My name is Susan Raffo and I currently live in Minneapolis, MN, with my partner, daughter, two friends, and assorted animals in a collective house. I’ve had a lot of different jobs over my lifetime – cab driver, national park staff, waitress, bookstore worker, street canvasser, and grant writer, to name a few. These days, I pay my bills in three main areas – writing, bodywork, and different kinds of training and community work. Sometimes I also do all of these things for free.

Someone recently asked me how I would link all of the kinds of work I do into a few simple sentences. Here is what I came up with: my work focuses on supporting community through its resources. Resources include the infrastructure that enables us to have a place to sleep, food to eat, and healthcare or healing to keep us well. Resources also include how much energy and creativity we have which means healing from the trauma or struggles that limit us. And finally, resources include the stories we tell about ourselves and each other; the ways we understand and celebrate our lives.

all artwork and site design by amy digennaro, copyright 2010, photographs, courtesy susan raffo.  all rights reserved.