Community Spotlight: Niyah White

As 2022 has begun, we are spotlighting several members of the Realize Change community who have experienced professional and personal growth over the past year.

Niyah White is a decarceration researcher, community organizer, and policy change advocate who came to truly own her strengths, her voice, and her power over the course of 2021.

Tell us a little about you. What are you into? What kind of work do you do? What are your special skills and strengths?

I consider myself an organizer first and foremost. In each role I've held since my community organizer days, I've applied my approach to community organizing and relationship building. My current work at FWD.us focuses on decarceration research and policy advocacy that will hopefully encourage a healthier, more compassionate society.

As for my strengths, I've become more familiar and comfortable with my passion and knack for strategic planning and futurism (practical daydreaming?).

I love that — practical daydreaming! Reflecting on a year ago, where were you in terms of your professional and personal journey?

At the start of 2021, I was looking to solidify my understanding of my strengths and how to embody them in my day-to-day life as well as my professional life. My Wellspring of Strengths cohort held an encouraging space for unapologetically promoting myself and holding power within the skill set I believe I have to offer. Through the program I've found a more confident, vibrant version of myself.

That’s awesome! It was wonderful working with you over the summer in the Wellspring of Strengths circle. How did this experience affect the way you approach your work, career aspirations, and/or sense of self?

The Strengths cohort this summer felt like a personal accomplishment that challenged me to not only investigate my own self imposed limitations but to also grasp the courage to assert myself boldly. I was inspired to join the circle after I felt the need to be a better advocate for myself and to overcome my own fear of visibility. The experience moved me to set not only professional and personal boundaries to protect my peace, but also posed as an invitation to identify and ground into my own power that opened new possibilities for dreaming up the future.

Now at the start of 2022, where are you in terms of your professional growth?

In 2022, I've been considering the possibilities surrounding my own interests and growth pathways that would honor my need for self preservation and purposeful alignment with inspiring people, thoughts, and goals in this new chapter.

What advice do you have for other women+ who are seeking to use their gifts for good?

Listen to yourself! Don't be afraid to give yourself the satisfaction of recognition and accomplishment. I've come to learn that while external validation can be situationally both healthy and rewarding, internal validation can be immeasurably valuable — that feeling of contentment spurred from allowing yourself to take a bow.

If you had a 10-billion-dollar foundation, how would you change the world?

Phew! I would prioritize a massive investment in resources for mental health hygiene, treatment, and trauma-responsive community care with a specific focus on prisons, jails, and public school programming.

What are your new year’s intentions for 2022?

I hope to make the most of what the year has to offer and to savor the time and relationships in my life. Throughout the pandemic I've become more comfortable with rest — both needing and allowing myself to rest without guilt which ultimately resets my creativity reserves. I suppose in 2022 I'd like to allow for the ebb and flow of my lived experience to be more gentle and as slow grooving as possible. To best summarize, I liken this feeling to a poem by Nayyirah Waheed:

"I want to live so densely, lush, and slow in the next few years, that a year becomes ten years, and my past becomes only a page in the book of my life.”