Meet Ames

Ames Carpenter (they/them/theirs) is the co-founder of the Grand Rapids Mutual Aid Network, a longtime unschooling parent, a published poet and author, a queer community organizer, and an intuitive and spiritual facilitator. They live on Anishinaabe land near the bend in the Grand River (Owashtanong, or far flowing water), tended specifically by the Ottawa people.

Ames' certification focuses on “resilience coaching”: not as in “strong enough to take a punch,” but as in neuro-plasticity. Shereka Dunston, my life coaching instructor, would say, “Black folks have generational trauma but we also have generational resilience.” With support and practice the brain can build neural pathways around trauma reactions and into new ways to problem-solve and protect one’s peace.

That’s a lot of things, and let’s face it, the life coaching business rests upon Ames’ experience, so here are some of the highlights on the lifeline:

My Path and My Work

Unschooler:

Intuitive & Spiritual Facilitator:

Published Poet &
Author:

Queer Community Organizer:

In 2003, after a lifetime of trying to fit in and follow the rules, Ames and their family jumped into unschooling full force, meaning that the children left public school and the family lived as though that particular institution didn’t exist. It was freeing, exhilarating, and it meant that Ames had to dig into relationship-based learning and consensual practices with their children. This opened up a new way of living.

In 2007, Ames hit 40 years old and their midlife crisis arose, right on cue. This led Ames into dream work in the Jungian tradition, and strengthened their practices with symbolic and intuitive systems such as Tarot and astrology. Ames has years of experience in shadow work and the journey to the Self, and is honored to accompany others on these journeys, as well as to help folks open up their own intuitive sense. Ames is also able to support tapping into rituals and one’s historic, ancestral, or current-day spirituality in a way that resonates.

Ames has been writing since their teen years, and was a writing teacher before having children. As well as writing their book of poems, The One Inside An Onion, Ames is fascinated with creativity and the different ways it arises in different people and in land, animals, and plants. Ames has organized writing groups and often hosts writing and creativity workshops, believing that community deepens when we create together.

In 2015, as the world wrestled with the murder of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Sandra Bland, and more, Ames, who is of Irish/Gaelic, Polish, and French descent, had to reckon with their own participation in white supremacy, its culture and its systems.

In 2017, they started working as a volunteer organizer with grassroots groups such as Movimiento Cosecha GR, GR Rapid Response to ICE, Together We Are Safe, Done for DiDi with Boston organizer DiDi Delgado, and more.

In 2018, they came out to certain circles as trans non-binary.

In 2020, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting shutdowns, they worked with other activists and organizers to co-found the Grand Rapids Area Mutual Aid Network (GRAMAN). From GRAMAN sprouted other grassroots efforts such as the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union and, after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Defund the GRPD.