This year has been full of ups and downs, major lessons we have learned, and yet still, many moments we will cherish. We won awards and competitions, launched a new campaign and podcast, created new programs that have expanded and translated our work beyond New Orleans and even outside of the United States, and yet we also recently experienced a moment that threatened to damage our reputation and impact our ability to offer the programs, tools, and services that we hold so dear.

Throughout all of the highs and lows, one core thing has remained; gratitude.

IWES family, we are grateful for so many things, and most of all, we are grateful for you. Next week we are kicking off a special series on our social media accounts shouting out some of the individual partners — organizations and individuals — and participants of our programming that we are extremely grateful for, but before we launch our “12 Days of Gratitude,” we want to thank you, first and foremost.

This past month we have had to dig deep into our tagline, Healing is the Revolution, as forces who feel threatened by the DNA of our work — racial equity, justice, and well-being for those most marginalized — attempted to cast doubt on our organizational durability. We stand firm in our values and work, which has always been grounded in resilience-building and finding one’s inner and external strengths, and we are very grateful to those who have stood with us while we attempt to build back even stronger and strive to learn from the challenges we have been through.

Thank you, IWES family; we are so grateful for you this year more than ever. we invite you to delve deeper into the moments of joy and reflection that 2024 has provided throughout this newsletter, and as always, feel free to reach out to us if there’s anything you’d like to share.