Our work this year has brought measurable benefits to the poc community. We see this in feedback, invitations to speak at national and international events, and from awards that MNPC has received. Our director and the governance team work as volunteers and work tirelessly for the benefit of others. And we are tremendously grateful for all those who have generously given their time over the year.   We operate on a not-for-profit basis and price our events as reasonably as possible. But venue hire, catering, teacher fees etc mean that inevitably we do have to make a charge. If you would like to make a contribution to the work of MNPC by sponsoring our work and helping us to make our services available to those who would otherwise be unable to attend, this would be much appreciated. You can do this by buying an 'extra' ticket for one of our events or simply giving us a donation. However small it would be welcomed. Please email info@mnpc.co.uk for more information. Thank you We know that the last few years have very challenging for many of us. We all know that our greatest resources is our selves and our community.We put together a few memories for this year as a reminder of the power of song, community and belonging. The Mindfulness Network for People of Colour (MNPC) was the proud winner of a 2023 Faith and Belief Forum diversity award. Since winning the award we have successfully run grief events at the International Mindfulness Conference at Bangor University and held an extraordinary standing-room-only Symposium on Belonging at Birkbeck College London. In recognition of our community work, we were invited to Buckingham Palace in spring earlier this year. Most recently, we held a grief retreat and ran 8-week online grief course. We are grateful to the Faith & Belief Forum for our award in 2023 and for the interest it generated in MNPC. We want to acknowledge the community in particular Rhonda Magge and Cathy Mae, and everyone who supported and attend our events this year. Please leave a message below in support. Please register for our newsletter on the website below. Consultancy and POC events 8 week grief courses www.mnpc.co.uk For counseling and therapy and professional development Grief retreat www.honouringrief.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S5PxjiOVGA

Good Grief Retreat - A place to rest, recover and renew Good Grief- Retreat A place to rest, recover and renew We all need to grieve, time out and experience a time to reflect, rest and recover. This year we have dedicated a safe space for people of colour to pause. To shed sorrow and recover the joy of life. In our world, there are so many things that cause us pain and sorrow. With the world as it is today self-care and honouring our grief has never been more critical but it is also a natural response to loss, but there are also many layers which we are all carrying today. When we lose someone, It strikes in direct proportion to love: the more we love a person or a thing, the more we experience grief when we lose it. Big griefs: our dear ones die; our relationships end; our jobs disappoint us. Everyday griefs: a friend lets us down; our children struggle; we feel the loss of roots and community; we are beset by anxiety and fear about the state of the world. Some days life is just hard. Grief that is held down or suppressed blocks joy or happiness; and – worse – we may feel anger, rage and frustration. Or sometimes we just feel numb. It’s tiring to keep all these feelings in, and grief is a lonely business.Our culture seems to encourage the ‘stiff upper lip’ and ‘moving on’. It’s often harder for men to grieve, because ‘big boys don’t cry, remember’! Here in the UK it was not until the covid era that we began to acknowledge that proper expression of grief is needed for sound mental health. With : Zindika Kamauesi :Kerlet Manners:Talibah Rivers William Fley William has practised various Buddhist traditions for over 20 years. William is a practising bereavement therapist and founder and director of the "Mindfulness Network for People of Colour", a community interest company based in the UK which aims to bring awareness of transgenerational trauma through mindfulness-based interventions. William continues to pursue his passion for eliminating cultural and other barriers to accessing mindfulness by encouraging cultural awareness and responsiveness. For more information and bookings please see www.mnpc.co.uk

