What was your best of 2023?
Reflecting on the best of 2023 is a practice in gratitude and excellence. Our core team at Allyson Kelley and Associates met this past week to talk about their bests for 2023.
Best AKA Team Accomplishment in 2023
Working together
Honored one another where we were at in life
Support one another and clients feel and see it
Trust one another
Reliable
Best AKA Client Accomplishment in 2023
Grant administration and new tribal leadership
Program staff thriving and running programs with confidence
Social media work, growth in staff, and dissemination
AKA has created a community/family. Our work goes beyond the deliverables. We pray for our clients. We keep life in perspective and believe in our relationships and purpose.
Best Personal Lesson in 2023
The power of “no”.
Balance all things with no guilt.
Taking care of myself (40 minutes of “me” time per day).
Letting go, and trying to manage less about expectations in all aspects.
We must continue to practice self-care – you can’t give you don’t have!
Here are some highlights of the best of 2023 from my AK Author Newsletter. These bests are worth repeating for the world to read and know.
Best Blog
Wisdom from Elders: Learning While Conducting a Feasibility Study. What I love about this blog is a conversation between Dr. Dewey Ertz and myself about trauma, genocide, learning, and being. His stories and wisdom help us learn from the past and build a better future. Gratitude to Dr. Ertz.
Best Academic Publication
American Indian and Alaska Native Life Expectancy Writing a New Narrative. This paper was a labor of passion, love, and commitment to addressing life discrepancies in American Indian and Alaska Native populations.
Best Display of Mentoring and Success
Our students at AKA, UNCG, and in communities are some of the best examples of mentoring and success. Jay Aguilar supports community work on the Fort Peck Reservation, Brighten Crawford is finishing her degree this semester, Annie Hatley graduated with her MPH degree in December, and Curtis Hartley continues to pave the way as a social justice thought leader and MPH student at the University of North Carolina Greensboro.
Best Photo that Shows People, Place, and Power of Connection
Best Practice in Creativity
Our team creates visual models that connect images to thinking. This model created by our talented design team shows what healing can look like in 2023 at Doya Natsu Healing Center. Visuals transcend knowledge without words.
As we begin 2024 the AKA team looks forward to deepening our relationships with existing clients and growing new partnerships that connect us to our mission of community transformation and healing. We have immense gratitude for the work we get to do and the lessons we learn from our family of partners.