“I started at MakeWay at the start of the pandemic in 2020, and when I came on, others had been talking about creating the ‘Kitchen Cabinet’. It was such a beautiful space and way to connect. It was an intergenerational group. Twelve women who were meeting every three weeks on Fridays. I always left feeling really inspired and connected.”
-Nicole McDonald, Director of National Programming at MakeWay and part of the Womxn’s Leadership Collective for Nature and Climate Action
In 2020, a group of women came together out of frustration with the challenges faced by women leaders working on nature and climate action. Led by MakeWay and in partnership with The Systems Sanctuary, Community Knowledge Exchange (CKX), and Turtle Island Institute the participants of the group curated an intimate peer-learning community to deeply connect on shared struggles in their work.
The small but mighty cohort of feminist environmental and social justice leaders and funders called themselves “The Kitchen Cabinet”. They gathered virtually across Turtle Island, diving into challenges by listening, sense making, and deepening their understanding of how women could influence systems change and support one another to do their work better in this field. And with the help of funding from Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE), the Cabinet eventually grew into the Womxn’s Leadership Collective for Nature and Climate Action.
The Collective supports and connects women and gender diverse changemakers to advance innovative climate solutions. They believe that when space is created for women to nurture processes that are care based and healing-centered, we start to strategically shift systems for long-lasting change. They work to provide resources and support to community in five key ways: a webinar series that centers care and healing in systems change work, peer learning cohorts to connect multi-generational and diverse change leaders, creating shared space through in-person and virtual annual gatherings, and grantmaking for women-led projects.
So many exciting milestones have been achieved since the Collective’s inception. Their new website finally launched earlier this year through the hard work of Collective member and MakeWay Program Specialist, Chanel Best. They also successfully created the Embers Fund, a grantmaking initiative that provides small grants ($10,000 – $20,000) to womxn-led projects supporting and advancing innovative climate solutions centered around healing,
care, and justice. In 2023, they will host two community gatherings. The first gathering was hosted virtually in January (you can watch the highlights in the video above or the full recording here!), and the second one will take place this July at Soul of the Mother Lodge in Six Nations Grand River Territory.
Learn more about Womxn’s Leadership Collective for Nature and Climate Action and support their work here!