Cathy-Mae KarelseDisrupting White Mindfulness Race and Racism in the Wellbeing Industry Hosted byZindika Kamauesi and William Fley Mindfulness is now everywhere in the West. Over the last four decades, the movement has exploded in the US and UK, and is now found everywhere from boardrooms and bedrooms to schools, prisons, and hospitals. Yet popular mindfulness is infused in whiteness and late capitalism. This book reveals how its easy fit in Western society replicates existing social norms and dominant narratives: an essentially White Mindfulness reflects racialised institutional profiles and a largely White, middle-class audience. Taking a critical look at this lucrative industry, Disrupting White Mindfulness explores the influences of neoliberalism and postracialism, and the invisible force of whiteness that marginalises and excludes People of the Global Majority from meaningful leadership and decision-making. Engaging with decolonising initiatives rooted in embodied justice, Disrupting White Mindfulness offers a path and an invitation for a radically transformed mindfulness, one which moves away from whiteness to embrace solutions built on difference and on indigenous, queer, and global South perspectives. Cathy-Mae Karelse, PhD is an independent specialist in deep systems change and decolonisation with 20+ years’ expertise in social transformation. In the last decade, she has extended her work to social health policies and systems and is a recognized thought leader in diversity, inclusion and belonging (DEI+). She designs and develops customised change-making strategies at multiple levels to shepherd meaningful transformation. Specialising in turning grand plans for DEI+ into practical strategies and programmes that deliver results, Dr Karelse has worked with corporates, governments, policy institutes, communities, and global programmes to establish policies, processes and social strategies of leadership, wellbeing, transformation, and growth. As author of Disrupting White Mindfulness: Race and Racism in the Wellbeing Industry and with a global network, her remit includes the support of global South leadership in sustainable transformation agendas. In addition to offering strategic thought leadership, she also operates personally as an educator, coach, and mentor. Meditation offered by Zindika Kamauesi : Zindika is an author, speaker, and a transformational writing success coach. She is the founder of Meditate and Grow, an inspirational blog and youtube channel. She teaches people how to use writing as therapy, to raise their confidence, self-esteem and their self-expression. She helps people who want to work on their personal development through meditation and writing. She is the author of six books and delivers motivational talks on the topics of women and migration, meditation and writing.

13 views Oct 16, 2023 Honouring Grief With Sharon Brown, Hycinth Taylor Hosted by Imani Sorhindo & William Fley Dates : Sunday, October 15th from 6-8pm For many people of colour grief can become the norm. Many people don’t realise that each loss and grief can trigger other traumas and other unresolved grief; that sometimes we just keep going and that is complex grief. And sometimes losing those people we hold dear bring into question everything about the urgency of inviting life. This evening guides you to relieve the visceral effects of losing someone, through gentle restorative movements and meditative breathing. You have permission to express and share your lived experience through the stages of grief. This is a sacred space that allows you to share your loved one’s story, their gifts and positive attributes, their profound impact on you and how you will honour their legacy. Grief is painful, how do we differentiate normal grief from what is considered complicated or prolonged grief disorder? A grieving person often struggles with two stressors: loss orientated, and restoration orientated. Please leave a comment.

'Radical Healing and the Practices of Belonging' with Rhonda Magee 4th Annual Empowerment Retreat How does mindfulness support us in healing ourselves, strengthening our feeling of belonging, and helping to cultivate wellbeing for self and others? Rhonda Magee, a practitioner and guide in the engaged Buddhist Peacemaker Order of the Upaya Zen Center, will share reflections and practices aimed at supporting us in deepening our personal and collective practices promoting healing, belonging and transformative wellbeing on a planet where everything is connected. A full-time faculty member at the University of San Francisco since 1998, and a full professor since 2004, Rhonda has been named Dean’s Circle Research Scholar, served as co-director of the University’s Center for Teaching Excellence, and co-facilitator of the Ignatian Faculty Forum faculty development program. She teaches Tort; Race, Law and Policy; and courses in Contemplative and Mindful Law and Law Practice. Rhonda is a trained and highly practised facilitator, with an emphasis on mindful communication. In 2015 she was made a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, and in 2019 was named as one of world's most important women in mindfulness.

Highlights of "The 2020 Online People of Colour Mindfulness & Empowerment Retreat" - Featuring speakers and teachers from around the world including Rhonda Magee, Dawa Tarchin Phillips, Dene Donalds, MNPC founder William Fley, Nisha Halai, Cre Dye and others. Please note, many others contributed to the retreat and we thank you all. If you are not featured in this video is because we didn't have the proper footage or there were technical issues with some of the Zoom recordings. Edited by Chris Claudius ABOUT MNPC: https://mnpc.co.uk The Mindfulness Network for People of Colour (MNPC) is an independent multicultural not-for-profit organisation established in 2019 in the UK by William Fley. MNPC brings together community leaders, committee board members, peer group facilitators, essential volunteers and project coordinators. We seek to make a kinder, wiser world through the full availability of transformational education. We want everyone to have access to transformative tools such as mindfulness, emotional awareness and self-compassion regardless of economic, social or physical challenges. Gifted and exceptional BAME teachers from around the world lead our events. We exist for people who desire to develop a meditative practice together for a better life for themselves and those around them. We seek to make a kinder, wiser world through the full availability of transformational education. We host several 'Healing Circles' addressing identity-based trauma through mindfulness, a powerful tool for self-regulation and resilience. We are a co-operative of practitioners offering workshops, retreats, private consultations, a Sunday Zoom group, and a POC (people of colour) directory. https://www.mnpc.co.uk/