Survival of the Kindest Dr Julian Abel

The themes of belonging, community and urban regeneration, well known to the listeners of Survival of the Kindest Podcast, are central to the work of this week’s guest, Dr Sophie Yarker, recommended by Dr Simon Lennane.
Sophie is a Research Fellow based in the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, working on the Ageing in Place in Cities project.
She has a PhD in Human Geography which looked at the nature and extent of local belonging and attachment to place in the context of urban regeneration.
Her research interests are around how we can build more inclusive urban neighbourhoods particularly in the context of urban regeneration and population change. These interest are focused around three main themes;
- Collaborative and inclusive forms of urban development
- Social innovation within the community and voluntary sector
- Conceptualising local neighbourhoods and feelings of belonging and attachment to local communities

Carey Sipp
To be fully present, to make best use of the incredible potential we all possess, to make the most of what it is to be human, we need a deep sense of belonging and connection. This is something that arises out of our family, our friends and our community. Too often, the development of these deep trusting relationships is marred by traumatic experiences of childhood. But these experiences do not define the people who have them. None of us want to be judged by anything other than the best parts of ourselves. People with adverse childhood experiences are not defined by them.
Carey Sipp found the truth of this through her own story. She recognised her positive childhood experiences as well as her adverse ones. She went on to become the strategic director of Positive and Adverse Childhood Experiences Connect (PACES Connect) and describes herself as “ a disrupter of multi-generational cycles of trauma and addiction. Just one generation of trauma-free humans can end poverty.”

Neil Mantell is a very old friend, not just that he is ancient like me, but we have known each other for nearly 40 years. We met on bleary eyed walks in the early morning around the hills of the village where we lived, having both been woken up by young babies far to early, taking the opportunity to give our respective partners a break at the same time as walking the dogs. 
Neil was a school teacher, and an extraordinary one at that. I know he was a great teacher because my 3 children all passed through his classroom. Inspired by the remarkable educator Ken Robinson, his path to being a teacher was varied, and he put the children first, sparking their imagination and looking after their welfare as the most important thing to do. Schools should be nourishing places of belonging, because each child will become an adult, and if we want our communities to flourish, learning how to do this has to start early in life!
 

For this episode of Survival of the Kindest, we welcome Christian Ntizimira, who has been doing remarkable work in Rwanda, developing palliative care through making use of the most precious of resources, the community. He is the Founder and Executive Director of the African Centre for Research on End of Life Care. A Fulbright Alumni who graduated from Harvard Medical School his career includes time at Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, City Cancer Challenge Foundation, and the Rwanda Palliative Care and Hospice Organization (RPCHO).  He has recently published a fantastic book on communication with families in the context of end of life, called The Safari Concept.

Charlie Herzog Young is a climate activist and  author of Spinning Out, his new book, which explores his journey  navigating climate change and mental health issues which affected him from his early years onward. Charlie makes the explicit what many of us experience, that of nihilistic feelings about the inevitable progression of climate breakdown. And not just this. The nihilism is worsened by those in power who place self interest above the welfare of everyone else, including plants and animals. This sense of depression about the world ended up precipitating a mental health crisis, resulting in a serious suicide attempt, which in itelsf resulted in a double amputation of his legs. Charlie has found an answer in climate activism in multiple forms, including his excellent new book.

104 - This week’s Survival of the Kindest podcast features Camila Ronderos. Camila learnt about the importance of community from  her father, who was a doctor visiting people in rural Colombia. He would visit people in the fields and in their homes, making sure that he took care of them in the widest sense. She started her studies in architecture but changed to anthropology as she felt architecture often missed the point, not designing buildings for people to live in taking their perspective to heart. This led her to a masters degree and studying for a PhD in New York. Along the way, she got side tracked into a dream job working for a non profit organisation back in Colombia. This led her to her current work in the healthcare setting for the Keralty Foundation.
Camila has the most incredible understanding of participatory processes, which began with her studies of participatory urban development.