WEAll News

Katherine Trebeck: Time off and next steps

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Published on April 05, 2022

Our wonderful co-founder and Advocacy Advisor, Dr. Katherine Trebeck, is stepping back from WEAll, after many years of incredible work and dedication to put the Wellbeing Economy into the public agenda and gather so many people and forces around this shared vision. She has been fundamental in the construction of this organization and movement, and we will all miss her passion and enthusiasm in the WEAll family, but we know this is also just a “see you soon”, not a “goodbye”. Below, word by word, is Katherine’s recent blog post explaining a bit more in depth her path until now and next steps:

March 2022
Time off and next steps

This blog has been a long time coming (and it’s not even a blog – just a wee note to explain why I’ll be going quiet and unresponsive for a few months).

Being part of building the Wellbeing Economy Alliance has been the most incredible journey. It began when Stewart Wallis wrote an email to me back in June 2017 with the subject line of: ‘Hello and Mad Suggestion!’ It was mad, but somehow it feels we have made what felt mad – but very necessary – now manifest and possible (the photo above shows just some of the fantastic folk who make it so).

But, my husband is retiring so I am taking the opportunity to gather my thoughts a bit and from April to the end of June I will be ‘downing tools’ and taking some extended leave; stepping back from being a core team member for both the WEAll global team and WEAll Scotland.

It is because of where WEAll is and how it’s standing that I feel it is timely to find new adventures and different ways of trying to be useful. The global WEAll ‘Amp’ team has just met in person, for the first time for many of us. We cooked together, laughed, drank caprihinas, walked, and worked through some knotty internal questions and made some rather fantastic plans for the coming months and years. The team are pretty darn amazing – such different skills on top of shared energy, care, and passion for the work of WEAll. WEAll feels steadier now in a way it hasn’t before. People are coming to WEAll, wanting support to implement and learn more about the nature of an economy that puts people and planet first. There is secure funding beyond the next few months for the first time and WEAll is in the process of recruiting some excellent new colleagues to help carry it into the next stage.

And as for Scotland WEAll, while smaller and still fragile financially, is punching above its weight thanks to a dynamic board of dazzling women; volunteers who are generous beyond anything I have ever seen; and a small staff team who couldn’t be more perfect for their respective roles.

So it feels like a new era for WEAll – one in which I can be more a friend, by-stander and cheerleader than such an active player.

WEAll is more necessary than ever. I am more grateful for WEAll’s existence than I can imagine given the current economic debates in Scotland which feel pathetically inadequate for our times and given the lack of sufficient action pretty much everywhere to build a more humane economy that’s gentler on the planet.

What instead after my time off? There are a few ideas, some irons in fires and twinkles in eyes. But I can’t pick one above another until I’ve had a bit of a break and spent a bit of time in the Scottish hills and then breathing deeply of some Australian eucalyptus (something I am missing terribly after almost three years). So TBC I guess.

There’s a lovely wee saying that ‘you can’t discover new oceans until you are ready to lose sight of the shore’. I’m not feeling particularly brave or adventurous or anything, but I am feeling it’s time to look out again and see what new ways I can find to be part of building a more humane economy.

*Her original post can be found in her website: https://katherinetrebeck.com/time-off-and-next-steps/

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