Community care plans (+ a free community care plan template for you!) | Healing is the Best Revenge episode #5 transcript

This is a transcript of episode #5 of Healing is the Best Revenge.

Hi, I’m Karina Hagelin and this is Healing is the Best Revenge, a podcast for survivors and the folks who love us, to discuss the politics of survivorship, community care, & our often unconventional pathways towards healing. This is a space where we reject pedestals & perfectionism, instead honoring the messy and complex realities of healing from trauma.

Today, I want to talk about community care, & more specifically, community care plans as a tool for healing.

I think about healing as a practice: an interdependent practice that’s supported by community care, mutual aid, & by our friends, chosen fam, & folks we’re in community with. Supported by our relationships.

Because we don’t heal in isolation. We heal in community.

&/also community can be messy. There’s conflict, of course. & there’s also the reality that abuse happens. I’ve been traumatized by so-called friends. I mean, most abuse doesn’t happen at the hands of strangers; it’s people in our lives who we might trust, care about, & even love, who have abused us.

I want to acknowledge that isolation is an understandable response to trauma; it’s a way to protect ourselves. The hard thing though is that we need each other. We need other people. To survive, yes. &/also because community & friendship can be a source of joy, pleasure, & healing.

Even though I’ve been doing this work a long time, fighting to choose connection over the perceived safety of isolation, I still struggle with it. Reaching out can be so fricking hard & scary. But I’m proud of myself. I’m proud of the work I’ve done to build community & to care for myself and others.

One of the ways I do this is by organizing community care plans, both for myself &/also for friends & comrades.

As I’ve mentioned previously on this podcast, October is a really challenging, difficult, & activating month for me, with my traumaversary later in the month. Most years, a friend or I organizes a community care plan for October for me. This is basically a list of what’s helpful & supportive, i.e. friend dates, help with errands, check-ins via text, dropping off meals, etc., with a list of dates during the month where folks can sign up to offer support, signing their name & what they’re able to offer. This has been a really beautiful way of building support and community and care into a difficult month. It’s also been a total lifesaver. And a great way to share this skill with others, who now create their own community care plans and/also help others organize theirs.

I’m thinking about creating a free community care plan template; would that be something you’re interested in? Let me know.

Okay, that’s all I’ve got for you today but before I go, I want to remind you that if you’d like to receive notes on radical self-love and healing and such, you can find a link to subscribe to my newsletter in the show notes. I’d love to have you on the list!

As always, I believe you & I’ll talk to you soon. Until next time, sweet friend!