For Community Practitioners

You're Already Doing This Work. Here's the Language to Describe It

If you're building community, organizing neighbors, running programs, or creating spaces where people can show up as their whole selves - you're already practicing much of what this research explores. You might not have academic terminology for what you do, but your wisdom is real knowledge. This fellowship brought together five graduate researchers who discovered that studying authentic relational communities meant becoming one. Their insights validate practices you may already use while offering new frameworks to articulate your work to funders, partners, and broader audiences. Here’s what you’ll gain from this research:

  • Language for what you already know

    Concepts like "cascading vulnerability" (when one person's authenticity creates space for others), "productive tension" (holding disagreement within safety), and "relational literacy" (reading body language and energy, not just words) put words to the intuitive work you do every day.

  • Tools to demand better partnerships

    When researchers or institutions want to work with your community, use this framework to insist on co-design of research questions, shared ownership of findings, and recognition as knowledge creators—not just study participants or service recipients.

  • Evidence for your funding proposals

    This research demonstrates that relationship-building activities that don't produce immediate measurable outputs still create essential foundation for meaningful impact. Use these insights to push back on funders who only value quantifiable deliverables.

  • Validation that healing and transformation are legitimate outcomes

    Community wellbeing, belonging, and collective capacity aren't "soft" goals—they're fundamental to sustainable change. This research shows how to frame them as rigorous measures of success.

  • Connection to a broader movement

    You're not alone in this work. This fellowship demonstrates how practitioners, researchers, and communities can collaborate differently when relationships become the primary methodology.

Where to Start

  • Get to know more about the Summer 2025 transdisciplinary graduate research fellowship to see how five researchers from different disciplines created a relational community while studying relational communities—modeling the very practices they sought to understand.

  • Each of the 5 Key Research Insights likely reflects something you're already doing. As you read, notice which practices feel familiar and which offer new possibilities:

    • Are you navigating insider-outsider dynamics in your community? (Insight #1)

    • Do you translate between community wisdom and institutional requirements? (Insight #2)

    • Have you noticed that the most important shifts happen in relationships, not programs? (Insight #3)

    • Do you pay attention to what's unspoken, not just what's said? (Insight #4)

    • Do you use storytelling, art, or creative expression in your community building? (Insight #5)

  • The future directions section includes specific tools you can implement immediately - how to navigate productive tension, sustain long-term collaboration, and create spaces where people can bring their whole selves.

  • Share your insights and experiences in practice with us. Tag us on social media, or join our IRH Wisdom Network to become a part of our online practice communities.

Explore the Key Insights: Approaching Research Through an Embodied Relational Lens

These insights form the heart of what the fellowship discovered about building authentic relational communities. Each insight includes stories from the fellows' experiences, questions for reflection, and connections to practice. The researchers learned that relationships themselves are a research methodology - not just the context where research happens, but the very means through which knowledge is created and transformation occurs.

As you read, consider: What would change in your work if you viewed relationships not as a tool to achieve outcomes, but as the primary site where meaningful change happens?

Explore the 5 Key Insights

Take Action

Name the work you're already doing
You may be practicing relational accountability, creating containers for vulnerability, or building corrective relationships without academic language to describe them. Your expertise matters.

Partner with researchers differently
Next time someone wants to "study" your community, share this framework. Demand genuine partnership where your community co-creates research questions and shares ownership of what's learned.

Join the conversation
We want to hear how you're applying these insights. Share your experiences with us or tag us on social media.