Building Common Ground for Social Change

Building Common Ground for Social ChangeBuilding Common Ground for Social Change (DATES TBD) continues to build upon your growing awareness of your inner experience - your core issues and triggers, ego diversions, how you get in your own way, working from your source and noble goals, etc. It is time to take stock of your new skills and how they can be applied in developing important and meaningful collaborations and alliances.

This course situates our activist work within the global challenges facing life on earth, growing our sense of community and expanding our sense of interconnection and independence with all life. Social change can't be done alone. It is done in community with others. The quality of the experience of working together can make or break important connections.

You will explore how you show up as a leader and build momentum around your vision. How aligned are your means and ends? Are you “walking the talk” and enrolling others in your vision?

Since collaboration involves others, you will be called upon to deepen your group facilitation skills, when working with colleagues or in public settings. Where do you presently get stuck and lose faith in your ability to build community? How do you handle polarized views? Are you able to stay present when tempers are hot?

Working with experienced facilitators, you will be exposed to state of the art facilitation skills focused on:

  • Facilitating under fire, under pressure, under attack
  • Understanding and working with polarization
  • Understanding the role of “local” and “global” influences in groups and individuals
  • Holding compassion for others' views you don't agree with
  • Working with ‘hot spots'
  • Understanding the principles of Deep democracy and dialogue
  • Building consensus among diverse and conflicting stakeholders
  • Facilitating from your deep connection with the environment and social justice

Building Common Ground and Capacity for Social Change is also a time for you to reflect on how to apply your learning to specific social change work challenges. How have your foundational concepts for social change and shifting consciousness evolved? What practical steps are you considering in your practice as a change agent?

This module is a shared dialogue on how social and environmental change takes place within the individual and the collective. How does developing congruence between your inner experience and outer actions translate into your world? What are the roots of suspicion and distrust? How can you build trust and faith? How do ceremonies and fun contribute to building community?

You will face the challenge offered by Martin Luther King in reuniting power and love for effective social change.

"One of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love...What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anaemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Our learning model uses experiential and cognitive learning techniques combined with peer support, and real world application.

Please note: Our five course modules can be taken as a series, or as stand-alone independent courses taken at any time.

Join us for Building Common Ground for Social Change - Dates TBD

Faculty: Gary Reiss, Jackie Larkin, Penny Wassman & Ian Curtin

Tuition: $1,100.  (No HST)  Tuition does not include meals and accommodation. 

Scholarships: Thanks to the generosity of our donors, The Inner Activist has established a small fund to grant a limited number of scholarships to those who may be prevented from participating in our life-changing programs due to a lack of financial resources. Each scholarship application is treated confidentially and considered with care and respect. To obtain a Scholarship Application please contact registrar@InnerActivist.com.

Location: The Haven, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada.
All accommodations offerred for Building Common Ground and Capacity for Social Change are shared and include three buffet-style meals per day.  If you are interested in private accomodations, please contact the Haven directly: 1-877-247-9238.

Cancellation and Refund Policy: Tuition will be refunded minus a 20% administration fee if cancellation of your registration is received twenty one days or more before commencement of the module. No refund will be given twenty days or less before the commencement of the module. No refunds will not be provided for leaving the program early for any reason.

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