tend
verb
tend (CARE)
to care for something or someone:
He carefully tends his garden all summer.
The nurse gently tended the patient's cuts and bruises.
verb
tend (BE LIKELY)
to be likely to behave in a particular way or have a particular characteristic
We tend to get cold winters and warm, dry summers in this part of the country.
Source=Cambridge Dictionary
-tend-, root.
-tend- comes from Latin, where it has the meaning "stretch;
stretch out;
extend;
proceed.'' This meaning is found in such words as: attend, contend, distend, extend, intend, portend, pretend, superintend, tend, tendency, tender, tendon.
Source=Word Reference
Tend Collective was founded in 2023 by Alison Cebulla with the support and encouragement of many of her colleagues in the trauma-informed care field. The word and root “tend” and their varied meanings are perfect for the mission of Tend Collective, which seeks to increase the care of people in work settings, to change behaviors and habits, and to stretch people and businesses into new, uncomfortable realms.
Alison started her career in real estate development at the height of the housing boom in 2006. She then got a degree in Conservation and Resource Management from UC Berkeley marine conservation, working with The Otter Project as a volunteer organizer for data collection to analyze the Marine Protected Areas Act in California and as an Interpreter, or nature educator, for Califonia State Parks at Oceano Dunes State Park. She then got an amazing role the manager of small nonprofit, HumanKind Fair Trade. She moved to NYC and worked in tech, in app development and tech recruiting sales. After learning about the science of childhood trauma in 2016, she went back to school to get a Master’s in Public Health from Boston University.
“I wrote in my admissions essay that my dream was to work in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) science communication and my dream came true! I interned at PACEs Connection and then they hired me full-time. I worked there for 3 years, meeting just about every expert in the field as the host and producer of A Better Normal, a live Zoom speaker and discussion series from 2020-21.
Through all of my professional experiences, I noticed that there weren’t always enough social and emotional skills in the leadership and workforce to create a positive and productive workforce. There are many societal factors that contribute to this lack: our hyper-individualistic culture, a white supremacy culture that includes urgency, perfectionism, defensiveness, quantity over quality, black-and-white thinking, colonialism, and a dearth of policies that support human wellness. I also noticed a pervasive punitive culture from kindergarten classrooms all the way into the office.
I started The Kindness Challenge in 2013, which morphed into Kind Warrior, to see if I could personally combat the punishment and shame indoctrination I’d inherited. Changing my behavior towards kindness and caring had remarkable results! I soon realized that kinder interactions at work lead to happier and more productive teams. This is well-known and studied! Yet it’s harder to implement in practice.”
That’s why Tend Collective was founded: to help workplaces care about their employees and ultimately, the people they serve, through a better understanding of the principles of psychological safety, trauma, and toxic stress.
“Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity.”
— Judith Herman, Trauma and Recovery