Last year, one of my mentors said to me, “Uncertainty & Possibility are two sides of the same coin.” It resonated with me instantly, but I couldn’t have imagined how much I would come to rely on this idea in the months ahead.

This year has brought an avalanche of uncertainty that none of us saw coming. We’ve had to adapt and find new possibilities in order to side-step disaster. Most of us have reinvented the way we work, parent, and maintain our connections.

In the early days of the pandemic, I spent more than one evening in tears as it felt like AFC faced roadblocks every way we turned.

Seven months later, I have come to see constraints as an opportunity to get creative and have been reminded of the resilience of our community and our collective ability to build something beautiful even during the most challenging of times.

This year, our team of staff, volunteers, advisors, and partners have together made it possible to pivot almost everything about what we do, without changing anything about who we are. By launching brand new programs and adapting existing ones, we’ve found ways to bring our personal growth, leadership, and volunteer experiences online and charted a course to create an exciting, more expansive, more inclusive vision for the future. Here are just a few highlights:  

• Ignite Experience: In January, we launched our first virtual program, our ten-week Ignite Experience, to help people impacted by cancer find connection, growth, and belonging online. Since January, we have run five Ignite Experiences, welcoming more than 50 new alumni to our tribe. 
• AFC Live: We also began hosting a monthly AFC Live video chat to explore themes intended to create positive change in our lives. In June, following the death of George Floyd, we transformed AFC Live into a safe space to host critical and difficult conversations about race in our country.
• Kenya Elevate Fellowship: When we couldn’t travel to Kenya, we launched our first ever cross-cultural, 20-week immersive virtual learning + volunteer experience, designed for Kenyan Cancer Advocates, U.S. Cancer Advocates, and skilled volunteers. With the beauty of technology, we’ve spent the last 5 months learning from our Kenyan Fellows and co-creating a vision to adapt our Ignite Experience content for Kenya. Together, we are one step closer to expanding our program to impact the lives of more than 40,000 Kenyans affected by cancer by 2025.  
• Resiliency Series: When we saw the toll COVID-19 was taking on cancer advocates and non-profit leaders, we decided to launch our Resiliency Series. This series offers tools, resources, and support to those on the front lines of cancer advocacy, including new self-care and leadership skills to navigate the challenges associated with the pandemic and racial justice crisis. 
• AFC Alumni Summit: In October, we held our first-ever AFC Summit. Pivoting from a March event planned for New Orleans, we collaborated with alumni to create an AFC-style virtual experience. Our summit offered interactive activities, new tools for navigating adversity, a spotlight on the unique voices of our alumni, a chance for the broader community to explore AFC, and opportunities for alumni to connect with new and old friends.

Although it wasn’t the year we had planned, our team was able to create new programs we couldn’t have envisioned if we’d been on the road internationally. We also deepened our commitment to doing more at home – especially when it comes to health equity and racial justice. 

We know that the only thing certain is that 2021 will bring additional uncertainty into our lives. But, we are here, committed to our community and to our belief that on the other side of adversity, we can discover new connections, growth, and possibilities.

If you want to be the first to know about our new 2021 programs, make sure you’re signed up for our newsletter. Here’s to welcoming a fresh year and a new chapter, together.