Care Well

Explore your care personality and how it shapes your life and community.

What is it?

ArtsPond's Care Well is a framework designed to explore how care manifests in diverse communities and individuals. It expands conventional definitions of care by introducing five interconnected care personalities, including careseekers, caretakers, caregivers, caremakers, and careshapers.

These personalities represent different roles in the ecosystem of care, providing a lens through which individuals and groups can examine their relationships with care in a broader context. Each personality offers a unique perspective on how care is sought, provided, and transformed across personal, community, and systemic dimensions. 

For example:

Careseekers (recipients or beneficiaries of care)

Careseekers are recipients of care provided by others. They often view the world as precarious and focus on immediate to short-term needs (approximately a one-year horizon). Their goal is to reduce their personal vulnerability and meet thier basic requirements for security and survival. Careseekers are often seen as vulnerable. And yet, they are also resourceful and possess valuable insights into self-care that can guide those offering or shaping care. Despite limited capacity to effect systemic change, their first-hand experiences provide critical knowledge for identifying authentic care solutions.

Caretakers (guardians or protectors of care)

Caretakers act as guardians of care, protecting access to essential care resources for others. Like careseekers, they also perceive the world as precarious but focus on the medium-term future (around three to five years). These individuals work to safeguard care amidst present harms and future threats, often by uniting diverse groups. Caretakers are perceived as champions or companions to both careseekers and caregivers, though they may face risks to their own wellbeing due to resource gaps or insufficient support. With adequate assistance, caretakers play a pivotal role in identifying and implementing changes necessary for thriving futures.

Caregivers (providers or nurturers of care)

Caregivers nurture care by providing direct and empathetic support to individuals and smaller communities. Unlike careseekers and caretakers, they tend to view the world as prosperous and prioritize helping others in the present to near-term future (approximately two years). Though perceived as selfless and often overburdened, caregivers excel in fostering personal connections and offering essential care despite limited capacity to address systemic issues. Their patience and empathy inspire others to care and help maintain crucial support networks.

Caremakers (engineers or builders of care)

Caremakers are builders of care who focus on creating conditions for thriving futures over the medium to long-term (five to ten years). Seeing the world as prosperous, they lead and support both individual and collective approaches to care that strengthen the vitality of individuals, communities, and ecosystems. Often perceived as ambitious and empowering, caremakers confront resistance to push for transformative changes. Their creativity and compassion enable others to achieve accessible and sustainable care.

Careshapers (visionaries or architects of care)

Careshapers are visionaries of care who see the world as both it is and what it could become. They navigate its vulnerable complexity while imagining hopeful possibilities over the long-term (ten to twenty-five years or more). Careshapers prioritize understanding the causes and consequences of precarity and testing solutions, remedies, and therapies to cultivate systemic prosperity across ecosystems. Often seen as idealistic and innovative, careshapers challenge norms and encourage communities to envision better futures. Their ability to demystify complexity and share broad perspectives ensures knowledge and inspiration are passed across generations.

How to use it?

Follow these general steps to apply the Care Well framework in expanding awareness of care at all levels, including personal, familial, community-wide, and planetary. For another more detailed approach, take a look at the resource guide for ArtsPond's Care Game.

Expand awareness of care needs
Identify care roles and dynamics
Recognize barriers and opportunities
Co-design care practices
Promote holistic care solutions
Reflect and iterate

By approaching care as a multi-dimensional and interconnected system, the Care Well framework helps expand awareness of what care entails and how it can be effectively provided at every scale, from the personal to the planetary.

Examples in arts and culture

1. Public art

A collaborative network of artists, cultural workers, and community organizers comes together to create a public arts initiative focused on promoting mental health and resilience in underserved communities. By using the Care Well framework, the team identifies their care personalities and designs a multifaceted program addressing immediate and long-term needs.

2. Youth

A young artist, recently out of school, is navigating the complexities of balancing personal, family, and community responsibilities while building a creative career. They are a caregiver for chronically ill family members and volunteer in a mutual aid network that connects careseekers and caregivers. They aspire to use their creative practice to help care for other chronically ill and disabled individuals, eventually founding a community organization that challenges societal norms and fosters a more caring society. However, they face challenges in finding the support they need to realize their vision.


Revision #12
Created 8 December 2024 00:34:58 by ArtsPond
Updated 11 December 2024 19:11:03 by ArtsPond