Changing Course: Windcall and the Art of Renewal
by Susan Wells
A book about the first seventeen years of Windcall and the organizers who were transformed by it….
Seeing the need to help community and labor organizers sustain their vision, balance and resilience, lifelong activists and philanthropists Albert and Susan Wells launched an experiment in the late 1980s. The couple converted their small Montana ranch into a place where organizers could address their symptoms of burnout, restore their energy and creativity, and return to their jobs with fresh hope and commitment. They called this inspiring, groundbreaking place Windcall.
In Changing Course: Windcall and the Art of Renewal, Susan Wells narrates the couple’s journey as they grow Windcall into a social justice movement treasure. Aside from offering a history of the project, the book serves as a practical guide, not only for who can learn from Windcall’s unique model, but for anyone who has ever experienced the debilitating effects of burnout.
Changing Course shows readers how they can restore balance in their own lives and as importantly, is a call to the social justice movement to prioritize organizer sustainability and renewal.
Changing Course, published by Heyday Books in 2007, can be purchased through your local independently owned bookseller or online.