The BLACKOUT Year
Fall 2022 Learning
Spirit + Currency
A financial healing + empowerment series which uses a trauma-informed approach to conjure abundance - individual and collective.
Module 1: September 7, 2022
Self-acceptance + Financial Trauma
Roadmap and flow for the course
Groundings/Introductions
Language Setting: Trauma, Somatics, Healing, Window of Tolerance
Neurobiology of Trauma: How trauma works in the body
Somatic Trauma Healing Approaches
Your Guides
Melba Sullivan, PhD
Facilitation: Shanna Sabio
Module 2: September 14, 2022
Lineage + Legacy
Language Setting: Generational Trauma - Financial + otherwise, Humility, Empathy, Sankofa
Understand the history of capitalism, enslavement, colonialism
Craft a personal + community timeline to uncover how the present is an inheritance of the past
Respond to generational trauma with humility + empathy in conjunction with self-awareness
Practice Somatic Trauma Healing Approaches
Your Guides
Serian Strauss
Shanna Sabio
Module 3: September 21, 2022
Currency + Economy
Language setting: Currency, exchange, fiat, capital, assets, economy, industrialization
Uncover the roots of consumerism including typical habits and adaptations to financial harm + systemic oppression
Understand our current economic system
Practice Somatic Trauma Healing Approaches
Your Guide
Shanna
Module 4: September 28, 2022
Narrative Change
Language Setting: money narratives + mindsets, currency, exchange, fiat, capital, assets, economy, industrialization
Uncover the roots of consumerism including typical habits and adaptations to financial harm + systemic oppression
Explore common money narratives: myths and stories we create and/or are exposed to that shape our behaviors and relationship with money
Explore common money disorders including avoidance, worship, and codependence
Somatic approaches to disrupting money narratives and disorders
Your Guide
Shanna
Module 5: October 5, 2022
Embodied Archives Week
We’ll gather to integrate what we’ve learned so far in a community Economics Salon
Module 6: October 12, 2022
Conjuring Abundance: Individual
Language Setting: abundance, wealth, 9 aspects of wellness
Explore and define the 9 aspects of wellness + wealth/abundance: spiritual, emotional, social, physical, intellectual, environmental, occupational, cultural, financial
Learn somatic approaches to expand our capacity to receive and hold abundance
Your Guides
Dr. Melba Sullivan
Shanna
Module 7: October 19, 2022
Conjuring Abundance: Life Design + Values
Language Setting: goals, values, design, 9 aspects of wellness
Identify the differences between goals + values, wants + needs
Review personal spending while disrupting shame
Review the SMART goal framework: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-bound
Practice using design framework and somatic healing practices together
Your Guides
Miata Edoga
Shanna
Module 8: October 26, 2022
Conjuring Abundance: Currency + Flow
Language Setting: financial management, SMART Goals, values, 9 aspects of wellness/wealth, credit, debt, cash flow
Revisit SMART Goal framework, identifying 1 - 2 aspects of wellness/wealth and create goals in compassionate community
Practice financial management techniques and somatic healing together
Akua Soadwa
Shanna
Module 9: November 2, 2022
Conjuring Abundance: Creating a Personal Toolkit
Language setting: investments, expenses, income, cash flow, savings
Move from theory to practice: creating a personal budget plan
Learn pricing strategies for independent contractors and non-traditional earners
Your Guides
Jacquette Timmons
Shanna
Module 10: November 9, 2022
Embodied Archives Week
We’ll gather to integrate what we’ve learned so far in a community Economics Salon
Module 11: November 16, 2022
Collective Abundance
Language setting: Economy, solidarity economy, cooperatives, economic democracy
Learn principles of restorative economics including community governance, accountability and “next” economy strategies
Practices + principles of solidarity economy/cooperative economics, including the differences between growth, stability, and regeneration
Practice somatic techniques + interpersonal communication strategies
Module 12: November 23, 2022
Collective Abundance: Techniques + Structures
Time banking, Giving Circles, Susu
Crowdfunding
Land + Liberation: Community Land Trusts, Land banks
Our Guides
Dr. Melba Nicholson Sullivan
Dr. Nicholson Sullivan draws on her training as a professional performing artist, licensed clinical-community psychologist, and transformational coach to create engaging programs and consultation processes.
She is CEO of Freedom Flow Solutions, where she partners with organizations to reduce stress and promote thriving individually, interpersonally, and organizationally. Through speaking engagements, skills training/capacity development, organizational development, executive and leadership coaching, they support their partners in leveraging the lived experiences of all team members.
