Earlier this year, we hosted community organizer and activist and Year of Rest Recipient, Aisia Jones at Getaway Beaver Creek outside of Pittsburgh and Cleveland so she could enjoy some much-deserved free time in nature. Here’s what she had to share with us about herself, her work, and her escape to nature.
My name is Aisia Jones, and I have been a Cleveland community organizer and activist for the past 8 years. I started off volunteering with local food pantries, shelters and grassroots organizations. One of of my main goals within this work is to reengage and engage community members within their own neighborhoods. To reach that goal, it takes understanding and active listening to the issues community members face on a day to day basis. So what makes me unique and different from your typical type of outreach and that I always approach organizing with transparency about my own experiences dealing with poverty, homelessness, racism, lack of resources and mental health struggles. I facilitate a lot of conversations in the community about those very issues and ways we build a better community together by becoming more involved.
I love to paint!! Art is a huge joy for me, I’m able to escape and create whatever I feel. Art helps me recharge because it allows me to release what I feel and I’m able to visualize my feelings. Exercising is a more recent way for me to unwind, I love it because I listen to music and get moving. I really enjoy traveling, I enjoy seeing different places and experiencing spaces.
My relationship with rest had been very non-existent before I got away, and I realized it was ok to be silent, and clear my mind of worries and concerns, if only for a day.
In need of your own escape to nature? Book your Getaway today.