Up With Community

MOVING FROM IDEAS TO ACTION

Power and love

Transformative experiences of power and love that improve a team’s creativity, impact and freedom.

Work With Us →
Our Approach →

We believe that in order to build a world of collective freedom for our families, for our communities, we must learn how to live that world in our places of work.


Achieving your team’s mission requires a deeper engagement with two concepts typically siloed in our professional lives: power and love. At Up With Community we take a radical approach – going to the root of interpersonal, organizational, and systemic challenges by engaging teams in transformative experiences of their own power and love.

Reclaiming Our Understanding
Of Power and Love:

POWER

Reclaim your life force for change – for ourselves and our communities. Learn how to build and unite power sources for your creativity, impact, and freedom.

“Power, properly understood, is the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political, or economic changes. In this sense power is not only desirable but necessary in order to implement the demands of love and justice.”
–Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

LOVE

Bring more love into your work by believing love is possible, understanding its power and reorienting yourself toward it.

“Love is an act of will, both an intention and an action – Love is ‘the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.’”
–bell hooks

Partnering for
Creativity, Impact and Freedom

Communal Coaching

Integrate improved strategic thinking, liberatory team-building and deeper understandings of power and love to level up your team’s performance and impact for mission.

Focused Projects

Focus together on one or more areas of strategic planning, training, coaching and team building or racial justice and equity.

1:1 Liberatory Coaching

Develop power and love in your leadership. Increase your ability to be creative, make a bigger impact in the world, and feel more free in your work.

Learn More About What We Do

Our Approach →
"Now our leadership team has a shared toolbox that we can use to advance our equity work and a concrete plan in place for the next steps we want to take to move this work forward."

– Abby Youngblood

Executive Director, The National Organic Coalition

"I showed up seeking support for the practical things. But what I received was so much deeper and exponentially more useful. Nico is so adept at helping her clients uncover the complicated, internalized beliefs that get in the way of our success."

– Nicole Thomas

One-on-one coaching client, Nicole Thomas

"It gave staff an opportunity to think about equity in a way that made it more 'real' to us through the activities presented and they were especially appreciative of that. We would highly recommend Nico and Craig for any organization."

– Dr. Dena Winslow

Tribal Planner, Mi'kmaq Nation (Formerly The Aroostook Band of Micmacs)

"[Nico's] expertise was critical since the organization was experiencing a major change in terms of growth, capacity and direction. Nico’s knowledge of strategic planning and staff development played a critical role in helping the staff to navigate issues relating to our overall mission."

– Leroy Hughes, Jr.

Vice President of Operations, Public Justice

"After 6 months of working together, we have the foundation of a very different approach to our product that will, in fact, reach our goals, and we’re excited to start building. Nico taught us, challenged us, and nurtured us, all in a warm and safe space."

– Allison Grappone

Owner, AGG Consulting

"Nico provided us with an insightful report of what we do well and where we fall short… [then] skillfully guided us in communicating these findings, soliciting feedback from our community, and proceeding forward in planning and implementing our work toward greater equity and racial justice."

– Sandra Butler, PhD

Professor, Director and MSW Coordinator, School of Social Work, University of Maine

"Our board was very conflicted on whether or not to hire a consultant. After working with Nico over the summer I can say that, without a doubt, it was one one of the best decisions we have ever made."

– Marshall Shepherd

Executive Director, SAFE

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Resource Spotlight

Check out our Ideas to Action Field Guide, a searchable database of the publicly available resources we have used to develop our approach. Visit the Field Guide →

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