WHAT IF
all our thoughts
were loving? . . .
consider the possibility
Founded in 2015 by
writer. filmmaker. love activist.
Melanie Lutz
a premiere content hub for loving storytelling in all its forms.
streaming loving thoughts + broadcasting storytelling + minting words of inspiration
LOVE ACTIVISM RESOURCES PAGE ❤️
At Mel’s Love Land we believe in the power of love and the importance of having a support system in life. We are a media platform dedicated to providing love, support and resources to help people lead happier, healthier lives. We strive to offer content that is informative, engaging and inspiring.
Our mission is to build a story telling community full of love and understanding, and to provide a safe space for people to share their stories, experiences to inspire others. Our goal is to equip each person with the tools and resources to build a life of love, acceptance and joy.
We heal in community through the stories we tell and the ideas we share and the love we spread. Allow these resources to inspire you to take loving action, to honor your story and to uplift your content creation. Together we create love action consciousness.
COMMUNITY GARDENS
Teapot Gardens
led by artists to foster a lifestyle of creation in paradise.
Moonwater Farm | Compton, CA
El Serrano Community Garden
Est. ca 2002, ESCG is a gathering spot for the community & novice & master gardeners to share green space in historic El Sereno. --- 5466 Huntington Dr.
https://www.instagram.com/elserenocommunitygarden/?hl=en
MamaTree Ojai Farm
Organic walnut, citrus & olive orchard using 🐐 Regenerative practices & educational experiences to connect more deeply to the lands we love
Lopez Urban Farm ❌Pomona Unified School District
Non-profit urban farm in partnership w/ @pomonaunified promoting learning, connection, collaboration in community.
Urban farm connecting food, community and education in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.
a lush orchard and pleasure garden on a California hillside overlooking Los Angeles, and the many hands that have helped tend it. It’s a philosophy that champions slow ways and ancient practices. It’s a quest for intimacy — between plants and people, body and spirit, heaven and earth.
Embracing the Colorful Abundance of Spring with the Only Regenerative Organic™ Strawberries in Southern California. An immersive, interactive farm experience
The Conservation Endowment Fund (CEF) is a non-profit organization based in Ojai, California. The CEF is steward of the Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve
a teaching model for sustainability through workshops on growing fruit locally, and sharing the food in the Beachwood Canyon community, outreach communities, and food-charity organizations to better neighborhood connections.
ARTS
Amplifier
Critical Mass Dance Company
https://www.CriticalMassDancyCompany.org
Self Help Graphics & Art
https://www.Selfhelpgraphics.com
ADVOCACY
One Billion Rising (Rise to end Violence against women)
https://www.onebillionrising.org/about/campaign/one-billion-rising/
Sheknows #Blogher15
Sister Giant
Unite for America
https://www.Uniteforamerica.org
Working Hero Action
https://www.Workingheroaction.org
FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Black Lives Matter
Relentless Indigenous Women
IMMIGRATION
Al Otro Lado
RAICES
Rise to Reunite
https://www.Facebook.com/RiseToReunite
YOUTH EMPOWERMENT
Dream Catcher Covenant House
https://covenanthousecalifornia.org/dreamcatcher-youth-services/
YES - Youth Emergy Stronger
Even in the darkest dark we see the light inside.
52 Weeks of Giveback
https://www.facebook.com/groups/52weeksofgiveback
LOVE ACTIVISTS
An innovative educational program, based out of South Central Los Angeles, designed to strengthen schools and empower children to be compassionate leaders.
BOOKS TO READ FOR FURTHER POV
ART & ECOLOGY
The BirdHouse Community Garden
Ecosystem Restoration Camps
https://ecosystemrestorationcamps.org/
The Work that Reconnects (Joanna Macy)
https://workthatreconnects.org/
ECOLOGY / REGENERATION / RESTORATION
Microplastics are now a part of our biosphere. Water, earth, air, are poisoned throughout our planet. The work of the 21st Century is foundational health and wellness. The necessary work of repair, restoration, regeneration is ongoing. Here are a few organizations for you to be inspired by, to share information and to allow a new day to flourish where we have a global focus on foundational health and wellness.
Water is the source of life on earth. It is also the primary driver of global temperature and climate. Humanity’s increasingly abusive relationship with water has led us down the watershed death spiral, with drought, flood, and fire all increasing in frequency and severity. We can reverse this cycle, and ensure an abundant and productive future - by simply changing our relationship with water. Grow in techniques to empower a revival of our landscapes and provide space to connect with communities taking action for a better common future.
In a world challenged by the confluence of groundwater depletion, land degradation, and extreme weather events…there are solutions that connect them all: Permaculture water management. This free global summit was created to share viable solutions for the water crises found throughout the planet.
Savory institute: Support Holistic Management & Regenerative Agriculture
Facilitating the return of the grasslands. With over 30 million acres influenced programs are global in scope, grassroots in execution, and holistic in terms of providing the knowledge, resources, and connections necessary for farmers, ranchers, and pastoralist communities to create truly regenerative outcomes on the land we love.
