Organizer Respite Awards

If we said, don’t bring an agenda. Leave your “to do” list at home. Leave a message on the phone and your email system that you are away and unavailable. Put the mail on hold. Take a book not a file with you.

What would you do?

If a chill ran up your spine or you were left speechless at the very idea, you or someone you know probably needs the NOA Respite Award.

We want organizers in this work for the long haul. Here is a small step towards that aim:

NOA’s Organizer Respite Awards

The awards are a chance for two people to each have a week to rest, reflect, renew and/or do something you have been putting off. They can come alone or bring family or a few friends.

You or someone you know has been working hard on that issue or that campaign or just struggling to keep the doors open for the important work your organization does.

The Respite Awards honor the tireless organizing efforts & commitment of organizers & movement builders. It is designed to honor those dedicated to organizing as a tool for social change and who strive to create community amongst other organizers.

Fundamentally, the Respite awards recognize that we all need self-care. We need a space to reenergize.

Recipients will receive a one-week stay in the Smoky Mountains in Eastern Tennessee in early January, and an award for travel and other expenses.

NOA Respite Awards Criteria

Community & labor organizers who are deeply involved in efforts to create social, environmental and/or economic justice

Organizers that have more than five years of movement building experience (can include volunteer activity as part of time).

Organizers who have support from their employers to be away for a week with pay and without a demand for additional work tasks.

The Award recipient can choose to come alone or bring family and/or friends up to a maximum of six.

Organizers must use the week awarded for rest and relaxation, leaving their regular work at home – to step out of the box for awhile.

Nominators and award recipients must be members of the National Organizers Alliance.

What we ask of you:

Nominate a community or labor organizer, or nominate yourself. Give the basic facts about the person: name, address, phone numbers, email, job and place of work.

Tell us about the nominee. We don’t need an extensive resume but rather a story about the nominee that will give us a sense of why that person deserves this opportunity to refresh and renew.

Content of the retreat is up to the award recipient: Take a hike, sit in the Jacuzzi and look out at the mountain stream, prop your feet up, read, write, chill, go to Dollywood, etc.

Know a deserving organizer? Nominate someone or yourself. Keep an eye out for the deadline, in October or November of 2010

Donations to the Organizer Respite Awards are appreciated. Join NOA or renew your membership today.

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P. O. Box 60708 Washington, DC 20039;
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(301) 270-0642 fax