WHO ARE WE?
Our Nonprofit Mission
Kindred World was founded on the values and beliefs of stewarding and protecting all life as interconnected, interdependent, and therefore, Kindred. Over the past quarter century, we have focused on creating sustainable, peace-loving humans through the integrated and interdisciplinary fields of science that support a life-affirming worldview, identified in the Kindred Worldview Chart here, by Four Arrows.
You can discover more about our nonprofit’s history here, and learn how our many initiatives help ourselves and our culture make the shift from a Dominator Worldview to an Indigenous Worldview.
our nonprofit vision
Kindred World began as a grassroots, consciousness-raising organization of parents and professionals in 1996, 25 years into America’s eventual 50 year-long decline to the bottom of all international indicators for family, maternal, and child health. Our vision for our world was formed through the lens of love for our children, families, and communities: we wanted to become a Wellness-Informed Society, a culture that supports our children's peaceful sovereignty and our planet's sustainability.
Today, Kindred World’s mission and vision are more relevant than ever. During the current climate crisis, pandemic, and political upheaval, our quarter century of investigating and sharing a New Story of Our Human Family is a blazed path to wholeness and wellness ready for wayfinders and seekers to follow. Each of our initiatives were created to meet our human family's needs to transform our culture into a more sustainable, peaceful, Wellness-Informed Society.
Please support our ongoing work with your donation. Learn more about our history.
- Subscribe to the Kindred monthly curated e-zine selections.
- Join the Evolved Nest newsletter, to follow the science and research of our president, Darcia Narvaez, here.
- Join the Kindred World Mighty Networks Discussion Groups here.
OUR New year's GIFT TO YOU!
Evolved Nest Experience In Childhood Buffers ACES/TRAUma
About the Evolved Nest's New Study
A ten-year longitudinal study conducted by our lab at Notre Dame University has been examining the the human species’ developmental system for raising the young, what we call the evolved nest (evolved developmental niche; EDN). Most of the components of the EDN have mammalian roots more than 75 million years old. They helped our ancestors adapt (survive, thrive and reproduce, over generations outcompeting rivals without the components). We are finding that evolved nest provision in childhood is related to child and adult health—physiological, mental, social, and moral.
The results are important because they show that when we provide the EDN in childhood, we may be ameliorating the effects of negative or traumatic experiences. The EDN is a way of not only promoting the positive—what children need to develop well—but of reducing the negative physiological effects of adversity and trauma.
“This is a game changer. It points to the fact that it is not enough to be trauma-informed. We must also provide for children’s basic needs, which our evolved nest does by its very nature. Cultures that are not attending to wellness-informed practices are not optimizing human potential, something sorely needed as we face numerous culture-caused crises,” said study researcher, Darcia Narvaez, PhD.
Listen to the Podcast and Read the Press Release
Listen to Darcia Narvaez, PhD, the study's researcher and Kindred World's president, discuss the research in a podcast with Mary Tarsha. Read the release as well.
About the Film
Kindred World is proud to launch The Evolved Nest’s educational short film, Breaking the Cycle. The moving and inspirational six-minute film illustrates our capacity for breaking our current Cycle of Competitive Detachmentand returning to the pattern of 95% of our human history: a healthy, peaceful Cycle of Cooperative Companionship. Breaking the Cycle is based on the multi-award-winning book, Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality: Evolution, Culture and Wisdom, by Darcia Narvaez, PhD.
Breaking the Cycle contrasts the two basic ways societies can function: the optimal approach, which most human societies through time have followed, is the Cycle of Cooperative Companionship where children’s basic needs are met; they grow into well-functioning, cooperative community members (from neurobiology and on up); and as healthy adults, they maintain the cooperative system. Currently in the USA the opposite pattern is in place: children’s basic needs are not met, illbeing and dysregulation ensue, creating adults who are detached and distracted and keep this Cycle of Competitive Detachment going. The United Nations ranks the USA as 41st out of 41 developed countries for child and adult wellness.
