About the Working Well Network
The Working Well Network, then called the Sustainable Wellbeing Environment Network, began in 2021 with a roundtable discussion between environmental funders wanting to better support grantee wellbeing.
The idea of a network of practitioners sharing experiences, insights and resources as a way of creating cultural change then emerged from a six month consultation period. You can read more about the process and who was involved here.
Our next step was to discover what values we hoped would underpin our work together.
How would we approach, for example, our need to be responsive to the urgency of the climate crisis, with the reflectiveness that often comes with truly conscious work?
How would we distribute power and resource between ourselves, embodying healthier relationships between funders and grantees, for example?
How would we approach blockages, tensions and perceived failures in a way that could be regenerative?
You can read about some of our personal experiences travelling through these questions in our Working Well in a Climate Crisis report.
Our regular Network meetings began by exploring these values together more.
Network members are a mixture of those involved at the beginning, those who have heard about the Network through word of mouth, those who have found us online and those who have attended workshops run by Network members.
More recently we have realised the value of the Network partnering with other projects and organisations in exploring deeply sustainable ways of working. You can read more about our Partnership Work here.
Supported by…
The following grantmakers have been involved in helping to birth and sustain The Working Well Network.The following grantmakers have been involved in helping to birth and sustain The Working Well Network.
About the Network’s Co-Conveners
Jo Musker-Sherwood
As a deeply feeling human, Jo found the challenges of running a fast growing environmental organisation took an unbearable toll on her physical and mental health. After stepping down from the role and wondering if she was cut out for environmental work at all, she was fortunate to receive funding to use her personal experience of burnout as living research into sustainable working practices.
Jo came to see individual burnout as an expression of our collective state under late stage capitalism, believing that our most courageous acts of resistance start from within ourselves, rippling out.
She was the original founder of the Working Well Network back in 2020 and has enjoyed exploring what it means to share responsibility and inspiration across a growing network, in stark contrast to her initial experiences of leadership.
Alongside co-convening the Working Well Network, Jo now teaches and consults on burnout recovery across the world, drawing particularly on the wisdom of grief tending practices and nature/ body connection. You can find out more about her work, The Rest of Activism here.
Peter Lefort
Peter’s background is in infrastructural systems, such as governance models and network dynamics. He works on environmental action across different contexts, including civic systems, climate research, and international adaptation.
Through the Working Well Network, he is learning how to bring his experience of social systems in balance with an awareness of the systems within us. He is also working on his own role as a man in spaces of wellbeing, and what it means to do that well.
Peter also works a facilitator, coach, and network builder for organisations and individuals working on environmental and social change. You find out more about his work here.