Beginning with a simple principle of loving our lands, the committed crew who came together to awaken people to the possibilities of regeneration. It's a beautiful work, activating artists and ecologists across the earth.
Whether farmer, rancher, educator, informed consumer, food industry or healthcare professional, the Soil Health Academy’s schools and workshops provide tools to regenerate soil, farms, food and futures.
MENTAL HEALTH
The Loveland Foundation
committed to showing up for communities of color in unique and powerful ways, with a particular focus on Black women and girls.
https://thelovelandfoundation.org/
Intentional Man Project
Uplifting the masculine
https://www.theintentionalmanproject.com/virtual-programming
Sacred Sons
Connecting men to their hearts.Co-stewarding the return of the father archetype to this planet through men's relational and physical training.
Defining Wellness Centers
In the heart of Mississippi a group works to create foundational health and wellness for folks in need of support with mental health and addiction issues. What wellness looks like for one person will likely be different from what it looks like for another. At the deepest level this group helps clients to get well – psychologically, physiologically, and spiritually.
POC Addiction Resource Tool Kit --
Doing the necessary work to build trust, respect and support for people of color.
For more information:
https://www.theintentionalmanproject.com/virtual-programming
DWC is at the forefront of utilizing neuroscience in treatment programs which provides a whole new layer of understanding how our brains and bodies work. There is no other treatment center in the country that utilizes the variety and depth of services you will find at Defining Wellness. We understand that every person is different, and recovery programs need to be customized to be truly effective. The more tools we have, the better the outcomes. The more community care, mentorship, involved mutual aid the world is made new again, and healing has the opportunity to take root.
For more information:
Call 833.DWC.WELL
The Empowering Internet Safety Guide for Women
Stay safe online, take steps to protect your data. Be a part of a collective work to uplift women.
Particularly for White Folks
Waking up White: And Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debby Irving
*White Fragility: Why it’s so hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo
Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation by Jennifer Harvey
*What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo
My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies by Resmaa Menakem
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M. D.
Too Heavy A Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength by Chanequa Walker-Barnes
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michele Alexander
*Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God by Kelly Brown Douglas
*Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process by A. Leon Higginbrotham, Jr.
*The Racial Contract by Charles W. Mills
The Myth of the Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism by Rosaland S. Chou and Joe R. Feagin
Understanding & Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-first Century Challenge to White America by Joseph Barndt
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone
*An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
DECOLONIZING THE BODY, MIND AND SOUL
At Mel's Love Land, we explore the intersections of social justice, media, and love. We believe that love is not a one-size-fits-all concept, but rather an ever-evolving experience. We focus on the necessary work to decolonize the ideas embedded in the past and to co-create new worlds of love and create meaningful connections.
We provide our audiences with thought-provoking essays, stories and media that allows them to explore new perspectives and ideas. We are passionate about creating spaces where people feel safe to discuss their feelings and experiences, to trust in community. Please consider joining us on this journey to discover the many forms of love.
TRAUMA INFORMED HEALING
Consider Trauma-Informed Healing Practices to Address Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence
The more you understand, the more you release the trauma through a bodily practice, the more you grow, the more healing you express, the more you connect to your intuitive decision making process, the more you engage in the necessary care and work the more care and work you receive. Feel it in your bones. Take the steps toward freedom at a cellular level. Take every moment to remember the truth. You are not to blame. You are here to thrive. You are a force of nature and no matter what may have happened to you. It is possible to stand up, connect to your heart and move on. If you here a calling of what is possible, listen. Welcome to the all systems love movement.
Key principles of trauma-informed practice:
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Safety. Ongoing efforts are made by an organization to ensure the physical and emotional safety of clients and staff
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Trustworthiness
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Choice
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Collaboration
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Empowerment
A few places to start:
Dance from the Heart practice
https://www.criticalmassdancecompany.org
Critical Mass Dance Company (CMDC) awakens and activates the creative, intuitive power of the heart through dance & movement for healing, transformation and wellness in mind, body and spirit.
Kelsey Blackwell
https://www.kelseyblackwell.com/decolonize-the-body
From Kelsey - "Bodies are imperfect. I love how they creak and grumble. The tightness across our shoulders, the aching in our chest, that acorn in our throat, these are forms of communication -- communication pulling us towards liberation."
Somatic Experiencing International Practitioners
https://traumahealing.org/about/
They support trauma resolution and resilience through culturally responsive professional education, training, research, and outreach in diverse global communities.
An article to get you moving through the space, connecting to your healed and whole senses from The Activist History Review...
Decolonizing the Body: Indigenizing Our Approach to Disability Studies
If critical disability studies is to replace our traditional analyses and modes of intervention, then we must continue to approach dis/ability within the broader matrix of colonization, questioning and challenging the ways in which dominant power relations recognize, regulate, and govern our lifeways.