AWAKEN | Affinita Consulting

What is AWAKEN™?

AWAKEN™ is a framework of evidence-informed practices designed to help individuals and teams develop the reflection and relational skills needed to make more conscious, values-aligned decisions. It invites us to explore how our perspective and environment shapes our choices, and how to use awareness to shine light on our decision-making habits and shift those patterns to foster greater safety, trust, and belonging.

AWAKEN™ offers a shared language and step-by-step process to move from reactive, automatic decisions to conscious, collaborative decisions

At its core, AWAKEN™ strengthens our capacity to focus our attention, act with intention, integrate multiple perspectives, to make mindful decisions that are grounded in a clear process.

AWAKEN™ training is an experiential, activity-based learning journey. It includes real-world scenarios and examples tailored to the specific needs of teams and organizations. Rather than prescribing what to think, AWAKEN™ equips participants with tools to explore their own thinking, identify what might be missing, and integrate new learning into everyday decisions.

The Practices

AWARENESS that my perspective influences me.
We begin by noticing what’s present in our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and biases. Awareness is the flashlight that illuminates our inner landscape and helps us see how our perspective shapes our decisions.

WONDER how my perspective influence my actions.
Wonder invites us to get curious about our beliefs, values, and lived experiences. It’s a courageous exploration of the stories we carry and the lenses through which we see the world.

ASK about other perspectives.
ASK is the practice of conscious listening and inquiry. It helps us expand our view by inviting in voices, experiences, and truths that may be absent from our current awareness, especially those that challenge or stretch us.

KNOWING from learning and unlearning.
KNOWING is discernment. It’s the pause where we reflect on what we’ve discovered, question what we’ve assumed, and integrate new insights. It’s not about certainty, it’s about clarity.

ENGAGE in decisions that build safety, trust, and belonging.
ENGAGE is where awareness becomes action. It’s the moment we choose to respond in alignment with our values, building safety, trust, and belonging through intentional decisions.

NEW NEUROPATHWAYS to build AWAKEN practice habits.
The final step is about sustainability. We commit to practices that reinforce our learning, disrupt old patterns, and create lasting change one decision at a time.

AWAKEN Facilitator Certification Training

AWAKEN™ Facilitator Certification Training is where the next group of AWAKEN™ facilitators come together to build community and skills as they journey through training and certification in preparation for bringing conscious decision-making habits to their organizations and communities

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Why AWAKEN™ Matters

In a world shaped by complexity, urgency, and bias, our decisions carry weight. AWAKEN™ helps us slow down and tune in, so we can respond rather than react, listen rather than assume, and lead with integrity rather than habit.

This practice is especially powerful in spaces where decisions impact lives, like child welfare, social work, education, and healing professions. But its wisdom applies to all of us. Because every moment is a choice, and every choice is an opportunity to build safety, trust, and belonging.

Rooted in our values: compassion, courage, curiosity, connection, and community, AWAKEN is designed to help individuals, teams, and organizations:

Increase awareness of bias and diverse perspectives

Foster safety, trust, and belonging

Strengthen teams by building relationships, connection, and community

Implement strategies to plan forward and reflect back

Create sustainable conscious decision-making habits

How AWAKEN™ works

AWAKEN™ doesn’t promise easy answers. Instead, it offers a space for deep listening, to ourselves, to each other, and to our environment, so that in the midst of uncertainty and instability, we can practice the AWAKEN™ decision-making process to make the best decision possible

AWAKEN™ starts with self. By directing the flashlight of awareness inward, we create the conditions to meet others with empathy and curiosity, open to integrating new perspetives and understanding.

AWAKEN™ practices don’t ask you to adopt a new mindset rather, they invite you into an ongoing, shared practice of inquiry, growth, and transformation. AWAKEN™ practices can be used at critical decision points to expand perspectives and possibilities.

AWAKEN™ equips us with tools to recognize how bias and environmental “noise” influence the many decisions we make each day. It demystifies our internal automatic patterns and brings awareness to the subtle ways bias shows up in our thinking, relationships, and actions.

Ways to Engage

For Teams and Organizations

Teams/leaders attend multi-agency AWAKEN™ Core or Leaders trainings
Customized AWAKEN™ Core training with agency/role-specific scenarios and activities
Agency-approved facilitators attend multi-agency AWAKEN™ Facilitator training
Customized agency-specific Facilitator training and technical assistance for capacity building and scaling implementation

For Yourself or Your Community

Individual attendance at a Core AWAKEN™ training facilitated by Affinità
Customized, community-specific Core AWAKEN™ training
Individual attendance at a scheduled Facilitator Certification training by Affinità

Where is AWAKEN™?

