403. The Superpower of Listening + Centering Community - Alia Whitney-Johnson

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Overview

Meet Alia. While studying engineering at MIT, she traveled to Sri Lanka for tsunami relief work. It was there that her world unexpectedly changed when she met an 11-year-old girl who would change the trajectory of her life forever. This encounter led her to found Emerge Global, an award-winning nonprofit that supports survivors of child sexual abuse in Sri Lanka in healing and developing their self-sufficiency. In her work with children who’ve endured trauma, sexual abuse, and exploitation, she’s centered her work on community, listening and ethical storytelling. Tune-in for an episode that’s heart-wrench and heart-warming🫶

💡 Learn

About Alia’s work in global youth leadership development
The importance of centering community + ethical storytelling
How to listen and the role of listening in developing community

Today’s Guest
Alia Whitney-Johnson, Chief Operating Officer, Latin American Leadership Academy

“What we are trying to do as we change realities has an impact and for me it has made my family grow really quite large.”

— Alia Whitney-Johnson, Chief Operating Officer, Latin American Leadership Academy

Episode Highlights

Alia’s story and journey to where she is today (4:00)
Centering Community in Your work (13:00)
Ethical Storytelling (22:00)
The Decision of Stepping Away from Emerge (30:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in Alia’s life (36:00)
Alia’s One Good Thing: Play. (38:00)
How to connect with Alia and the work she is doing (41:00)

Episode Transcript

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Powerful Quotes

“I have realized I was never going anywhere. I had an obligation, but also what I was doing was bigger than work. What I was doing was family and was community.” -Alia

“What we are trying to do as we change realities has an impact and for me it has made my family grow really quite large.” -Alia

“You can’t have community if you don’t create space to stop and listen.” -Jon

“I was challenged to listen differently.” -Alia

“I was forced to listen in new ways. So often we only listen with our ears and to language. How are we listening with our bodies? How are we creating space? How are we holding each other? There is so much you can learn when you are mindful of that.” -Alia

“I want people to be proud to be represented by us in every step of the way.” -Alia

“We don’t show imagery or tell any story that reveals identity.” -Alia

“I had such a deep love for the organization, that I felt the best gift I could give it was the gift of letting it be bigger than me.” -Alia

“If I really loved them, I needed them to know that they could run this organization.” -Alia

“I didn’t know who I was without this organization, and that is a very dangerous place to be.” -Alia

“What we were building was a community that hopefully through volunteer, working, or giving was going to support the healing of many more people.” -Alia