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Jennifer DeCoste
Founder at LifeSchoolHouse Cooperative and FireLoch Retreat Centre
Jennifer DeCoste is a community-focused entrepreneur and social innovator based in Nova Scotia, Canada. She is the Co-Founder of FireLoch, a retreat and gathering place in Atlantic Canada that offers a space for nature-based retreats.2
Professional Background
Jennifer is dedicated to building strong and connected communities through various initiatives.1 Her professional journey includes:
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Founder of LifeSchoolHouse: In 2018, Jennifer established a non-profit network of barter-based folkschools called LifeSchoolHouse. This platform promotes grassroots skills sharing, fostering interconnected neighborhoods and combating social isolation.1
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Ashoka Fellow: Jennifer is the first person in Atlantic Canada to receive the prestigious Ashoka Fellowship for her work with LifeSchoolHouse.14
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Co-Founder of FireLoch: In 2022, Jennifer co-founded FireLoch, a social enterprise that provides a forest space for community, care, and continuous learning.12
Initiatives and Projects
Jennifer is actively involved in several community-oriented projects:
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Care for Caretakers Fellowship: She coordinates a 6-month fellowship program designed to support volunteers, staff, and leaders in the non-profit and charitable sectors. This initiative includes retreats, virtual sessions, and personal development opportunities.1
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Community Building: Her work focuses on creating nourishing spaces where neighbors can learn, connect, and thrive.1
Personal Experience
Jennifer brings personal experience to her work, having juggled multiple caretaking responsibilities while organizing community initiatives. She has faced and worked through acute burnout, which informs her approach to supporting others in similar situations.1
Jennifer DeCoste's LinkedIn profile can be found at https://ca.linkedin.com/in/jenniferdecoste, where she shares updates about her work and initiatives.3
Highlights
Two years ago I sold my house with no notice, left my beautiful community, moved to the woods and disappeared for months. Now I know to call that "burnout". I also know there are many things that would have helped, before, during, and after but at the time I didn't have the words to ask for the kind of help I needed, or the resources to do the work for myself.
This is a problem I have seen with far too many friends and colleagues in the non-profit sector. Trouble setting boundaries, taking on more work with fewer resources, experiencing secondary trauma when in service of others, feeling guilty about naming your own needs. This can't continue but support needs to come from community. Building up a caring community around our community caretakers is truly an essential service.
I have been dreaming and connecting and researching for TWO YEARS to build and launch a new Non-Profit project in support of community caretakers and I can't wait to lean in with love and support for volunteers and staff who are building the kind of communities I want my boys to be able to grow up in. More info here: https://lnkd.in/g2EVhr8G
Can you help get the invitation the hands of folks you know and appreciate in your community? Tag a local non-profit staff team or an amazing volunteer you know and appreciate so we can invite them to the Care for Caretakers Fellowship at FireLoch in June.
If you are outside of NS but want to follow alongside our journey of Care for Caretakers, we have a research team of community evaluators who will track our learning and share a detailed impact report in the next few months. We hope to inspire small, deep, impactful caretaking programs to launch in communities all across Canada.
#notforprofit #caretakers #communitybuilding #burnout #wellbeing #sdgs
Pleased to support Templeton (Tyler) Sawyer’s work on this wonderful podcast and grateful for any opportunity to talk about scaling deeply and peaceful organizing at LifeSchoolHouse and now at FireLoch too!
How can community organizers take better care of ourselves and others? Take a listen:
