[Image description: A mosaic of approximately 20 photos — including outtakes — of combinations of Kerani, LeeAnn, and Dana. Kerani is wearing a jean jumper, LeeAnn is wearing jean shorty shorts, and Dana is wearing distressed jeans.]
“All that you touch, You Change. All that you Change, Changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.” – Octavia E. Butler
Happy summer to our friends across Central Oregon! We hope this update finds you getting the play, rest, and nourishment you need.
We invite our community to join us in a beautiful and bittersweet moment in Allyship in Action’s story. As of today, founding partner Kerani Mitchell and managing partner Dana Gulley have transitioned out of their roles at AiA to pursue new curiosities and opportunities. LeeAnn O’Neill will continue at the helm of AiA, as she steers the organization into its next chapter. We have engaged in intentional heart work to process, identify, and move towards this moment of change and we feel alive with the vibrant and abundant possibilities of our future as movement partners.
Nearly six years ago, Allyship in Action was just an idea — a dream of what might be possible for belonging and thriving in our communities. Three of us — Erin Rook, LeeAnn O’Neill, and Kerani Mitchell — formed the company rooted in place-based work to advance equity and social justice and in partnership with inspiring collaborators across Central Oregon. At that time, while we each had our passions, we were a blank canvas, open to what our role in the social change ecosystem of Central Oregon might be. When Erin moved out of state in 2022 and Dana joined the team in January of 2023, AiA was responding to community needs by playing the roles of storytellers, builders, and guides. These are three essential parts of what our community needs and deserves, and our hearts are full thinking about the ways in which LeeAnn will continue to deepen and evolve the work in these realms.
As Kerani and Dana step away from their formal roles as partners of AiA, we want to make abundantly clear that they are not stepping away from our communities or social change work. Instead, they are courageously and boldly moving towards callings of different chairs at the same table.
[Image description: A white hand holding a notecard with a watercolor image of a firey flower exploding out of its box with the words “What is Possible” by the artist Britchida.]
We each wanted to share some words with our beloved community here:
From Kerani:
2024 is proving to be a year of change and I’m following the call. Effective August 1st, I will move away from Allyship in Action to reset and explore different ways of engaging in social change work.
When we started AiA, I was embraced for my unique lived experiences in a way that I’d never felt before in Central Oregon. The impact of being “seen” and the relationships nurtured through AiA, with LeeAnn, Dana and Erin, changed my life. Collaborating with our team of brilliant contractors AiA helped me establish a new relationship with my hometown and lean into my leadership and learning edges. I’m proud of the work we’ve done and am immensely grateful for the AiA team, as well as each of you who have supported, and worked with us over the years.
My departure brings up a mix of feelings, including a sense of grief, ease, and excitement. Balanced with grief, there’s also ease knowing the relationships, and our shared goals transcend “the business.” The goals and relationships will continue and deepen. It’s exciting to consider what’s next, while cultivating quiet moments to inspire creativity, and reflection.
I will continue with my full-time job in philanthropy to advance democracy, and continue volunteering with Oregon Humanities, and Caldera Arts. I will stay engaged with local mutual aid efforts as I also nurture garden plots, and creative pursuits in service of joy and liberation – both my own, and yours. In the moments in between, maybe I’ll see you at a rally or Farmers Market. If you prefer more predictability, please complete this quick form to stay in touch.
In solidarity and gratitude,
-kerani
From Dana:
It has been an honor and privilege working with Allyship in Action as a partner over the past 18 months. The AiA team and I found one another when I was very much in need of connection, community, and work that felt authentic and meaningful. I was early in my gender transition, and I felt like chrysalis goo… raw, vulnerable, and emerging. LeeAnn, Kerani and the AiA team created a gentle, welcoming and loving place for me to land as I was coming into myself. It’s hard to put into words the sense of belonging I have felt in the AiA world, and I’m grateful for all I have learned in connection and relationship with LeeAnn, Kerani, our contractors and clients. The grief I feel in this transition is a manifestation of the love I have for our team and our community, even with new beginnings around the corner.
Beyond this learning and growth, I feel a sense of community in Central Oregon that is vibrant, supportive, and inspiring. It is from this place of deeper connection to community that I have the foundation to move towards work in healing justice. Having had the privilege to access healing spaces (something that is ongoing in my life and that I believe everyone deserves), I am channeling my newfound capacity to support others on their own healing journeys as they heal from the harm caused by systems of oppression and trauma and begin to transform their relationships to self and community.
While I am studying in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at OSU Cascades over the next three years, I welcome opportunities to support organizations in our community with facilitation and strategy. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me at dana@thirdpeaksolutions.com to say hi or inquire about possible project support or collaboration opportunities.
In Solidarity,
Dana
From LeeAnn:
From the nervous moment we hit “submit” to register our company, to the leap of faith to dedicate myself full time to our work just months before the pandemic, to this moment, I could not have done any of it without the visionary dreaming of kerani, the change-the-world energy of Erin, and the generative conflict skills of Dana. I am so grateful for the friendships forged, inspired collaborations with our team of contractors, difficult vulnerable moments, and the journey we have taken together with each other and this community. My heart is full with joy and the deepest care for Dana and kerani as they tend to their next steps – whether it is the not-so-simple yet revolutionary act of taking time for rest and restoration, discovering new pathways for collective liberation work, or creating space to invite in all the possibilities.
My own personal journey is culminating at this moment in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Allyship in Action to support the implementation of a groundbreaking community-led Queer Data Project, which will collect actionable information for 2SLGBTQIA+ healing, justice, joy, and change in Oregon over the next 2 years. This opportunity will create space and resources for me to reorient and dream about what roles AiA might live into. This means that AiA will be taking on a limited number of new projects while I focus on this evolution and the work I currently have committed to.
If you or your organization are interested in staying connected to learn about AiA’s evolution and future offerings, please sign up for our mailing list!
With a full heart and in service of our collective liberation,
-LeeAnn
For folks who are interested in knowing more—we see this as an important moment to model vulnerability and transparency about the heart work that has been needed to arrive at a place of transformation and not rupture.
Over the course of the past year and a half, we have been on a journey internally to disentangle the many influences we navigate as a team each day. How we have internalized white supremacy culture. How we each and collectively have been impacted by systems of oppression like racism, classism, ableism, transphobia, and homophobia. How our experiences of trauma live in our bodies and impact our experience of being in relationship to one another, our clients, or communities, and in this work. We have each grown and supported one another’s growth. As we did this internal work, we started to recognize, without quite having the words, that we were continuing to ask Allyship in Action to grow alongside us, to hold us as we transformed, to be everything each of us needed for fear that if we let go, we’d be letting go of one another, of our place in our communities, of something we could never get back.
We followed an instinct to nourish ourselves as we waded through the hard. To ask for support from a facilitator—the multidimensional rain crowe—who could hold space for us as we so often do for others. We prioritized time and time again “making it work.” With the support of the facilitator and tremendous continued vulnerability and presence from each of us, we redefined what “making it work” meant. Maybe “making it work” didn’t have to mean limiting each of ourselves to continue to fit within the same container. Maybe “making it work” could mean having the courage and trust to transform. To step away from our roles and the way we offer one another support in its current form and honor each of us moving towards our truths more wholeheartedly. This evolution felt like revolution—and liberation. Now, we dare to dream “what will be possible for us as collaborators and movement partners as we each move into our next chapters?”
ACTIVE ALLYSHIP FOR COLLECTIVE LIBERATION 