Our gift for you on this Giving Tuesday is one of our most crucial teaching tools: a worldview chart created by our advisory board member and contributing editor, Four Arrows, who is a professor at Fielding Graduate University. Kindred World was founded a quarter century ago – in the middle of America's historic 50 year decline to the bottom of all international indicators for child, adult and family wellness – on the values and beliefs of stewarding and protecting all life as interconnected, interdependent, and therefore, Kindred. We also believe Worldviews Create Worlds.

Take a look at the two columns in the worldview chart and then look again (a small action is below, but see the full poster here). The Dominant Worldview on the left is how we show up now, living from our wounds, sometimes transgenerational wounding, always a culturally reinforced and rewarded state of consciousness. It is the column on the right that helps us envision what living from and and connected to Life, Source, and Love, would look like. As Four Arrows says:

Over the past quarter century, Kindred World has focused on creating sustainable, peace-loving humans through the integrated and interdisciplinary fields of science that support a life-affirming worldview. We've called this worldview different names – holistic, Nature-connected, and now, Indigenous – but really, it is the worldview embedded in the impulse of our founding families: the love for our children, and all life. You can read more about our nonprofit’s history here, and discover how our many initiatives help ourselves and our culture make the shift from a Dominator Worldview to an Indigenous Worldview. We're especially proud of and excited by the work of Kindred World's new president, Darcia Narvaez, PhD, whose Evolved Nest Initiative is providing a clear path to break the cycle and reclaim our humanity.

As we have always embraced our consciousness-raising grassroots origins, our board of directors is a working board. You can meet them here and discover how their contributions continue to grow and expand our nonprofit vision, commitment, and capacity to serve you.

You can read 88 five-star reviews of our nonprofit work on our Great Nonprofits' page here. Kindred World has won the Top-Rated Nonprofit Award from Great Nonprofits every year since 2014.

Enjoy your Giving Tuesday gifts and please support our nonprofit work generously!

Mental colonization takes place in our childhoods when the dominant culture disables our parents’ and community’s ability and interest to provide our species’ evolved nest (Narvaez, 2014). We can review the observations and studies of societies that provide our species evolved nest—i.e., hunter-gatherer societies (Hewlett & Lamb, 2005), “preconquest” cultures (Sorenson, 1998), and even diaries of explorers like Columbus (Narvaez et al., 2019)—and see how much healthier and contented they are.

The results are important because they show that when we provide the EDN in childhood, we may be ameliorating the effects of negative or traumatic experiences. The EDN is a way of not only promoting the positive—what children need to develop well—but of reducing the negative physiological effects of adversity and trauma. 

“This is a game changer. It points to the fact that it is not enough to be trauma-informed. We must also provide for children’s basic needs, which our evolved nest does by its very nature. Cultures that are not attending to wellness-informed practices are not optimizing human potential, something sorely needed as we face numerous culture-caused crises,” said study researcher, Darcia Narvaez, PhD.

Listen to the podcast discussion about the new study with Darcia Narvaez, PhD, and Mary Tarsha, and read the post here.

Is the business world interested in learning about Indigenous Worldview, sustainable living, and transformative leadership? Yes! Being Human is a show dedicated to bringing a deeper conversation to the business world. You will hear in this talk:

Editor’s Note: The Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and its initiatives, formally named ACES, has evolved to include Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences and is now referred to as PACEs. Kindred uses both terms on this website. You can find amazing resources on the PACEs Connection website, where Carey Sipp is the Southeastern US Regional Coordinator.

Someday perhaps, ACEs scores will be listed in obituaries, in hopes of people understanding the direct correlation between childhood trauma and adult disease and premature death. As a woman in my early sixties, I’ve lost many friends who had high ACE scores, and am watching others suffer from chronic diseases that are, no doubt, related to their ACEs. I know I want my ACE score listed in my obituary, not as a point of shame or pride, but in hopes of its being a “teachable moment.” I also want to include information about resilience research, as in, “despite having an ACE score of 8, Sipp credited her long life to the exercise, diet, community work, and other healthy endeavors that were part of resilience research, an evidence-based way of helping to reduce the impact of ACEs, which she practiced and promoted as a part of her work.”

...when a pill is the primary treatment without attention to the full relational and social context of individual suffering, people remain stuck in patterns of disconnection and harm. We see a downward spiral of intergenerational trauma and loss tearing apart the fabric of our society. One can argue that this is true of both physical and emotional pain. As I wrote in The Silenced Child about pills as the primary treatment, “Because they can be so effective at eliminating distress in the short term, they are very appealing, almost irresistible, as a single solution in our fast-paced, quick-fix culture.”

"I am a past Kindred Fellowship student and I cannot say enough about what I learned from Kindred and all of those involved in making this program. Psychology student or not, this non-profit will teach all how to implement kindred activism into you lives, and many other lessons. I hope to continue my involvement with Kindred for years to come and hope to share its teachings with those around me!" Kendall Lobdell, University of Wisconsin, Madison

December 16, 12 noon EST, REGISTER

Visit the film's site to view the film and discover resources.

Enjoy the Meet the Wayfinder oral history collection produced by Kindred in celebration of La Leche League International's 65th Anniversary Conference which is now available until April 2022 on their website, with a registration fee. Learn more here.