Spreading joy @ NMAC’s regional CBO leadership summits
Starting in the fall of 2025, GetSomeJoy launched a partnership with NMAC, a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS, to bring sustainable creative wellness strategies and joy to their regional CBO leadership conference series.
Since then, we’ve talked to hundreds of leaders, clinicians, advocates, and patients across the country about cultivating joy-infused, affirming spaces for care, connection, and collaboration.
While sharing our joy-infused wellness resources and strategies, we’ve learned so much about how they’re taking care of themselves and their teams while doing challenging but important work.
Here’s what’s happened since then and how this collaboration formalized.
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Winter Wellness Webinar Series
Regional CBO Leadership Summits:
Houston | Oakland | Philadelphia | Detroit
GetSomeJoy co-Founders Alex Hardy and Enesha Stringer at CBO Leadership Summit - West, in Oakland, CA (October 2025)
NMAC on our joy-infused collaboration
“We’re excited to announce a special partnership for the Northeastern Region Community of Practice Summit — we’re teaming up with GetSomeJoy, a creative wellness agency dedicated to supporting communities and organizations with joy-infused wellness experiences, resources, and trainings.
This collaboration reflects our commitment to centering overall wellness, especially for those working on the front lines of HIV prevention and care. We know the work is deeply meaningful — and often emotionally taxing. That’s why we’re bringing in tools and resources to help you care for yourselves and your teams as much as you care for your communities.”
Conference attendees will able to consult with GetSomeJoy about obtaining custom griefKit resources and joy-infused wellness experiences for their organizations and communities.
the latest in joy: WINTER WARMTH AND WELLNESS SERIES
Snowflakes & Solace: Embracing Grief and Joy During the Winter Season
Facilitator: Alex Hardy
🗓 February 10, 2026 | ⏰ 3:00 PM EST
Create compassionate space to process grief alongside hope and joy, and explore rituals and practices to navigate winter triggers with grace and emotional balance.
What went down:
The winter / holiday season often shines bright on both our joys and our wounds. Snowflakes & Solace is a supportive space where grief isn’t pushed aside — it’s acknowledged, held, and integrated. Guided by Alex Hardy, this session explores how grief and joy can coexist in meaningful ways. You’ll learn grounding rituals, emotional navigation skills, and compassionate tools to help you move through holiday triggers with gentleness and grace. Whether you're exploring personal grief or supporting others, this session offers space for truth, healing, and hope.
Alex offers compassionate space to process grief alongside hope and joy; learn rituals and practicers to navigate holiday triggers with grace and emotional balance.
“Holding sorrow and celebration in the same cup - honoring loss while welcoming light.”
2026: creative wellness strategies for community health workers
joy-infused staff wellness strategies + resource sharing @ CBO Leadership Summit North
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — GetSomeJoy kicked off the new year by hosting a GetSomeJoy Awards ceremony during the morning grounding moment. After Sean’s keynote address, Alex invited attendees to consider where they can inject more joy into their workplaces and community building efforts and give themselves awards for things they had or hadn’t done in the past month. Attendees then applauded their peers after sharing and Alex invited people to share their awards with him throughout the day in exchange for fried chicken stickers.
We gave out so many fried chicken stickers.
We shared the griefKit resource guide, invited attendees to Peer Support Groups, and conducted mental health check-ins via the Community Literary Therapy Wall.
And leaders told us how they’re prioritizing staff wellness + fostering joy and connection in these trying times:
making space to talk about feelings after big events (tragedy, layoffs, transitions, etc.)
wellness days
staff fitness challenges
staff retreats
a “no meetings on Fridays” policy
bringing in workshop facilitators so staff don’t have to add to their workload
staff retreats
Also in Philadelphia (photos by Alex Hardy and Kollin Benson)
Sunshine + Community Care Tools @ CBO Summit West—Oakland, ca
In Oakland, we held another GetSomeJoy Awards ceremony, shared joy-infused resources, and talked to more leaders about how they’re taking care of themselves while supporting communities navigating all sorts of impactful life experiences.
