APRIL 8-12, 2015 Social Permaculture Intensive: Nurturing Effective and Creative Groups
Western Sonoma County with Starhawk, Charles Williams and Pandora Thomas
An Earth Activist Training course.
When we come together to co-create, to empower one another or to challenge the structures of unjust power, we face unique challenges. All groups struggle with issues of power, conflicts, and the need to make decisions. Collaborative groups may be healing, nurturing, and inspirational—or they may founder on the rocks of conflict and poor communication.
In this five-day intensive, we'll explore how to structure our groups for maximum group health, how to share power fairly, improve our communication skills, mediate conflicts and facilitate group processes. And we'll share tools for decision making and constructive critique. Starhawk's latest book, The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, will be our foundation.
We'll balance the process work with time outdoors in nature, including hands-on work on the land, as well as walks, bird sits and wilderness awareness. Insights from both permaculture and magic will help us learn to be more effective and joyful as we work together to regenerate our world.
This course is for you if you belong to :
◦ A group or organization seeking to make change.
◦ A nonprofit or NGO that seeks to work collaboratively.
◦ A spiritual circle, ritual group, or faith community.
◦ A community group, Transition Town, collective, or worker-run cooperative.
◦ An intentional community or household or hope to start one.
◦ A collaborative arts, theater, or music group. A band!
◦ A family or a community of friends that want to improve communications and ways of handling conflict.
Topics include:
Permaculture principles for social permaculture:
Design beneficial relationships.
Value diversity and edge.
Stack functions.
Design the physical to support the social.
Working with diversity--race, gender, class, sexual orientation, etc.
Group vision: picture of the world, mission, goals and governance.
Norms and Rules.
Effective group structure.
Power: Power over, power from within, earned and unearned social power
Communication: Text and subtext, nonviolent communication, ladder of inference
Effective feedback.
Conflict—embracing, mediating and resolving group conflict.
Dealing with difficult people (starting with ourselves!)
Cost: sliding scale $650-$850
Some work trade available, and a limited number of Diversity Scholarships for people of color working in environmental and social justice.
http://www.earthactivisttraining.org/
APRIL 13-17, 2015
Facilitator's Training
with Starhawk, Charles Williams and Pandora Thomas
Western Sonoma County at the beautiful Golden Rabbit Ranch
Want to expand and deepen your skills at facilitating groups, mediating conflicts, taking leadership in leaderless groups and exploring the realm of social permaculture? This five-day training is a kick-off for a year-long facilitators’ training program, led by Starhawk and Charles Williams and based on the material in the Empowerment Manual and more. Nurturing Effective and Creative Groups, listed above, or equivalent experience, is a prerequisite.
For more information and to apply, email earthactivisttraining@gmail.com.
Work trade and diversity scholarships available!
EAT Social Permaculture: Facilitators’ Training
Yearlong apprenticeship
This training is for you if:
--You start and lead groups, activist groups, spiritual circles, permaculture guilds, Transition Towns—any sort of group that works with horizontal forms of organizing.
--You facilitate groups that work with consensus and have a horizontal, ‘leaderless’ structure.
--You hold a position of responsibility in a non-profit, a green business or social enterprise or other organization that values collaboration.
--You would like to feel confident facilitating gatherings, meetings, council circles and group decision-making.
--You would like to deepen your skills in facilitating groups that include diversity of many kinds: gender, race, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, class background, etc.
--You want to expand your skills at mediation and conflict resolution.
--You would like to lead workshops and trainings in these areas.
Prerequisite:
Social Permaculture, Nurturing Effective and Creative Groups
Or equivalent training and experience.
For more information, contact earthactivisttraining@gmail.com.
How the course works:
We will meet face-to-face for four days in the beautiful, springtime Cazadero Hills. Our face time will be followed by monthly, online clinics with either Starhawk or Charles Williams (and most often with both) as well as other guests