our global garden of joy Hi 👋 I’m Jasmine, founder of The Bloom. We have a phenomenal selection of social impact resources this week for you to bloom & forward to your friends!
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Welcome bloomers! Here's a summary of the newsletter this week: 🌱Social impact career interview with Senior associate at Centre for Public Impact 🌱11+ global remote jobs across disability rights, LGBTQI+ research, & refugee law 🌱Grants for political changemakers in Europe for EUR 10,000 with love & light, Jasmine Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up to get your own copy of The Bloom to your inbox with top social impact jobs, uplifting stories, and global resources. Today's newsletter is enjoyed best...after having a good laugh 😂
What is your “official” professional role and field? I work as a Senior Associate with the Global People & Culture team at Centre for Public Impact.
What if your unofficial role and field?
I am your funny feminist friend constantly encouraging you to save up some money, reach out to friends and start applying to new places so you can quit that job that preys on your passion and pays in peanuts.
How did you get to where you are today in your career?
Ironically, by consistently quitting things. And a lot of it has come from listening to my body.
I am from a small town in eastern India, which saw rapid urbanisation only after 2011. So in the formative years of my life, I grew up in a place where everyone seemed to know everyone, and it constantly made me feel like I was under surveillance. And to escape that, I moved to Delhi, which is also where my career started.
I tell people I have been a student activist, a teacher, a campaigner, a manager, a video scriptwriter, and now a People & Culture person. Over time, I’ve had to let go of where I thought I would be and lean into where my experiences take me. It sank in when I started an MA degree from a very “reputed” institute in Mumbai. Within the first six months, I had to drop out because my mental health had rapidly declined, and my body was starting to give up on me. I knew I had to get out, or I wouldn’t make it through.
I wanted to start working again, but most days, it was difficult to even get out of bed because of all the pills prescribed to me, thanks to psychiatry’s insistence on locating disorder in the individual body and not the world. I finally found a good therapist, and that gradually changed things.
I went on to work for a bit as a manager at a digital campaigning organisation that worked on gender justice. I enjoyed my job the first few months but soon noticed that I had become the token non-binary person on the team, whose presence signalled that the organisation was a feminist space when it was pretty far from it. I stuck around for over a year when my body’s check engine light went off again, and I knew the time to quit had come. I learnt three things here:
I did not want to be a manager.
I did not want to work at a place where I could not ask questions of and disagree with the executive director.
I needed some form of mentorship.
Six months (and a BIG breakup) later, I found the Centre for Public Impact. I was impressed with their application and interview process, though I was still determining if this role suited me. But I’m glad I said yes because I get to work with a brilliant team director who is humble and kind while fiercely vocal about equity and justice in policies and interpersonal relationships within the organisation. And some absolutely exceptional colleagues who amaze me every day with their wisdom, care, and willingness to show up for me. I like the work I’m doing here, and while some of it has been challenging, I know I have people I can lean on, which has been quite reassuring. And I can finally ask questions of and disagree with the executive director, so all in all, it’s a good deal.
Back in the first uni hostel I stayed at, we weren't allowed to go out after 7:30. This photo is me out at 9 or something, walking back after buying my favourite food despite being stared at and told it's unsafe. Like a form of protest.
Lessons you’re taking away from the first few years of your work experience, and applying to the next chapters of your career. Perhaps the biggest lesson I’ve learnt is that there are different ways of ‘knowing’, and our bodies are valid ways of knowing things (thanks Sara Beth!). And then that friendships which practise radical kindness (borrowed from my amazing friend Sudipta) carry you through times when you can’t carry yourself. Friendships let you rest, and make you feel like even in the process of not knowing things, you’re not alone.
I’ve learnt a lot from the students I taught for two years. It wasn’t an easy relationship - being a gender non-conforming teacher in an all-boys school is fraught with conflict. And that’s where I learnt how to build relationships with people I seemingly had nothing in common with. They told me their stories, and I told them mine, and we found shared experiences and emotions that tied us together. And in turn, they taught me to ask for what I want without apologizing and how to set boundaries and honour them. And how sometimes the most you can do is show up every day to the best of your ability, and that’s enough.
I’m still learning how to set boundaries. For instance, I’ve learnt how to set clear expectations that I will not be available for work on the weekends. I remind myself that on most days, nobody’s life depends on my work, so it’s okay to take my time. I have also learnt how to ask for what I want - a kind note from a colleague on days when I feel low, appreciation from a director when I need validation, a break (or many breaks), an apology, accountability, relationship repair processes, and so much more.
And finally, something I’ve known for the longest time and want to share here: a sense of humour is absolutely essential to surviving this world. Witty, sassy, goofy, whatever you gravitate towards - it will save you. I love that my friendships allow me to be silly and foolish and make me laugh about whatever I failed at. Because I’ve observed over the years - if I can laugh about something, I can deal with it too!
me with my students (in class and outside a monument they wanted to go to because I told them how gendered public places are),
Your relationship to “social impact”: has it evolved since you began your career?
