Emotional skill building for sustainable development & humanitarian assistance.
We are asking more from our leaders, teams and practitioners than ever before. Make sure they have the skills and support they need to thrive.
The opportunity
Sustainability has shifted the field of international development towards a whole-systems approach that takes multiple sectors, disciplines and stakeholders into account when addressing social and environmental issues and developing the economy. Yet within our institutions, organizations, and professional lives we have yet to extend that whole-systems approach to include the holistic development of our people through building emotional capacity, psychological resilience and creative adaptivity.
“It’s time to extend the field’s whole-system approach to the way we develop our practitioners and leaders.”
— Liz benferhat, principal consultant
True long-term engagement and professional innovation comes from practitioners being personally invested in the topics they work to address. Being personally invested in our world’s greatest challenges like climate injustice, humanitarian crises, extreme poverty, structural inequality, war, famine and more requires tools of emotional support and psychological resilience to sustain engagement and unlock creativity.
Support for the emerging needs of 21st century practitioners.
Invest in:
Your team’s or students’ ability to adapt to crisis, conflict, loss, uncertainty and other types of stress related to climate injustice, humanitarian crises, structural violence, and systems change.
Greater emotional and psychological resilience for field practitioners, frontline workers and students.
Trauma-informed knowledge and practices to sustain longterm engagement in challenging topics and realities.
A relational culture within your work or learning environment that reduces burn out and fosters trust and improved communications.
The development of greater purpose rooted in individuals’ values that serve as drivers of motivation and innovation.
Previous clients & partners
About Liz Benferhat, MPA-DP
Liz Benferhat has spent her career working on international sustainable development and social justice topics. From grassroots development to international policy, notable placements include the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the Presencing Institute, the SDG Academy, and The Hunger Project. She is a specialized generalist within the development field, meaning she works across sectors to design and implement systemic approaches to solving social and environmental problems. Upon seeing a need in the field for emotional and psychological skill building, in 2018 she began developing and facilitating educational programs, workshops and community-based tools to help fellow practitioners be longterm, effective and healthy change agents.
Liz (she/her) lives in the Bronx of NYC with her husband Anees and their cat Woodrow. She has field experience in East Africa and South America, and holds a Master’s of Public Administration in Development Practice degree from Columbia University.