Her work draws from data-driven psychological principles, while integrating contemplative practice, relational and somatic (integration of cognitive, emotional, and physical knowing) approaches, and the creative arts. Freedom Flow Solutions, LLC brings a solution-focused human rights lens to promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging and employee well-being.
Jacquette M. Timmons
Jacquette M. Timmons focuses on the human side of money. She works as a financial behaviorist and is committed to getting you to see that you don't manage money - you manage your choices around money.
In addition to being an author ("Financial Intimacy: How to Create a Healthy Relationship with Your Money and Your Mate”) and frequent blogger, Jacquette is also the creator of Pricing Made Human, all rights reserved. PMH is designed to help entrepreneurs and small business owners tackle the question, "What should I charge for this?," from all sides: the financial, the emotional, the personal, so they can price more confidently, strategically, and end up with a thriving business and thriving life. She also hosts The Comfort Circle - a dinner series where she facilitates discussions about money, business and life over food and wine - and the podcast, "More Than Money."
When she's not providing behavioral-based financial coaching for smart, driven, and curious high-earners, she's traveling the country for speaking engagements on behalf of Fortune 100 companies, AM Law 200 firms, nationally known non-profits and conferences (large & boutique) to talk about the intersection of emotions and money. Her work has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio, SiriusXM, "Good Morning America," Oprah.com, CNN, HLN, FOX, Black Enterprise, NPR, Reuters.com, and the Wall Street Journal.
Jacquette holds an MBA in finance from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business and an undergrad in marketing from the Fashion Institute of Technology. A combination she credits, in part, for being able to blend her analytical mind and creative spirit in service to helping her clients shift how they look at money; how they perceive its role in their life; and how they give it direction. She lives in Brooklyn, NY and can be seen running in Prospect Park most days of the week."
Miata Edoga
Miata Edoga is the CEO and Founder of the financial education company, Abundance Bound. For over two decades, she has been helping independent workers and other non traditional earners establish a healthier, more compassionate relationship with their money – whether they are just starting out, or starting over, or starting to wonder how they should handle their growing wealth.
Miata’s Abundance Bound curriculum has been licensed by industry-leading organizations and is currently being taught on both coasts.
She also created The Artist’s Prosperity System, which, over the years, has provided thousands of creatives with a specific, step-by-step process to significantly improve their financial situation – giving them more time, energy, and freedom to focus on their creative careers and artistic pursuits.
Miata served as the National Financial Wellness Consultant for The Actors Fund – a national human services non-profit for everyone in the entertainment industry. She has also led workshops and seminars on financial empowerment for a wide range of organizations including: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, The Television Academy, The Motion Picture & Television Fund, The Writers Guild of America, The Directors Guild, The Screen Actors Guild, The Casting Society of America, and The Center for Cultural Innovation.
With a strong belief that early financial education empowers young people to live their very best lives, especially those who will likely not be entering the more traditional work force, Miata shares her signature seminars with students (and their parents) in schools around the country including: Yale School of Drama, NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, USC School of Dramatic Arts, Columbia University, PACE University and the California Institute of the Arts.
Akua Soadwa
Akua S. Soadwa is a visionary, action coach, trainer & facilitator committed to holistically closing the gap between surviving and thriving for Pan-African people, families, communities and brands. Akua’s approach is intuitive and deeply rooted in mindfulness, tapping into our senses, and connecting to the depth and expansiveness of our truest feelings as our best guide.
With a devotion to keeping us divinely clear, focused and organized around our genuine needs and desires, Akua taps into the necessary tools to keep us on our divine path - by any loving means necessary.
Jenny Kassan
Jenny has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over $2 million for her own businesses.
She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017).
Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.
Jenny co-founded the Force for Good Fund, an impact investment fund managed by Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization that Jenny founded in 2008. She also co-founded Crowdfund Mainstreet, a licensed portal for Regulation Crowdfunding. Most recently she co-founded Opportunity Main Street, an impact investment fund that owns a mixed-use building in Baltimore which serves as a hub for supporting under-represented entrepreneurs and providing education about community-based investing.
Jenny’s legal practice, The Kassan Group, provides legal services, coaching, and consulting for mission-driven companies, investors, and intermediaries and includes educational programs for entrepreneurs (the Capital on Your Terms program) and investors of all levels of wealth and income (Angels of Main Street).