Developed in 2019 and first piloted with the South Carolina Department of Social Services, AWAKEN™ has been implemented in over 25 public child welfare jurisdictions across the country. It is grounded in research on psychological safety, team connectedness, and mindful organizing, which are elements of organizational culture that can be built, measured, and have been shown to reduce secondary traumatic stress, burnout, and improve placement stability.

Agency Implementations

South Carolina DSS: foundational training for all newly hired child welfare workers, supervisors, and foster parents
Oregon Department of Human Services: all Child Abuse Hotline Screening team members; expanding agency-wide in 2026
Wisconsin DCF: integrated into Applied Learning Communities for county leaders and supervisors
Humane World for Animals: Adopter’s Welcome trainer development to support a relational approach to adoptions in animal welfare
Colorado DHS: foundational module in the Colorado Provider Training Academy

National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS)

Child Welfare Jurisdiction

Critical Incident Review Teams

16-Hour Advanced Practitioner Training

Allegheny County, PA · Arkansas · Arizona · Clark County, NV · Connecticut · Ohio · Illinois · Indiana · Los Angeles County, CA · Maryland · Michigan · New Jersey · New York City, NY · Franklin Co., OH · Hamilton Co., OH · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Philadelphia County, PA · Rhode Island · South Carolina · Tennessee · Vermont · Washington DC · Wisconsin · Wyoming

AWAKEN Facilitator Certification Training

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REFLECTING ON AWAKEN

WORDS FROM PEOPLE WE'VE TRAINED

I see things differently now I am tuned into my bias. It’s impossible not to use that lens now. The film has been lifted from my eyes.

The Practices

​AWARENESS that my perspective influences me. We begin by noticing what’s present in our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and biases. Awareness is the flashlight that illuminates our inner landscape and helps us see how our perspective shapes our decisions.

WONDER how my perspective influence my actions. Wonder invites us to get curious about our beliefs, values, and lived experiences. It’s a courageous exploration of the stories we carry and the lenses through which we see the world.

ASK about other perspectives. ASK is the practice of conscious listening and inquiry. It helps us expand our view by inviting in voices, experiences, and truths that may be absent from our current awareness, especially those that challenge or stretch us.

KNOWING from learning and unlearning. KNOWING is discernment. It’s the pause where we reflect on what we’ve discovered, question what we’ve assumed, and integrate new insights. It’s not about certainty, it’s about clarity.

ENGAGE in decisions that build safety, trust, and belonging. ENGAGE is where awareness becomes action. It’s the moment we choose to respond in alignment with our values, building safety, trust, and belonging through intentional decisions.

NEW NEUROPATHWAYS to build AWAKEN practice habits. The final step is about sustainability. We commit to practices that reinforce our learning, disrupt old patterns, and create lasting change one decision at a time.

AWAKEN Facilitator Certification Training

Why AWAKEN™ Matters

How AWAKEN™ works

Ways to Engage

Where is AWAKEN™?

Agency Implementations

National Partnership for Child Safety (NPCS)

Child Welfare Jurisdiction

Critical Incident Review Teams

16-Hour Advanced Practitioner Training

AWAKEN Facilitator Certification Training

REFLECTING ON AWAKEN

AWARENESS that my perspective influences me.
We begin by noticing what’s present in our thoughts, emotions, sensations, and biases. Awareness is the flashlight that illuminates our inner landscape and helps us see how our perspective shapes our decisions.

WONDER how my perspective influence my actions.
Wonder invites us to get curious about our beliefs, values, and lived experiences. It’s a courageous exploration of the stories we carry and the lenses through which we see the world.

ASK about other perspectives.
ASK is the practice of conscious listening and inquiry. It helps us expand our view by inviting in voices, experiences, and truths that may be absent from our current awareness, especially those that challenge or stretch us.

KNOWING from learning and unlearning.
KNOWING is discernment. It’s the pause where we reflect on what we’ve discovered, question what we’ve assumed, and integrate new insights. It’s not about certainty, it’s about clarity.

ENGAGE in decisions that build safety, trust, and belonging.
ENGAGE is where awareness becomes action. It’s the moment we choose to respond in alignment with our values, building safety, trust, and belonging through intentional decisions.

NEW NEUROPATHWAYS to build AWAKEN practice habits.
The final step is about sustainability. We commit to practices that reinforce our learning, disrupt old patterns, and create lasting change one decision at a time.