Building Community & Connections throughout the Pacific Northwest

Collaboration is a big part of building resilient, vibrant communities. Regardless of whether you are a secular or religious practitioner, your sangha is made up of several hundred people or just a handful, or if your organization just started last week or has been around for thirty years, we can all learn from and support one another in responding to the significant social, political and environmental changes we see today.

Despite living in a hyper-connected time, many communities are in a silo and struggle with finding space, raising funds, and connecting with new people looking to explore mindfulness or Buddhism. The Northwest Dharma Association exists to support dharma and/or mindfulness-focused organizations throughout Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Alaska and the Yukon Territories.

One of the ways we’re doing this is our community-driven Northwest Dharma Presents Mindfulness Blog with themed quarterly explorations of mindfulness and a specific topic. In addition to helping communities connect with a wider audience, we hope this will help cross-pollination between different groups throughout the region.

The first theme we are exploring, from July 1st to September 30th, 2019 is Mindfulness & Relationships. Anyone can contribute a post that fits the theme. 

How I participate: 

Contribute a blog post to medium.com/northwestdharma. 

We are looking for contributions to the Northwest Dharma Presents Mindfulness Blog. You could write a contemplative piece, a personal reflection, a review of something you attended—anything as long as it fits the theme of Mindfulness & Relationships. 

If you don’t already have a Medium account, setting one up takes about five minutes or so, depending on how much you want to fill in your profile to start with. 

You can write your contribution directly in Medium, or copy and paste it from whatever writing software you used on your computer. 

When it’s your first contribution, save your article as a draft on Medium or a Googledoc, and send the link to Kaitlyn Hatch (faunawolf@gmail.com), along with your Medium username. Kaitlyn will review what you have written, and if it’s a good fit, you will be added as a writer to the NW Dharma Presents Blog on Medium. 

Once you have been added as a writer and your draft is on Medium, Click the ••• button in the top-right corner of the page to open your story settings.

Select ‘Add to publication’ from the drop-down list. Select ‘Northwest Dharma’ and click ‘Save’. 

One of our editors will review your piece within two days, and as long as it fits the theme and doesn’t have any glaring grammatical errors, it will go up on the blog. 

Organize a new event

Put together any event—a class, workshop, discussion group etc.—exploring the theme of Mindfulness & Relationships and we will promote it through the Northwest Dharma Association calendar, Facebook page, and possibly even the mailing list. If you need help getting space, reach out, that’s one of the things the Association can help with. If you partner with another organization, there is also the possibility of sponsorship. 

Tell us about an event that already exists

Does your sangha have a Family Summer party planned? Are you leading a workshop on meditation practices and social structures? Do you know of a secular organization doing a class on non-violent communication? 

All of these things fit the theme of Mindfulness & Relationships and the Association is here to help spread the word, support cross-pollination, and strengthen connections throughout the many dharma communities in the region. Tell us about something your community or organization is offering that fits the theme, and we will add it to the calendar. 

Help us grow

The Northwest Dharma Association is made up of members from many different communities. If you are interested, we are always looking for volunteers able to commit the time to building a strong, united network of dharma/mindfulness organizations, groups, and offerings. We want to have representation from as many different mindfulness and dharma groups as possible on the Board and in our volunteer base.