Amanda Vincelli: Dear Retreat
"Dear Retreat" aims to offer funded retreats in the countryside near Tio’tia:ke/Montreal for all people actively contributing to social change and community care. Burn-outs within art and activist spaces, the health and education systems, the social economy and community sectors are rampant. This program aims to create viable opportunities for cultural and care workers to resource in nature: rest, connect, get inspired, have access to a range of healing services, and do what they please—alone or together—while surrounded by trees, bodies of water, mountains, and animals. Part of this research phase of the project will involve envisioning workshops and consultative spaces to collectively design an experience that will be relevant for a diversity of social agents and determine a structure that is as equitable as possible, i.e. finding ways to offer remuneration to those who can’t afford time off. The dream is to create a space where our society’s caretakers can be as cared for as they do for our collective well-being.
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In Spring 2022, this project began with the idea of facilitating retreats in the countryside for individuals actively contributing to social change and community care in Montreal. It is the prevalence of burnout among my peers over the years which pushed me to create opportunities to seek solace in nature and find respite from demanding roles, specifically for those who wouldn’t access it otherwise.
Early on and through SEIZE, I was fortunate enough to be matched with a mentor who played a crucial role in shaping the evolution of the project. Our meetings revealed the importance of making this initiative a mutual aid project—facilitating exchanges and relationships between people with access to sites in proximity to the city and those who lacked such access in ways that would contribute to mental, physical and social well-being. During this early phase, I researched and also reached out to individuals with access to sites, resulting in a comprehensive list of viable locations, which I characterized by varying degrees of accessibility. Meanwhile, it became clear that drawing a comprehensive map of the needs of this diverse group of beneficiaries was the starting point, and validating the need for such retreats came next.
Earlier in 2023, I utilized a portion of the funds provided by Onassis to organize a small-scale retreat with careworkers and caretakers from my personal network. We stayed at one of the sites I had identified, the 3E cabin in St-Anne-du-Lac, a land-based initiative part of the 3Ecologies project by scholars Erin Manning and Brian Massumi. The retreat provided an opportunity for reflecting on different community-based pathways and approaches for developing the project. The need to narrow down and clarify who this project was for emerged as a significant sticking point. Without a clearer understanding of the specific needs, it would be challenging to determine how the retreats could genuinely address them. I left the retreat with invaluable and fundamental insights for the next steps and a new name for the project: “DeaREST”.
Following the retreat, I conducted more research and had many more discussions with peers engaged in care work; it became evident that a localized approach would be the most effective and viable way to start and grow this project. Simultaneously, conversations with Parc-Extension residents and colleagues as part of my work for a community organization in the neighborhood made me aware that many of them had never left the city, or even the neighborhood, since arriving in the country. Parc-Extension has the highest population density in Montreal and over half of the population comprises immigrants, newcomers, refugees, and asylum-seekers. The neighborhood stands as an epicenter of the housing crisis in the city, with a majority of residents facing intersecting challenges to housing precarity, including systemic discrimination, lower incomes, and social isolation. The poor urban planning has rendered it a heat island with residents landlocked between railroads and highways with limited access to public and green spaces. Seeing how this project could make a tangible difference in the lives of the Parc-Ex residents connected to the organization I am involved in, I decided to integrate the retreats into my work. Currently, my focus revolves around figuring out the logistics of organizing a limited number of retreats for this summer by fostering connections between members of the Brique par Brique community. By keeping the scale small and within the organization’s capacity, I believe I’ll be better positioned to ensure the success and impact of these initial retreats and to evaluate the potential for facilitating a greater number of retreats sustainably.
In the meantime, I plan to continue engaging in discussions with like-minded organizers and organizations and seeking partnerships to explore avenues for facilitating these retreats on a larger scale. I still envision a citywide initiative, but one that is supported by a federation of local partners with a shared network of locations and allies. As the DeaREST project continues to evolve from its conception to localized implementation, it remains rooted in the core belief that everyone deserves spaces of respite and care, and access to the healing benefits of spending time in nature.
