Healthy Minds in a Healthy Community by Erik Romijn

Bio: Erik is the co-founder and CTO of a small company that helps governments manage healthcare. He is deeply involved in the community around Django, a popular Python web framework, being a Django core developer, chair of the Dutch Django Association and co-organiser of various conferences. A long time ago, stopping just around the time Swift was first introduced, Erik did iOS development as well. He won various local awards by building the most popular independent Dutch public transit app at the time. Erik cares about building communities and conferences in which everyone feels welcome, valued and at home, regardless of their background. He has a specific interest in the well-being and ethical issues around communities and development.

Abstract: Open source communities attract and boast passionate, idealistic people, and many of us invest copious amounts of time and effort to contribute to our projects and support our communities. This underlying emotional attachment can make us more vulnerable to elevated stress, burnout, and conflicts. And then there are those of us who also manage mental illness. More often than not, we suffer these struggles in silence, feeling (and fearing) that we’re alone in our trouble. Here, our communities can make a huge difference, by building a positive and safe environment where we can blossom and support ourselves and our peers, and feel included. The community around Django, a common open-source web framework for Python, is already very mindful towards inclusivity and keeping an eye on the well-being of community members. We have recently launched several new projects to further promote the well-being of our community members. This the talk will take a look at open-source communities through the eyes of various mental well-being issues and struggles, show various things that some communities already do and the new initiatives from the Django community. This will hopefully inspire more communities to help foster healthy minds in a healthy environment.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/erikpub

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