As a student, I was part of an autonomous collective that came together to protest against university and private hostels that would lock women up after 7:30 PM on the pretext of keeping them safe. And if you were late, and in some hostels, even a minute late, you would be locked out of your only room in the city. The last train at the nearest metro station ran till 11 PM, and the university library was open 24 x 7. Still, the streets suddenly had no women after 7:30. Trans* and non-binary students found it hard to secure accommodation, and even when they did, they were at a higher risk of facing violence.
In the face of this injustice, I learnt the role of nurturing communities. Our night marches came with consequences - physical intimidation and harassment by political groups that thought women needed to be shown their place. That’s caste and patriarchy, right? Easily threatened and constantly reacting with violence that aims to “teach you a lesson” and “set an example.” And even as we navigated this, the collective taught me the importance of mutual aid, of singing, dancing, laughing, and holding joy in a world that actively tries to suppress all these and replace them with fear. People’s movements carry life as they occupy space.
After college, I moved into what was till quite recently called the ‘development’ sector in India (oof, I have a lot of feelings about this next bit). We may have moved away from that term, but I see how so many big names in philanthropy and funding (many of them based in the US) still see “investing” in programmes in other countries as developing these countries. And it is bizarre when funders from minority countries come to the majority world and try to ‘solve’ poverty, illiteracy, and disease as if it wasn’t centuries of colonialism and imperialism that created disparities in wealth and access in the first place.
There is often that question - do we effect change from within the system, or use public pressure to demand accountability? And while I think it’s a false binary, social impact organisations with substantial funding often lean heavily towards the former, increasing a new kind of privatisation of services that governments should provide. And then the organisations that try to hold governments accountable or use words like ‘radical’ and ‘justice’ either struggle with funding or risk losing their government approval/license to operate or receive financing.
So my relationship with social impact, particularly with organisations in this sector, is heavily influenced by my experiences with communities of care. And I am still grappling with many questions and feelings about it.
Posing in front of the mirror is me learning how to take up space in my photos and move without the shame of looking 'silly'.
Let’s say you were reading a job application from someone hoping to join your team: what would stand out, and attract you to working with them?
I enjoy reading applications where I don’t constantly have to look up jargon. Show me in very simple words how you see the world, how you came to arrive there, what you’ve learnt, what mistakes you’ve made.
I am also evaluating my own bias toward storytellers - I love reading about people’s journeys and their stories. And I also know that having the language to share your story is a privilege. I have seen the pressure to create a coherent story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But our journeys and experiences meander (just like my answers here do), so I like reading applications from people who find meaning in these meandering stories.
I appreciate humility a lot - you don’t have to know everything, but I would like to read about how you’re trying to learn what is relevant and what you think about the process. I’d learnt this term as a teacher - making thinking visible. And I find it quite curious - how people use the same information to reach different points. So I love applications where I see someone take the question and share what they are thinking, what it reminds them of, and what connections they make to other parts of their experiences. If you give me thoughtful, reflective answers with the ability to accept when things didn’t go as planned/you made a mistake, I would be interested in working with you!
This question does make me wonder if ChatGPT can produce answers which say, “I made a mistake while working on xyz and here’s what I learnt” - I mean I have definitely seen quite a few AI-generated answers, and while they are deceptively good, after a while you kind of start to see the pattern. So I wonder if AI has already tapped into the language of humility or if it will anytime soon. In any case, I also like reading job applications where people ask curious, thought-provoking questions like these - if it makes me pause and think, I would love to work with you! Impact resource rapid fire questions! What tools/sources you regularly digest in order to improve your empowerment and inspiration around your social justice intersections of passion.
Global Good Fund Fellowship: 12-month remote fellowship for innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders of for-profit and non-profit social impact organizations from around the world. African climate storytellers: African content creators, podcasters, bloggers and TikTokers in Africa and the diaspora. You'll receive funding to produce new work, networking opportunities and amplification support. Center for Inclusive Policy Fellowship: Remote fellowship for people with disabilities from low- and middle-income countries who are actively working on or researching issues of inclusive policy in support of the rights of people with disabilities. She Leads Climate Action Nigeria: For young women in Nigeria to support them in becoming climate leaders. Political changemakers in Europe: Grants of €10.000 to support individuals and collectives who want to think through ideas and explore solutions to make politics in Europe more inclusive, hopeful and human. Fellowship for changemakers in Egypt, Tunisia, or Jordan: If you are a visionary leader, who aims to generate ideas for social change in areas such as education, women’s rights, social entrepreneurship, youth, corporate engagement, and human rights,
If you're craving more resources to bloom...We have regular networking events (next one on June 29!), 1:1 matchmaking to help you grow your global network and accelerate your social impact career.
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