For Our Community
Teaching While Healing
A Community Commitment to Care
A place to receive care, without the demand to be strong.
Join The Commune Institute in support of Chicagoland women educators in recovery from breast cancer. An October weekend begins a year of spiritual companionship, rest, and peer support.
- October 16, 2027:
- Cohort kickoff
- October 17, 2027:
- Community awareness and support event
- October 18, 2027:
- Making Strides of Chicago Breast Cancer Walk — culminating event
- Venue:
- D'ESTEE, Chicago, IL
Participate / Nominate
Join the Cohort, or Nominate a Survivor
Sign up for the yearlong cohort yourself, or nominate a Chicagoland woman educator in recovery from breast cancer.
Participate / NominateHelp Make a Year of Care Possible
Participation is free for every woman. Each place costs $100 per person, so every $100 you give welcomes one educator into the October 2027 weekend and the yearlong cohort.
A weekend to receive care
Retreat space, meals, and spiritual care
A year of companionship
Cohort gatherings and program leadership
Access to participation
Transportation and dependent-care assistance
Rest and reflection
Participant-selected creative and contemplative resources
Give now
About
Why This Program Exists
Women educators carry a great deal: classrooms, families, congregations, and communities that lean on them. The ongoing demands of life after breast cancer can arrive alongside all of it.
Teaching While Healing begins from a simple conviction: women deserve care without the demand to prove their strength or provide service in return. Care is not a reward for recovery, and it is not measured by a return to work.
We welcome women across racial and spiritual traditions, with particular attention to Black women's experiences of race, gender, educational labor, and faith. Participation does not require continued employment.
This program offers spiritual care and peer support. It is not medical or clinical care.
The Scholarship Behind Our Care
Our language and practice are informed by Chanequa Walker-Barnes's critique of compulsory strength and self-sacrifice. Her work is acknowledged here as inspiration; it does not imply the author's endorsement.
Walker-Barnes, Chanequa. Too Heavy a Yoke: Black Women and the Burden of Strength. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2014.
The Gap We Answer
Care that begins where the numbers live
Behind that figure are women educators who keep teaching, parenting, and caring for others while they recover. Teaching While Healing exists so that care is something a woman receives, not something she has to earn.
Figure shown: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
October Launch
Who Cares for the Women Who Teach?
October 16 is a private kickoff and retreat for cohort members: a weekend to receive spiritual care. October 17 opens the doors to neighbors, a public invitation to share responsibility for sustained care.
- A shared community meal
- Breast health education from a qualified professional
- Conversation about practical support from schools, families, and congregations
- Optional spiritual reflection and creative expression
- Ways to support the yearlong cohort
Participants are never expected to speak publicly, share a diagnosis, volunteer, or give testimony.
Both days take place at D'ESTEE in Chicago, IL. Admission is free for participating women. Time, capacity, and access details will be shared once confirmed.
Culminating Event
Making Strides of Chicago Breast Cancer Walk
Sunday, October 18, 2027
The weekend closes with the community on its feet. Survivors, families, students, colleagues, and neighbors walk together — care made visible in the open, rather than carried quietly.
Cohort members are warmly welcome to walk. Attendance, speaking, and photographs remain separate, optional choices — no one is asked to be on display.
Meeting point, time, and registration details will be shared once confirmed.
Questions about joining the walk? Write to info@thecommuneinstitute.org.
Itinerary
The Weekend at a Glance
Friday, October 16, 9:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.: a private kickoff retreat for cohort members — welcome, reflection, rest, and a hosted meal. Saturday, October 17: a community awareness and support day open to neighbors. Sunday, October 18: the culminating Making Strides of Chicago Breast Cancer Walk.
View the full itineraryAttend October 17
Join Us at the Table
This is for the public event only. Survivors interested in the cohort can use Participate / Nominate.
Yearlong Cohort
a year of companionship
Twelve Months of Companionship
The proposed rhythm below will be confirmed with the program team. Only the monthly conversations are a gentle expectation; everything else is optional.
- Monthly guided cohort conversationsAbout 90 minutes each month
- Peer companionshipOptional
- Quarterly rest and connectionOptional
- Private communication with staffOptional
- A closing gatheringEnd of the year
Proposed. Time commitment to be confirmed.
Questions
Questions
Is there a cost to participate?
No. Admission is free for participating women. Each woman's place costs about $100, which is covered by community gifts. Transportation and dependent-care support are among our care priorities.
Do I need to be working right now?
No. Participation does not require continued employment or a return to work.
Is this faith-based?
Spiritual care is at the heart of the program, and women of all spiritual traditions, or none, are welcome.
Is this counseling or medical care?
No. We offer spiritual care and peer support, not clinical care.
Will my information be kept private?
Yes. Registrations and nominations are seen only by program staff and are never shared or published.
Prefer a conversation? Write to info@thecommuneinstitute.org.
Additional Breast Cancer Resources
- National Breast Cancer Foundation (external site)