The ROOT Continuous Sabbatical Fellowship FAQ

The Continuous Sabbatical Fellowship is designed for someone who has been doing community change work for a significant part of their lives, and desires an opportunity to rest deeply.

Community change can take place in their work, personal, or other aspects of a person’s life. This can include work that is hyperlocal (i.e., within your own neighborhood or specific community) or work that impacts a larger area or system. Existing sabbatical opportunities tend to be for people in formal leadership positions. We want to break past the typical confines of who gets access to sabbaticals. This sabbatical fellowship is designed to address this limited perception of “leadership” and very intentionally and explicitly invites both experienced BIPOC nonprofit leaders as well as those who may identify more readily as movement builders/leaders/activists.

If you have spent years of your life dedicated to making the world better for our communities of color, and you identify as Black, Indigenous and/or a Person of Color, this sabbatical is for you. 

Examples of individuals who might be a good fit for this fellowship: 

• A community elder who has held space in their dining rooms for important dialogues for decades
• A young queer activist who works tirelessly for gender-neutral bathrooms in their college dorms
• An auntie who consistently cooks delicious meals and fresh produce for her unhoused neighbors
• A mid-career social worker who shows up for unscheduled conversations much needed by the students in his school
• A concerned professional who establishes an employee resource group for women of color at their workplace
• A young leader at a place of worship who plants a communal medicine garden with their elders
• A local councilperson who advocates for state funding for ethnic studies
• A nonprofit founder who creates a program serving families in his native language
• An artist who curates a series of art workshops for the trans community
• And many, many other people creating and nurturing change in many other ways!

We recognize that doing community change work requires us to be nourished for the long run. We need deep rest to connect with ourselves, our purpose, and our vision. Therefore, Continuous Sabbatical fellows must be able to step away from work for 3 full months between September 2024 and September 2025. If this is not feasible for you, please consider the Rhythmic Sabbatical launching in Spring 2025 or the other events and resources ROOT offers.

The application: 

• Application period: Monday, August 5 to Monday, August 26, 2024, by 11:59 pm Central Time. 
• Review of eligibility and random selection: Early September 2024. 
• Selected Continuous Sabbatical fellows notified: Mid-September 2024

The fellowship: 

• Attend any Reimagine Rest Series events during the duration of fellowship. 
• Cohort sessions (in person): 
  • September 27, 2024
  • October 25, 2024
  • November 22, 2024
  • December 13, 2024
  • September 26 & 27, 2025  
• Cohort sessions (virtual):  
  • March 21, 2025
  • May 30, 2025
  • July 18, 2025  
• Attend individualized planning sessions for your sabbatical with your coach, financial advisor, or other support people as necessary.

We recognize that deep rest is needed in our communities. We too recognize that application processes can pit community members against each other, reinforcing who is seen as worthy and deserving. We discussed this at length with the guidance of our Sabbatical Design Committee. The committee’s input has led to a simple, reflection-focused application with fewer questions to invite applicants from all walks of life. 

The ten sabbatical fellows will be chosen at random from the pool of eligible applicants. We will review all applications for eligibility, completeness, and alignment with our funding criteria. All eligible, complete, and aligned applicants will be included in the pool for random selection. In cases where selected applicants withdraw, do not advance, or otherwise drop out of the process, we will randomly select another applicant from the eligible applicant pool. 

While we do not use application answers to select fellows, your willingness to reflect deeply in the essay portion of the application shows serious commitment to this sabbatical.

Resting deeply looks different for everyone, and learning what rest looks like for us requires sustained reflection. We want you to use this application to consider your commitment to a deep, three-month rest. Are you ready for this opportunity? If it feels like a big “yes!”, we look forward to your application! If it does not, the Rhythmic Sabbatical coming in Spring 2025 or our other ROOT events and resources may be a better fit.

The term BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. It is a broad person-first acronym used to describe people who are not white, while noting that Black and Indigenous people face disproportionate discrimination and prejudice in places like Minnesota. Learn more about BIPOC here. 

This sabbatical fund is for BIPOC community members because these opportunities are often not accessible or available for BIPOC folks. BIPOC communities and other historically oppressed and ignored communities have suffered under racist and patriarchal systems of oppression since the founding of our country. And, they have been fighting against these systems for just as long. 

This fight against and within a racist society is taking a toll on our community leaders. Chronic stress and generational trauma are harming our physical and mental health and our ability to show up every day, as fully human. Burnout and fatigue, and subsequently its health and life impact, are disproportionately experienced by those who identify as BIPOC. 

