The
Reciprocity
Cycle

"Some days, we've got this. But when some agency is asking me for proof that we're running things right, I'm glad I can call you and figure out the issue fast so I can get back to making sure our little ones don't go hungry."

- Cassandra

founder of a backyard fresh-harvest food bank

supporting

a program of Clement Waters

BE A PART OF THE GOOD

HELP COMMUNITY CHANGEMAKERS
BRING HOME BETTER HEALTH

When times feel uncertain, nature can remind us how to keep striving — moving into the next season keeping steady rhythms, in balance with the ‘grand scheme’ of natural happenings.

Recently across the Midwest and Plains, community changemakers have stepped up as leaders of crisis relief for friends and neighbors. They've brilliantly reflected their wisdom learned from their elders to tap into non-monetary resources with a modern twist, providing service when they see symptoms of need like panic, isolation, or hunger.

How? When crisis hits and safety-net systems break down, these inspired leaders are combating despair and inviting steadiness by calling neighbors out for safety-in-numbers walks outside. They’re collecting and distributing seed so that everyone can grow more food locally. They're gathering people together for ceremony or celebration, and using that opportunity to find out how their neighbors need care.

But operating in the midst of constant hardship, a changing policy landscape can make even the strongest helpers feel that they have a target on their back. It is in these challenging moments that bureaucratic pitfalls can seem like the end of the world.

In times like these, dedicated changemakers need the steady hand of trusted allyship ready to think through the crisis and transform the monstrous paperwork into merely an afterthought. That is the need that launched Groundswell Growth Coaching and Community into being in 2024. And along the way we have learned so much.

One of the hardest truths we’ve seen is this: many of these leaders work hard to win small grants, only to discover the money is reimbursement-based. They’re expected to spend funds they don’t have before receiving a dollar.

Your support helps our consultants connect them with free tools, shared systems, and — when it’s most needed — small pools of flexible seed money so those hard-won grants can actually reach their communities instead of expiring on paper.

Communities need their leaders’ focus to stay on those miraculously inexpensive and culturally-aligned unique solutions to ease and prevent suffering — because their ideas are working today better than any large institution or government could hope to deliver.

You can empower their focus and resilience over hurdles by joining in a community of care that has proven its worth giving back more than it receives. This caring flow of provision connects the generous to these local community changemakers so the good work never has to stop.

BOOST THEIR WORK

cycle partners

These are among our Groundswell Growth program's connections who are ready to step to the next level of responsibility: inviting gestures of hope and help from outside their communities.

KC Health Initiative — Pay-what-you-can kitchen, food growing, healthy lifestyle resources (Kansas City)
MY REGION WINS! — Healthy shared outdoor areas through "Art, Nature, and Neighborhoods" (Kansas City)
Wa Čanté Ognáka — Lakota community health (Rapid City, SD + Pine Ridge Reservation)
United Agrivoltaics Heartland Alliance — Solar power shared in remote farm communities (Upper Midwest States)

plus 9 more partners in urban farming, Indigenous health work, culturally sound trauma recovery, and housing.

WHY RECIPROCITY MATTERS

One of our founders, Joy, grew up around people who believed this simple truth:

When life gives you something — extra harvest, a moment of relief, a bit of hope — you share part of it. Not as charity, as a ritual of your gratitude.

Later in life, she saw the same truth practiced in the most under-resourced communities: on the Rez, in refugee homes, in neighborhoods carrying the heaviest loads.

In those places, generosity can't be a transaction. Generosity is how people honor what they’ve received and make sure everyone gets through the hard seasons together.

That’s the heart of this giving network. By giving of what we have been given, we honor the moral wisdom of reciprocity shown within communities that survive through care.

Your generosity keeps inspired work in motion.

The Reciprocity Cycle is a community-connected circle of compassion that keeps generosity flowing both ways.

Our consultants at Clement Waters’ Groundswell Growth coaching service for community changemakers faithfully stand beside grassroots leaders as they form and grow structured practices that expand innovations, bringing their communities real health improvements — in their own chosen ways.

From urban farms using ancient continental growing methods linked to ancestral eating practices and better nutrition, to poverty relief that links families to their own communal meal traditions using recipes handed down generation to generation, the cultural details don’t cost any extra (in fact they often make the solutions cost less).

To the surprise of contributors, allowing space for cultural practice multiplies the mutual payoff. You will be welcomed to take part in the larger solution connected to universal humanity: reciprocal care.

These humble hometown heroes don’t ask for much. Many use their time outside of their necessary employment to build new influential connections that keep families fed, restore outdoor respite spaces, and strengthen community ties. But when their all-volunteer teams face time shortages, these unsung servants can suddenly face burnout or financial strain.

If nothing is done to help them stay encouraged and ready to face the worst, their work risks stopping altogether.

HELP HOMETOWN HEROES

Your support keeps their efforts alive. But not in the typical large-nonprofit way.

One gift ensures leaders can call for guidance, technical assistance, and the right connection they never knew they needed — in that crucial moment when they need help most.

No added red tape for the changemaker. No reports to fill out after the gift. No strings attached. Just exchanged care, flowing freely from one dedicated heart to another. And that keeps them doing what’s working for their communities.

When you give, it’s more than just helping right-fit services to continue. You stand beside the people who make community relief possible.

“I keep working with Groundswell Growth because I could tell you understood why the way we do things is best for the people.”

– Les, community changemaker

Their relief efforts grow because people like you believe unconditional care still matters.

Give what feels right, and become part of a movement that restores hope, health, and balance through a simple communal philosophy that has united humanity across cultural boundaries for eons: grateful generosity.

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Contact Clement Waters Retreat if you would like a sizable gift to directly bless one of the 13 participating community efforts in Kansas City, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Reservation, Rapid City, and the Pine Ridge Reservation.

BE A PART OF THE RECIPROCITY CYCLE

When you support the Reciprocity Cycle by Clement Waters, you provide essential assistance and guidance for changemakers, from professional allies trained in trauma sensitivity and respect. Make a donation now, and share a personal message for a changemaker.

BE A PART