Plan to Thrive

Plan to Thrive was a project which supported and promoted the health and wellbeing of people and groups engaged in working for social and ecological justice.

Plan to Thrive challenged activist cultures and identities which emphasised stoicism, isolation and joylessness. Burn-out is not inevitable and it’s possible to live happy and healthy lives while working to change the world.

Plan to Thrive was started by Helen Cox and Holly Hammond in 2013. The main focus was a collaborative blog featuring articles from many activists on their experiences and insights. A survey of 200 activists was conducted with a number of follow up articles sharing valuable wisdom about activist burnout prevention and recovery.

In 2016 Holly Hammond undertook a crowdfunded study trip to the UK and Spain researching activist support initiatives. This sparked the Activist Wellbeing Retreat run in 2017 by Holly Hammond and Stephanie Gesling.

Also in 2017 Suse Scholem convened a crowdfunded calendar of workshops featuring a wide range of topics and tools. Laura Gilmartin convened the blog at that time, reaching out to new contributors and undertaking interviews.

In 2018 the organisers decided to step back from Plan to Thrive to focus on other projects.

In 2019 a number of Plan to Thrive articles were added to the Commons Social Change Library – visit the collection. The full Plan to Thrive website is no longer live but can be viewed on web archive.

Thank you to all the past convenors, the contributors to the Plan to Thrive blog, crowdfunding supporters, and everyone who participated in workshops and spread the word about activist wellbeing. If you are working on a project around activist wellbeing, sustaining activism, self-care and community care, or related topics and you would like to learn from our experience contact Holly via the PTW contact form