advocacy and policy, so over the last year I had the opportunity to work closely with her. She helped us produce NAYA Action Fund’s inaugural strategic plan.
Camille’s ability to think critically and differently what about what community looks like is really unparalleled.
Me: Yes. Camille did a deep dive with us to identify what types of organizational partners would be best suited to WCA’s goals so that we have a plan to both be responsive to inquiries and also seek out strategic partnerships proactively. This is not something we could’ve done by ourselves, and we particularly needed somebody who really GOT us — which Camille really did.
WCA has learned that acupuncture works differently than many acupuncturists think it does -- the most important thing is for people to be able to get as much of it as they need, and sometimes that is a LOT.
We believe in the value of unlimited acupuncture (that’s what we’re set up to offer) and we trust that offering unlimited acupuncture to the community is a good thing to do.
Acupuncture is a resource that works best when it’s shared freely, we don’t need to ration it. But we have to figure out how we present this concept to organizational partners because it can be really hard for them to wrap their heads around that. It hasn’t been hard with NAYA Action Fund, though.
This particular partnership is a real bright spot for WCA.
Will: Same!