Public service is a beautiful opportunity to serve your community. But you work long hours. Your identity may not be well-represented among your colleagues. The public often doesn't understand how hard you work. You may be harassed or threatened with violence. And often it can feel like nobody wants to hear how difficult this all is.
In this program—a collaboration between Nearness and Run For Something, New American Leaders, Emerge, and Civic (Re)Solve—you can begin to recapture the joy of service and experience the magic of deep connection with peers. We'll match you with five to six other elected officials from different parts of the country who share your challenges. Together, you can be your real, authentic self for confidential, off-the-record conversations.
Running from the week of July 8 until September 8.
The 8-week program takes place as a series of 60-minute Zoom calls, during which you’ll walk through exercises that have been developed by experts in psychology, secular spirituality, and family rituals.
A discussion and activity guide helps you and your fellow parents take turns leading the group, keeping time so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute.
Each weekly Nearness gathering follows a five-part structure:
This eight-week program, running from July 8 to September 8, takes place as a series of uniquely nourishing weekly Zoom calls. Each gathering lasts for an hour and takes you through conversation starters, readings, and exercises that have been developed by experts in connection and psychology.
Take a deep breath. Relax your shoulders. Settle into silence.
Read aloud the Agreements: the perfect tool for collective intention-setting.
Engage with short, inspiring readings, energizing practices, and centering reflection prompts.
Share appreciation for feeling connected, supported, and refreshed as your return to your work.
Feel seen in your authentic self as you share. Experience deep connection as you listen.
Get settled into the program with an introductory overview and share key challenges with groupmates.
Dive deep into your story of service with a powerful exercise to get you connected.
Get clear on what matters most to you with a unique values-mapping exercise.
Take a breath and share an object or photo that represents something important about your political journey.
Find solidarity and support in a discussion about dealing with harassment and threats.
Grapple with a former Jain monk and climate activist's vision of resistance.
Share stories and strategies for practicing acceptance over something challenging in your life.
Crystalize what gives you purpose and be celebrated in your gifts by people who connect with the real you.
Get settled into the program with an introductory overview and share key challenges with groupmates.
Dive deep into your story of service with a powerful exercise to get you connected.
Get clear on what matters most to you with a unique values-mapping exercise.
Take a breath and share an object or photo that represents something important about your political journey.
Find solidarity and support in a discussion about dealing with harassment and threats.
Grapple with a former Jain monk and climate activist's vision of resistance.
Share stories and strategies for practicing acceptance over something challenging in your life.
Crystalize what gives you purpose and be celebrated in your gifts by people who connect with the real you.
Each ten-week Nearness program takes place as a series of Zoom calls, during which you’ll walk through exercises to navigate retirement that have been developed by experts in psychology, connection, and personal growth. A discussion and activity guide helps you and your fellow participants take turns hosting the conversation, keeping time so that everyone has the opportunity to contribute.
This 10-week program is the first of a three-part experience. The following two courses will be offered later in 2024. You can take one, two, or all three programs.
This project is a collaboration between Nearness and Run for Something, New American Leaders, Emerge, and Civic (Re)Solve. Nearness is headed by Alec Gewirtz, who has designed thousands of small-group experiences through Nearness, and it was co-founded by Casper ter Kuile, author of The Power of Ritual.
Participants will be elected officials at the state and local levels supported by New American Leaders, Run for Something, and Emerge. New American leaders prepares first and second generation Americans to run for office, Run for Something helps young progressive leaders get elected, and Emerge recruits and trains Democratic women to get involved in politics.
Small groups will meet from July 8 till September 8 for one hour at the two weekly meeting times below. You can choose whichever one of these times works best for you:
Tuesdays from 7:30pm - 8:30pm ET / 4:30pm - 5:30pm PT
Thursday from 1:00pm - 2:00pm ET / 10:00am - 11:00am PT
After the conclusion of the eight-week program, you'll be given a structure of ongoing connection with your small group, which you and your group can use as you like.
No, you do not! This program is free for participants.
Confidentiality is at the bedrock of this experience. People will only feel comfortable showing up as their real, authentic selves if they know their confidentiality will be respected. To this end, we'll do three things:
Nearness will not share your personal information with any third parties. At the end of the experience, Nearness will send out a closing survey, and we will provide an anonymized report based on that survey data with our partners on the efficacy of the program.
Our goal is that, through participating in this program, you will feel a greater sense of wellbeing, less lonely and isolated, and more resilient and less vulnerable to burnout in your work.
We know you're on a lot of Zoom calls, but trust us -- Nearness video calls feel different! As one past participant shared, "I was skeptical about signing up for more Zoom meetings, but Nearness exceeded my wildest expectations.”
We use a ritual structure -- including an opening meditation, candle-lighting, quiet journaling, and a closing poem -- to make the time feel special and embodied. And we match you virtually with folks who aren't in your state in order to connect you with people who share your challenges and identities in a way the people around you may not. We promise this won't feel like your other Zoom meetings!
Nearness is a cooperative business. This means we adhere to the internationally recognized cooperative principles, and workers share in future profits and governance of the organization.
Being a cooperative also means that we can take grants through a fiscal sponsor, and this project is supported by a grant from Civic (Re)Solve.
For this pilot program, the experience will only be offered in English. But Nearness has offered past programs in Spanish, and, in a future expansion of this program, we hope to offer it in multiple languages.
Great. Please feel free to reach out to us with questions at hello@nearness.coop!