Santa Cruz, California
Over a span of four days this past April, 23 new Facilitators and seven Training leaders took the Facilitator Training to a new level, in what could be described as a combination of Basic Facilitator training, Deepening and Agent of Change training, all with a special focus on Social Justice and Racism. A tall endeavor!
Here is the story of how a new group, Unbuntu (Soul Train), came together and took a Facilitator Training into uncharted territory.
Lessons Learned
In October 2010 Carol Wright, Elaine Gale and myself held a two-and-a-half day training in Santa Cruz at Earth Matters, broadening the role of Facilitator to that of Agent of Change, and going deeper in the area of Social Justice and Racism.
We took away a few valuable lessons. First, two and half days is not sufficient enough time to reach such depth, and second, that it’s crucial to have a diverse group of participants.
For this year’s training, we booked a three and half day space for 30 people at Land of Medicine Buddha, a larger venue with more flexibility in sleeping room accommodations, and a meeting room where we could hold our sessions in a comfortable circle setting.
The South Bay community, in concert with The Pachamama Alliance, created a scholarship fund so we could include people who might otherwise be unable to cover the cost of staying at such a venue.
The training got underway with twenty-three participants and an amazing team: Sharada Wade, Rebecca Strong, Gregory Mengel, Carol Wright, and myself with Cecily Cahill and Derek Tennant as support and production. Every team member contributed a crucial piece to the depth of the training.
Diverse Groups Coming Together
The participants represented diverse cultural heritages, including several people of African-American descent and Native American descent. Participants came from the East Coast, the South Bay area, the Sacramento and Central Valley area, from San Francisco and the North Bay area, and from the San Diego area.
We knew that navigating a training with Social Justice and racism as a key theme with such a diverse group and its inherently wide spectrum of expectations, modes of learning and modes of expression, would take us into uncharted territory. In learning to navigate new challenges, the leadership team, went through its own transformation in such a way that everyone, team and participants, were deeply touched.
The Tools that Guided Us
Some of the key components of the training were:
- Van Jones’ speech to the 2007 Global Gathering, which guided us in the inner work we need to do to address racism.
- Gregory and Sharada gave a masterful presentation on the History of Whiteness and how we got to be in the racially charged environment we live in today.
- Joanna Macy’s Spiral of the Work That Reconnects was a powerful guide as we progressed through the span of four days together.
- Rebecca introduced an embodiment of “The Universe Story” as a way to reawaken our body memories to our deep connection with Earth and Universe.
Most importantly, it was the openness, authenticity and vulnerability of the participants that was the key ingredient of the training, as they became co-creators of this never-done-before venture.
Deep Transformation
The climax of the training was the night before the last day, which we nicknamed “Show Time,” where people in small regional groups delivered a mini rendition of the Symposium through the lens of Social Justice and racism.
This experience has left the team stronger and more committed to keep working together to explore ways to make inroads into the Social Justice facet of our work.
