Women's Circle | Napa Women's Circle

A Goodbye for Now

To our beloved community,

The Napa Women's Circle has been many things since this little experiment first began in Jenna's living room in November 2018. From our time at Ashtanga Yoga Napa Valley, to our free healing offerings in peak pandemic, to the social justice space we have become, and every iteration in between, we have tried, learned, and grown with all of you.

We are feeling called to take a meaningful pause, not just for each Gardener, but for the NWC herself. It's time for all of us to go inward, rest, nurture, and see what awakens in this process.

Here is what we know for sure:

Feminist Book Club will continue throughout 2023
Sharing Circles will not be offered again in 2022, we will discuss hosting Sharing Circles again in 2023
We are dissolving the business side of our operations. We began as a grassroots organization and we will be returning to where we started with this administrative change. Those of you who contribute to our Patreon (bless you all) will have a few more dollars back in your pocket every month

The Napa Women's Circle could not be where we are without each and every one of you. We are filled with gratitude for the love and support we've received over the last four years.

We have often referred to the Napa Women's Circle as the planting of a seed. This intentional rest is an ideal time to nourish the soil from which the seed will grow. A just community is a community built on reciprocity, one that focuses not simply on "what can I take?" but also on, "what do I have to give?" It's in that spirit of mutual responsibility, community care, and personal accountability that we ask you to consider the following:

What does this community mean to me?
What do I hope this community becomes in the future?
What role would I like to play in the future of this community?

As we settle into this period of hibernation, we cannot make promises about what comes next. We have faith in this community and we know that the NWC has played a valuable role in so many of our lives. We can only share our hope that this is a goodbye for now, not a goodbye forever.

With tremendous gratitude and hope for our shared future,

Jackie, Jenna, Shanle, Stephanie, and Victoria
The NWC Gardeners

Our Mission

The Napa Women’s Circle plants the seeds of collective liberation for our Napa Valley community and beyond. Every offering from the Napa Women’s Circle creates a shared sense of community and belonging and encourages discovery and growth on personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels. We believe this helps heal the wounds made by dominant culture. When we change ourselves, we change our community and the larger world around us.

Who We Serve

The Napa Women’s Circle offers two separate programs for our community.

Sharing Circles are open to all cis and trans women, as well as folks outside of the gender binary who are comfortable in conversations that center the experiences of women. Sharing Circles are offered on a sliding scale of $10 - $20, with an option for an exchange of gifts in place of payment.

Feminist Book Club welcomes all genders. There is no cost to join the Feminist Book Club.

Our Values

Courage - We recognize participating in Sharing Circles and the Feminist Book Club with an open mind and an open heart requires courage. We know that we cannot promise safety, but we can celebrate the bravery required in learning a different way of being in relationship with ourselves and with others.

Respect - We hold with sacredness the stories shared by our peers in Circle and in Book Club. We practice the discipline of telling our own stories and integrating what we learn without revealing private details of other people’s lives. We speak with respect for all humans. We do not use language that disparages anyone based on race, age, gender, ability, size, sexual orientation, religion, mental health status, or any other attribute.

Authenticity - We speak and act in direct alignment with our personal code of values. We engage with others, trusting that we will be met with compassion, respect, non-judgment, and celebration for who we are. We embody and extend those same values while in Circle and Book Club.

Celebration of Difference - Our unique social locations influence how we show up, how we perceive, and how we are perceived. Our individual truths are multitude. This diversity of experiences and perspectives provides each one of us the opportunity to expand how we understand our roles in this world.

Compassion - We approach ourselves and others with intentional kindness. We celebrate the growth work that we are each able to do and respect that the work will look different for each one of us.

Economic Access - Every single person deserves an opportunity to heal within a community of compassionate humans. We offer our Sharing Circles on a sliding scale that includes an exchanging of gifts for those who simply are not in a position to pay. Our offerings are priced below standard drop-in rates for yoga and other fitness classes, community acupuncture appointments, and most co-pays for mental health services.

Responsibility, Both Individual & Collective - It is a function of our privilege that we are able to gather for these community conversations. As such, we understand that we have a responsibility to ourselves and our community to take our learnings and act from an informed place. We believe there is power in small waves of change and that each one of us can model different, less harmful, more equitable ways of being in our own lives.

This is a living document! We will update our mission and our values as the needs of the community served change. If you have suggestions for changes, email Jenna@afierypeace.com.

Last updated: May 4, 2021.