In Oakland, Team GetSomeJoy:
invited attendees to reflect + share about joy, mental health, and supportive resources via our Literary Therapy Postcards, to share on our Community Literary Therapy Wall,
kicked off the conference with a land acknowledgement and Grounding, inviting attendees to celebrate themselves and consider what they’re doing to GetSomeJoy,
learned how public health workers are supporting their staff and partners as they navigate traumatizing interactions and events
shared our griefKit and other creative wellness tools,
invited attendees to our Peer Support Groups
A big dose of joy @ NMAC's 1st CBO Leadership Summit South, Houston, TX
In Houston, we connected with leaders who were supporting communities and teams across the South.
During the GetSomeJoy Awards Ceremony, we heard from people about awesome awards like
The Standing Up for Myself Award
The Night Gym Warrior Award
The Watch Who You’ Talking To Award
The First-Time Plant Mama Award
The Thriving Despite Lacking Leadership Award
The Stepping Out of My Comfort Zone Award
We did GetSomeJoy Mental Health Check-Ins with attendees who stopped by our GSJ Resource Table + Literary Therapy Wall and they shared how they’re are centering joy and mental health in their HIV/AIDS community work.
Leaders we spoke with offered insights about how they’re taking care of themselves + their teams while doing challenging but important work. Some highlights: staff field trips, leadership retreats, + “If it can be an email, it’s an email.”
We shared our digital griefKit and invited people to our biweekly Peer Support Groups.
Mental Health Check-In with Project Coordinator and Marketing Specialist, Jarrell Hargraves
What does joy mean to you? How does it look, feel, sound, taste?
"Joy means an inner smile, anything that makes me smile within. It looks like happy people, happy outcomes. It sounds like good music. Sounds like a warm hello, a good good night."
-Jarrell Hargraves
Also in Houston:
Up next: Look for the Community Therapy Wall in Detroit, Michigan at NMAC’s Midwest CBO Leadership Summit.
2025: mental health check-ins + space for joy and reflection
CHAPTER 1: 2025 UNITED STATES CONFERENCE ON HIV/AIDS
McKinsey Bullock. Research Coordinator, Emory University during his GetSomeJoy Mental Health Check-In
Before our NMAC partnership officially kicked off, GetSomeJoy stopped by the 2025 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) in Philadelphia to share print editions of GetSomeJoy’s griefKit resource, invite people to GetSomeJoy’s biweekly Peer Support Groups, and conduct Mental Health Check-Ins with attendees.
More GetSomeJoy Mental Health Check-Ins [coming soon]
Juan Michael Porter II on what joy means to him:
“Joy means being able to walk around in my underwear and not worry about it, not thinking about someone accosting me. Being able to close my door and know that I have peace of mind and nobody’s going to come and interrupt it.
And also being able to reach out to people that matter to me and know that we can connect safely and do something more together than worrying about what’s going on outside.”
Sean Smith on how he prioritizes his emotional health while doing difficult but important work:
“I love a good book and my fur baby and hiding out in my home. Those are things that help me prioritize my emotional wellness. I love to travel. And making sure I incorporate things like exercise. I love cooking. I think cooking is a labor of love, and so that gives me some time to really slow down because cooking requires time and patience.
Really just making sure I return to some of the things I grew up with in my childhood: the cooking, the breathing, imagination, and spending time with my fur baby.”
2024: a partnership in the making
At the 2024 United States Conference on HIV/AIDS, Alex Hardy supported attendees with a healing space to consider their own wellness and the fuel that keeps them going when work and life get heavy. During “Literary Therapy: Navigating Raggedy Times with Creative Wellness Strategies,” conference attendees took a moment to celebrate themselves and their progress and collaborate on a toolkit for coping, thriving, and finding joy while doing difficult but challenging work.