A Kindred Media Production for La Leche League International
Meet the Wayfinders: An Oral History Series
Meet The Wayfinders: Nine Oral Histories Of Successful Breastfeeding Advocacy Barrier-Breakers
The Meet the Wayfinders oral history collection of empowering, personal stories features video interviews with nine professionals, parents, and scientists who found ways around breastfeeding advocacy barriers, or just broke them! The series was created at the invitation of La Leche League International in celebration of their 65th Anniversary Conference held October 15-18, 2021. While the series was presented live in October, the public can still view the collection on LLLI’s website until April 2022.
The LLLI conference collection includes an overview video, where participants learn the five hallmarks of wayfinder advocacy, as well as view highlights of the nine interviews. Attendees will also receive a resource guide in PDF form to help find the many references discussed in the collection. The conference link to the collection also includes the nine full interviews, ranging in 15-30 minutes each.
In Meet the Wayfinders, conference participants will discover reasons why cultural change is difficult and how the breastfeeding advocates featured in this oral history collection were successful in breaking, transforming, and maneuvering around barriers in:
- The formula company “captured” biomedical field and colonization of populations worldwide: Cecilia Tomori, PhD, Director of Global Health and Community Health, Johns Hopkins University
- The siloed-science of academia and research which doesn’t (can’t) support a whole child wellness model:Darcia Narvaez, PhD, Professor of Psychology Emerita, University of Notre Dame; Founder, The Evolved Nest
- Hospital and medical professional culture’s systemic racism, Kimarie Bugg, DNP, FNP-BC, MPH, FAAN, IBCLC, Founder, Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere
- African-American and Indigenous peoples’ colonization created anti-breastfeeding bias, Kimarie Bugg, DNP, Founder, Reaching Our Sisters Everywhere; Wesley Bugg, JD, Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere; and Jasha Lyons Echo-Hawk, Indigenous Milk Medicine Week and Indigenous Milk Medicine Collective, Co-Founder
- Mainstream media cultural bias, Jamie Grumet, TIME cover breastfeeding mother from May 2012
- Workplace and gender equity laws, Joan C. Williams, JD, Founder, Center for Worklife Law, University of California at Hastings
- Inclusion of fathers in breastfeeding and birth advocacy, Wesley Bugg, JD, Reaching Our Brothers Everywhere
- Creating support for families, Patty Kornwolf, RN-C, Kindred World Founding Director
- Performance Arts, using arts for internal and external barrier-breaking, Cathleen O’Malley,playwright, MilkDrunk
In this series, the viewer will discover the hallmarks of successful barrier-breaking shared by the wayfinders who answer three questions:
- When were they first exposed to breastfeeding?
- Were they surprised to discover barriers to breastfeeding, particularly in their field?
- And how have they overcome, transformed, or moved beyond these barriers?
Through their personal histories, the wayfinders reveal to us a holistic form of breastfeeding advocacy, a strategy that does not wait for external, cultural forces to change and support individual and collective wellness.
All of our presenters address the opportunities awaiting us in our post-pandemic world and how, with an understanding of the hallmarks of successful barrier-breaking, we too, can answer the call to become a wayfinder, to introduce and integrate a new way forward right where we stand as individuals, and to joyfully gather to build a breastfeeding-friendly culture.
Learn more about Meet the Wayfinders.
Watch the Series
The Meet the Wayfinder Series was presented live at La Leche League International's 65th Conference in October 2021. The series is available on the LLLI website until April 2022. A transcript of the presentation is being translated into multiple languages for distribution by LLLI.
Kindred World Initiatives
Support Our Nonprofit Work
For over 22 years Kindred World has been possible through our dedicated donors! Please support our nonprofit work with you tax-deductible donation.
Read our Great Nonprofits reviews above and here.
You can choose which initiative you would like to support in the PayPal link, or by visiting the initiative's website. See all of our initiatives here.