Jenny served on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. She submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act and was present at the White House signing ceremony.
Before becoming a securities lawyer, Jenny worked for eleven years at a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland called the Unity Council, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects including a $100 million transit-oriented development project and the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents.
Jenny co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information to support sustainable economies. Jenny is also a fellow at Democracy Collaborative. She is on the board of directors for CfPA (Crowdfunding Professional Association) and formerly served as a director of Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Jenny is certified as a coach by the International Association of Women in Coaching. In 2020 she was named to the list of World-Changing Women in Conscious Business by SOCAP Global.
Shanna Sabio -
learning series doula/curator/facilitator
Shanna Sabio is a lifelong resident of Brooklyn, public historian and transdisciplinary artist and activist whose work invites Black people and their allies to dream, envision, and create flourishing communities.
Centering the values of education, liberation, beauty, and ease, Shanna hopes her work will inspire future generations to embrace the legacies of their families with pride, hope, and strength.
Shanna has over 15 years education and instructional design experience working for large corporations and small businesses alike, and is passionate about learning outside of traditional educational institutions. She’s a member of Cohort 8 of LIFT Economy’s Next Economy MBA program, a graduate of Creative Reaction Lab’s inaugural REFRESH Cohort, Weeksville Heritage Society’s Freedom Fellowship, The Trauma of Money’s Certification Program, and the NEW Museum’s incubator NEW INC.
As co-founder and co-director of GrowHouse NYC, her goal is to celebrate and sustain of the power, resilience, and creativity that has always lived in Black Brooklyn through collective ownership of real estate, cultural institutions, and artistic production.
She has also designed project-based, travel-focused experiences that connect Black people across ages, disciplines and locations such as the United States, Latin America, Europe, and West Africa.
Course Framework
All courses follow the popular education spiral:
Start with our experiences
Look for patterns
Apply new information
Practice skills + strategize for action
Apply in action
GrowHouse Community Agreements
are understood as the default agreements during all coursework and events
1
We lead ourselves before we lead others.
We seek to understand ourselves and our impact on others, practicing self-awareness and self-control and taking responsibility for our actions. To be self aware is to ask: “What impact am I having”? “Who is better at this than me”? “This is not working, what do I need to change”?
2
Practice active listening — listen to understand before you make yourself understood. We balance between listening and speaking - also known as take space, make space.
3
What’s said here remains here. What’s learned here leaves.
Everything said in this space is confidential. We may all talk in general terms with others about the ideas we share in our discussions, but we will not attribute specific statements to specific people.
4
Accountability not blame. We commit to learning, accountability + growth.
We will not blame ourselves or others for getting something wrong on the first try. Instead of asking “who’s to blame?” we own our impact and ask “what can we learn from this?”
After we have learned new information, however, we will hold ourselves and others accountable for that new information.
5
We feel and reveal our feelings.
We will talk about our emotions + spirits as much as our intellectual understanding of an issue. This is difficult work – society teaches us that only our intellects matter and emotions have no place in rational conversation.
We dare to disagree – connecting to our emotions provides us with invaluable insights.
We hold space to allow each other to sit with our emotions; we do not pretend to know the breadth or depth of another person’s feelings, or the most fruitful direction for their thoughts.
6
Never shade - always feedback.
We won’t always agree and we will offer our thoughts with candor and won’t engage in gossip.
Gossip is defined as saying something about someone that you would be unwilling to say to that person in the same way.
We commit to sharing our concerns directly with each other, and encourage each other to do the same.
7
What we appreciate, appreciates.
We appreciate each other for our gifts, wisdom, and successes. This allows each of us to grow our strengths in a supportive community where we are seen not just for the value we produce, but as our fullest, most authentic selves.
This is a step in repairing the harms of a society that sees Black people as bodies, while simultaneously profiting off our genius. We put our genius to work with each other and respond with gratitude.
8
Center healing and restoration as necessary parts of every growth cycle.
We break the cycle of workaholism and stress, allowing our work to unfold joyfully and in honor of our dignity and humanity.
We incorporate cycles of rest and rejuvenation into our work.
9
We commit to generative conflict and an environment where we all “win”.
We see conflict as an opportunity to clarify, grow, and collaborate. Together, we respond to conflict in ways that we all “win”.
We state our desires and needs, trusting each other to respond not with judgment and defensiveness, but with thought partnership to brainstorm solutions if needed.
