Communicating self-care in feminism non-profit spaces

Self-care is often used as a way for feminist activists and organizations to prevent or mitigate burnout, where non-profit organizations are expected to do more with less and pick up service delivery that has historically been the purview of governments. However, current scholarship on self-care in non-profit organizations typically focuses on non-profits in the nursing, mental health and social work sectors. This Major Research Project (MRP) examines women-focused non-profits (including shelters, legal clinics, and women’s rights organizations) to investigate how these organizations frame self-care for their employees. Through qualitative content analysis of interviews with current and former non-profit employees, this project investigates how these narratives are perceived by those employees; what can motivate an organization to implement discussions of self-care; and how narratives of self-care change inside and outside of the workplace.