Jasmine Marie Clark
photo by Gerald Carter
Jessamyn Stanley
photo by Jade Wilson
Ericka Hart
The Chattery announced the start of a new program called Human Development earlier this year.
"Human Development is a collection of classes and workshops that allow students to commit to being better humans by learning about historical inequities that plague us today," officials said. t
The series began in May with an Introduction to Racial Justice class. The Human Development program includes a slate of local and national instructors and speakers and today, The Chattery announces the lineup of national speakers.
• Jasmine Marie is a speaker, breathwork practitioner and the founder of black girls breathing. She’s leading a talk focused on the importance of mental health on Thursday, Aug. 25.
• Jessamyn Stanley is a health & wellness advocate and the co-founder of The Underbelly. She will lead a talk and yoga session on Thursday, Sept. 1.
• Ericka Hart is a race and gender justice educator and will lead a lecture on Thursday, Oct. 13.
"For the first year of The Chattery’s Human Development series, the focus will be on history and mental health & wellness. All of the conversations will provide insight and truth related to race, gender and mental health and are designed to challenge the way we think," officials said.
“We believe that in order to have true and genuine acceptance of another human, you must learn about the whole person,” says Shawanda Mason, co-founder at The Chattery. “What we’re doing with Human Development is not only offering lessons in diversity, equity and inclusion, but also providing spaces to learn about the historical inequities that are the root cause of injustice.”
"The Chattery plans for Human Development to be a permanent part of their class calendar beyond 2022. Most of The Chattery’s classes focus on reflecting inward -- bettering your professional development skills or learning how to create art, but Human Development focuses on the outward -- how you treat others and how to be more empathetic toward one another," officials said.
Locally, the team is working with a variety of Chattanooga-based experts for upcoming workshops including CALEB, Lakweshia Ewing (Unlearn Everything & Live), Sarah Marquez Berestecky (community organizer) and many more. Some topics for this year include a variety of history lessons, gender 101 and mental health sessions.
This new subset of classes paired with The Chattery’s current offerings has allowed The Chattery’s founders to explore future outcomes for their classes which has led them to make a goal of reaching 25,000 lifelong learners by the year 2024.
“While the category of Human Development is a new offering for us, providing thought-provoking classes and workshops is not,” says Jennifer Holder, co-founder of The Chattery. “Because we are constantly reassessing our goals and outcomes as an organization and as individuals, we know this is an impactful program allowing us to reach more lifelong learners as we go along.”
All Human Development workshops are donation-based, however, the founders believe money should not be a barrier to learning. Participants are encouraged to contact The Chattery’s staff if they are unable to make a donation for a specific event. This program is supported by The Footprint Foundation, The Benwood Foundation, The Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Humanities Tennessee and Didn’t I Just Feed You.
Registration and workshop information can be found at thechattery.org/humandevelopment. For updates on The Chattery’s Human Development program follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.