The Omega Resilience Awards

The Omega Resilience Awards (ORA) is an innovative catalytic grantmaking program that provides fellowships, research grants, and media creation to support new models of thinking, leadership, communication, and engagement in response to the challenges of the global polycrisis.

ORA was initiated in 2022, in direct response to the global polycrisis. We believe that we need new narratives to demystify the polycrisis and highlight the core components and features of resilient societies and communities. ORA is led by a small core team skilled in grantmaking, program design and execution, systems thinking, and communications. We work closely with global anchor partners Health of Mother Earth Foundation, STARTUP! and Colectivo de Acción por la Justicia Ecosocial, who have deep understanding of the polycrisis and resilience at the country and community level. 

ORA administers a Fellowship program focused on thinkers, activists, and storytellers as well as a grantmaking program that funds organizations in the vanguard of mapping and framing narratives. We launched our first research grants in 2022 and our inaugural fellowship began in 2023. Each year we elect 21 new Fellows and make 10 research grants. In collaboration with the fellows and grantees, we weave together new narratives and insights around the polycrisis and resilience. While Commonweal is based in North America, our program is led by a distributed team working from North America and Europe and our Fellows and research grantees working around the world, especially in the Global South.