Empowering
Women, Youth & Families

Reclaiming what is ours

CHIC is created by women, for women. We are a grassroots organization, and a frontline team. At times, we are first responders. Our mission brings us into schools, into families, into community and in these spaces we see violence daily. We see the kinds of violence made visible by the news, and we see more insidious forms of violence that no media outlet would think to cover: isolation, depression, cumulative family loss.

What do we do in the face of overwhelming anger and grief? What does it mean to lead as women, in an organization that is by us and for us, when the prevailing experience of violence is that of our own smallness, the futility of our actions in the face of an outsized system? What do we do? For today, the closest thing I have to an answer is that we can reclaim tools which were always ours.

What do I mean, “tools that were always ours?” I mean, simply, that within us and among us we have always had what we need to stay whole, and to stand up. Especially as women, we have always had voice, power, stamina, precision, emotional wisdom. Systems of power, though, seek to strip us of the very things that make us formidable. They tell us that these tools are soft, that they are not welcome at work, or that they are the property of someone else. We were told a lie when we were told that we do not have what we need, that the tools we know were not ours in the first place.

What do I mean, “reclaim?” I mean taking back what is ours. I mean naming the ways of knowing, moving, and leading that are true to us as women. I mean cultivating these ways of being, nurturing them so that we can deploy them as strengths. And, I mean turning them into action. Our tools become real when we use them.

At CHIC, what do we reclaim?

Reclaiming Stillness

Three weeks ago, I played recorded whale sounds to a group of kindergarteners during a lesson on the feeling of calm. My intention was to have students identify sounds that make them feel calm, and then to notice how their bodies and minds responded when they listened to those sounds. When we closed the activity and transitioned to the next, a girl approached me cautiously. She sidled up while we were still on the rug and asked if she could listen to the whales some more. I let her hold my phone, and then watched as she sat for twenty minutes listening to the whales. Her eyes were closed, her back straight. She held the phone directly to her ear, swaying in soft circles as harmonies rippled out of the speaker. As other students buzzed and moved around her, she held perfectly, completely still. When class ended she opened her eyes, handed me my phone, and lined up at the door for her next class.

Women hustle. And while we value hard work for a good purpose, we also have to recognize the slippery dangers of the ways we are taught to work. We are taught to work to fill a void, make up for a deficit, and be enough. We are taught to work like we don’t deserve not to. Who profits from this? Who benefits from our burnout, our exhaustion? The little girl and her whales, they remind me that we can be still. We know how to sit, to breathe, to reap the benefits of rest and inactivity. We know that creativity requires space, that fertilized soil is needed for growth. We know how to be still, but we are surrounded by messages which tell us to move.

At CHIC, we reclaim the power of being still. We give our team three paid hours of wellness time weekly. We clear our calendars for one day each quarter and come together to “breathe,” to spend time together simply for the sake of being together. We start each meeting with mindfulness. We enact stillness because it allows us to heal. We enact stillness because it allows us to dream. We enact stillness because we refuse to drive ourselves into the ground, because our burnout only feeds those people who like the world as it is. How can we stand up, if we are too tired?

Reclaiming Love

Bell Hooks wrote, “when we are loving, we openly and honestly express care, affection, responsibility, respect and commitment.” She also wrote, “there can be no love without justice.” Leading with love is not soft, it is a discipline.

At CHIC, love is one of our core values. Our value reads, “We love unapologetically. Our love for ourselves, our team, and our community is infused into all that we do, as radical love is the way to heal, realize freedom and build thriving communities.” To us, leading with love means daring to seek the truth and know the truth, even if it is painful. It means daring to have the hard conversation, because we love ourselves enough to speak our truth, and each other enough to hold one another’s truth. At CHIC, we call truth telling “say the thing,” and it is how we end every meeting. Leading with love means embracing love of self, because loving ourselves is the root of caring for ourselves, which is the root of caring for others. Collectively, our team wrote a mantra which channels our self love. “We are unapologetic, authentic and innovative women of color who are empowered with humility to know we are part of a legacy bigger than ourselves. We speak life into each other and the communities we serve. We lead with advocacy in order to heal, be free, and create something magical. Let’s shake shit up!” Saying this each time we come together is a reminder that we put our energies towards cultivating pride, toward being whole, toward advocating for ourselves and others. This is leading with love.

At CHIC, we reclaim love as a tool against violence, and as a way to take action in the face of things which feel bigger than ourselves. We lead with love so that we can embody the worlds we are trying to create for women and girls. We were told a lie when we were told love is soft – love because it is the root of our power.

Reclaiming Power

In the spring of 2020, amidst Black Lives Matter protests and COVID deaths, our co-founder had an idea: to raise dollars for families. We joined with a sister organization and raised $70,000 in three weeks, sending those dollars out to over 600 families in weekly distributions. Towards the final days of our campaign, I woke up early one morning to a text message from this same colleague: “college should be free for Black Coloradans.” Three years later in 2023, CHIC is preparing to make our first scholarships under the banner of Educational Justice for Black Coloradans. In 2024, CHIC will bring a bill to the state legislature advocating for racial remedy and repair, in order to bring forward meaningful solutions for Black Coloradans in education, health, criminal justice and housing.

This is a story about a vision, informed by experience, and made possible by one person’s belief in her own power. This story is also a testament to the adage, “if you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.” We are three years into work that may take decades. We have gotten this far because of the dozens of people who have come alongside us to advise, mobilize and help. We will get the rest of the way through the power of these relationships. At its inception, power may be singular – one idea, one voice, one person who stands up. The realization of power, however, is collective.

At CHIC, we are reclaiming power. We have always had power, individually and together, especially as women. We were told a lie when we were told we were small.

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What do we do in the face of overwhelming anger and grief? What does it mean to lead as women in the face of an outsized and violent system? At CHIC, we show up with ways of knowing, ways of being, and ways of leading which sometimes feel counter-cultural. And why? Why do we have the mindful minute at the start of the funder meeting, even when the eyes that look back at us through the zoom screen are uncertain and confused? Why do we teach second graders to write mantras, and teach women learning construction to meditate? Why do we show up at the capitol with an idea most people think is crazy, and then come back after they tell us no? It is because these ways of leading are ours, and always have been. It is because these ways of being are a threat to our status quo, which is why they are marginalized. It is because these ways of moving are what will keep us whole and make us great in the face of all that is wrong.

Katherine Casey, Ed.LD
Chief Strategy Officer
“Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.” — Fannie Lou Hamer