Our funders have committed to addressing some of the racial inequities in accessing rest, thus the focus of our work. The ROOT Continuous Sabbatical Fellowship is an investment in the individual and collective well-being of our movement leaders and is fundamental to sustaining current leaders and developing future leaders.

Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities have faced land theft, wage theft, and many other kinds of violence that have made it difficult to build generational wealth in the US.

We have considered implementing an income or wealth cap on this first sabbatical cohort, but decided not to—people know their own financial situations best. We encourage our community members to consider their own individual resources, networks, and material wealth when determining whether to apply.

We encourage you to apply for the 2024 Continuous Sabbatical Fellowship if you have not been granted similar opportunities, and if you cannot access other opportunities to take extended time off through your workplace or through personal or familial wealth.

For this first cohort, we can only financially support ten fellows. We would like to expand and support larger cohorts in the future. Please reach out to us if you are interested in funding this crucial work!

No. We recognize that activism and systems change work can begin at any age, and many movements have been fueled by the passion and labor of youth. To disperse the funds directly to the fellows, however, they legally must be over the age of 18.

Applicants must be able to prove that they have lived in Minnesota continuously for at least 3 months prior to their application submission date.

You will need to cash a check in your name at a financial institution in order to receive the stipend. The stipend will be reported to the IRS as taxable income.

If you would like a preview of the full application to prepare, you can view it here. The application includes a mix of demographic questions and narrative responses.

Our four reflection questions are our invitation for you to slow down and consider what this sabbatical opportunity will do for your rest practice. Because your answers will not determine if you are selected, we hope you will use them as an opportunity to seriously reflect on your hopes and dreams around rest.  

These are some prompts you can consider for your answers: 

Question 1: What has your experience with rest been? (up to 300 words) 

• Tell us a story of a time when you felt restful.   
• Tell us one joyful and one challenging experience you’ve faced in resting.  
• Describe your relationship with rest throughout the years. 
• Describe some practices you hold dear that allow you to feel restful. 

Question 2: We define rest as activities, physical movements, or experiences that bring you deep joy, peace, and make you feel restored. How would you like your rest practice to be? (up to 300 words) 

• Consider ways you can be more dreamful and playful.  
• What are some emotions or values tied to rest that you would like to experience more often? 
• What are some ways of resting that you would like to try in this stage of your life?  

Question 3: How do you envision the sabbatical resources (stipend, workshops, fellowship) supporting your vision for rest? (up to 300 words) 

• Consider the power of being in a cohort who aspires to build a sustainable way to rest. What might come out of these relationships? 
• Consider what it means to connect to cultural healers, coaches, and workshops to explore rest practices.  
• Consider how having the financial resources will enable you to try something new and restful. 

Question 4: Tell us an example of a community change work you are most proud of. (300 words) 

• Consider the reason why a sabbatical will help you stay committed to your calling.
• Consider the impact you have had on a specific group within the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) community.

For the 2024 Continuous Sabbatical Fellowship, we do not have the capacity to accept applications in languages other than English.

We are committed to sharing key insights about the applicant pool’s collective rest dreams and practices with our community. We plan to share a report on applicant and fellow demographics, as well as lessons learned from the sabbatical experience. Along the way, we may have additional stories, insights, and resources we share publicly through our website, social media, and Care Package newsletters.

If selected, we will ask for your:  

• Bank account information, including your routing and account numbers 
• W-9 (requires an SSN or TIN)
• Proof of identification and proof of residency
  • Types of identification we accept include state-issued IDs or driver’s licenses, school IDs, tribal IDs, U.S. Permanent Resident Cards, and more. See the full list of documents we accept.
• A letter of support from a community member (or a group) who also identifies as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Persons of Color) to attest to your community impact.

Nexus Community Partners is a non-profit, 501(c)3 organization. We are legally obligated by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to issue 1099s to individuals to whom we have given more than $600. We need a W-9 in order to do so. Unfortunately, there is very little we can do to overcome these legal barriers.

We believe that rest is truly our birthright; we encourage you to keep resting. We often share upcoming rest opportunities through our Care Package email newsletter. 

Some other sabbatical funding opportunities available in Minnesota include: 

• Black Legacy Fellowship  
• McKnight Cultural Bearers Fellowship – not a sabbatical, but another cool opportunity
• Open Road Fund – applications reopen Summer 2025