Our 2025-2026 theme at the Sarah W. Heath Center for Equality and Justice is “Fortitude and Reciprocal Care.” Fortitude has long been one of my favorite words and it means “strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage.” Another way I refer to fortitude is with the phrase “staying power.” For me, developing staying power (or fortitude) has been a crucial life skill applicable to the achievement of any of my goals and overcoming of obstacles.  

Reciprocal care is a relational theory of care acknowledging that everything and everyone is connected. Being in community generates a duty of care, or a responsibility, to find ways to survive and thrive together, especially amid social and political destabilization, local and global tragedies, and personal hardships.

In many ways, we live in a world in crisis. Taken together, fortitude and reciprocal care are powerful tools for resisting hopelessness and oppression. When we are so overwhelmed that we feel incapable of fixing any of the big problems, it’s tempting to fall back into individualism as a coping mechanism. Over the next year, our programming will push us to ask ourselves who we want to be in times of crisis and then further push us to actively become those people. All our work will prioritize community, reciprocity, and hope. A popular call and response chant captures the essence of this year’s theme:  

“Who takes care of us?”  

“We take care of us.”