What is CAM™?

Community Activated Medicine™

Community Activated Medicine™, abbreviated to 'CAM™', was coined and developed by our CEO and Founder, Lea S. Denny. It was started to support collective grieving for collective healing. Within the communities that Denny walked in she saw historical trauma manifested in generations of disenfranchised and complex grief. Using practice-based medicine she saw immediate results with gathering community members together to create a space where we can collectively grieve. Informed by cultural and ancestral knowledge she created connections with land, people, stories, and food as a way of healing. 

 

CAM™ is where healing ways and community activism intersect to create action-oriented wellness; it is where the people are the medicine. This approach has two parts, to inform the community and providers and to activate their action on how to be part of the process in addressing the healing needs for communities and creating change for the generations of our past, and future. 

 

CAM™ is both a noun and verb; it is a process for mending social fabric through healing connections and the process of activating these community-informed spaces. It is where we protect and share our sacred healing traditions in collaboration with inclusive mental health ways to support the healing of the one's mind, body, heart, and spirit for the community, and the greater global plane. 

UPCOMING CAM™ EVENTS

PARTS OF COMMUNITY ACTIVATED MEDICINE™

Your Guardians for Your Circle of Care

Part of CAM™ (Community Activated Medicine™) is leaning into the people around you that you consider safe, loving, joyful, and protective. As we navigate our healing journey we come across people who touch our lives in a positive way. Sometimes it is our parents, caregivers, grandparents, friends, aunties, cousins, teachers, coaches, or even the local librarian. Our guardians are those who helped us feel seen and heard. They are the people we are able to go to within the community when we need advice, or someone to just talk with when we are feeling a little down. Take some time to think about who those special people are in your life. Identify your guardians to create a Circle of Care™! 

CAMPsites™

CAMPsites™ are our "offices" in the community or what we refer to as "Mental Health without Borders" approach. Learn More about how we bring Community Activated Medicine™ to our communities and spaces using CAMPsites™ (Community Activated Medicine Place™). Here our community healers Xavier and Malia demonstrate CAM skills, tools found in our healing kits and how neuroscience and ancestral teachings/ knowledge can inform and empower each other to activate the healing medicines within to further healing within our relatives and ourselves. 

Medicine Kits

Part of CAM™ (Community Activated Medicine™) is leaning into those things throughout your life that bring you joy! As we navigate our healing journey we come across different ways that fill up our mind, heart, body, and spirit. Some examples of what we can add to our medicine kit are reading, smudge, drinking water, music, laughter, playing outside, coloring, or taking a walk. Adding to our very own medicine kit is one way to intentional make joyful choices that can help us find balance when we are feeling a bit out of sorts. Take some time today to reflect on what those items are that you want to add to your medicine kit!

CAM™ in Virtual Programs

See Community Activated Medicine™ at work in our virtual spaces with this excerpt from Reflections and Resilience. This is a live virtual Circle of Care™ held Monday-Friday at 8 AM CST on the HIR Wellness Institute Facebook page. Here we see Malia welcome our relatives, begin the Circle of Care™ with igniting the fire within smudging, and inform our relatives about CAM™ and the healing informed practices ™. 

What Students Have Said When Learning About CAM™

“I was given the opportunity to sit with my discomfort, know what it means to be uncomfortable and realize the impact that it has on myself. Understanding my own biases and how I will always hold onto some bias. However, to have practice of being aware of it, holding space for it, and being in the practice of not letting the bias have impact on the work that I do. 

 

“Through the masterclass, I have learned so much, clinically, socially, systematically, etc. I have understood the impact of words, of actions, and of intent. I have been able to see more clearly and have allowed myself to heal. Through my healing I have allowed myself to be vulnerable with my shame and to allow myself to heal through it. It is a safe space where we can self-discover and reflect which consequently leads to healing not only for one but for all. The Masterclass is a way to help heal the healers and to teach the healers more than what they have learned in the classroom about people and about what it means to heal.”

 

- Odessa Peters, Counseling Intern 2020-2021