Nafasi Ferrell

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Blog is part of the Whole Communities Newsletter “All Black Everything”

For some time now, I have been dreaming and building as we humans do, tinkering, thinking, crafting, and transforming the world around me as best as I can with the resources I can access. For me, that means trying to live each day in a better world than yesterday and attempting to get others to see and desire a different tomorrow than today. 

Having been a community connector since I was a teen and a trauma-informed financial coach since 2019, I have sought to find a simple method of ideology for the redistribution of our earth’s resources so that poverty, slavery, and oppression could end sometime in this lifetime. Many of us pray, dream, and build toward this each day. But in order for us to have this discussion, we must first decide what wealth is, what resources are, who deserves them, and why. Under the current ideology,  where there are those who shall have and those who shall not have based on the beliefs of other humans, we will never end slavery, poverty, or anything else that creates suffering. We must continue our work to change this. 

Save. Invest. Redistribute the rest. 

The world around us shares clues as to how to provide our current civilizations with the framework needed to thrive. Our cells, the sun, tree rings, planets, and a continuous beginning and end are all circles. So is our relationship to wealth and liberation. Giving and receiving is a behavior we all engage in every day, yet it is rife with hate, violence, hurt, pain, suffering, and death. It doesn’t have to be. Giving and receiving can also be engaged with in a way that is healing, nurturing, expansive, loving, gentle, and kind. 

Our ancestors have shown us this time and time again through giving circles, progressive tax structures, the use of cash transfers, and the implementation of minimum wage laws. We have come a long way and we have only the future ahead of us. 

Saving, investing, and redistributing is a simple exercise that we each practice every day. Some of the ways we can save are by setting goals, paying down debts, using discounts, accepting gifts from friends, and automating savings from earned income. We invest when we buy goods and services from businesses in our communities or in the larger stock market. We invest when we give to our local church or community organization, when we support a loved one who is sick or a friend who needs a ride to work or the grocery store. We invest in our personal growth by going to school or learning a new skill and by taking care of our mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. You are a seasoned investor, investing in the world around you that you are helping to build. 

You’re already doing it!

As you get clear on your goals, desires, and needs, it becomes much easier to redistribute what you can. No amount of wealth is too little to make a difference. It takes a penny to make a million. Whether you give $1, $50, $100,000, or $1 million, every penny can help someone get out of debt, set up an emergency fund, or pay for school fees or medical bills for someone who cannot. There is no limit to how you can help someone with your resources. 

When I began the wealth redistribution circles at Narratives Unbound, I did not have any expectations for our community except one: that each person never sees each other as less than the amazing humans that they are. We decided how and when we gather, how much currency we have to share each month and what our collective and individual needs and dreams are. Since 2020, we have supported over forty youth and adult leaders across four countries through our wealth redistribution circles across our four  Cohorts. As of 2024, we have held over 100 circle gatherings and redistributed over $34,000 across six US cities and four countries for basic needs, business development, family support, therapy, and self-care. We define wealth redistribution as the sharing of tools – currency, skills, and services in a way that provides an individual with enough to alleviate financial volatility and enhance well-being. We believe that in order to build communities divested from poverty, inequality, and scarcity, we must pass on the tools for overcoming money trauma and build wealth so that, as leaders and entrepreneurs, we can begin utilizing resources for ourselves and our communities to thrive. 

Learning to save, invest, and redistribute well each day creates a much greater world than the one we have today. Each of us must contribute what we can and ask for what we need in order to sustain it. If we truly desire a world of liberation for ourselves, our communities, and the world, we must take the first steps to perfect our individual practices in the world. We can do this one conversation at a time.

Nafasi Ferrell is a Community Connector and Facilitator of over ten years. She has focused her life's work on building bridges, healing, and transforming the world around her. She is a financial coach certified in the Trauma of Money Method, a wealth redistribution leader, and the founder of Narratives Unbound LLC, a Consulting and Education Company dedicated to advancing racial and economic equity through financial coaching, community workshops, and wealth redistribution circles. She enjoys spending time walking in nature and cooking nourishing meals with friends and loved ones. She is currently working on a cookbook called "Recipes from My Grandmother's Kitchen" to honor her grandmother Cleo and other grandmother's wisdom and food traditions.