Social Change

Group Decision Making: A Nonviolent Communication Perspective

   By Ike Lasater
   With Julie Stiles

We’ve all taken part in groups where decisions were made about what the group will do; perhaps a work team where project goals and tasks were to be decided upon, or a workshop context where different options existed to reach learning goals. We actually engage in group decisions every day; a group can be defined as two or more people, so even in situations that we don’t think of as group decision-making—such as deciding which movie to see or where to eat dinner—we are in fact making a joint decision. Group decision-making presents certain challenges to any group and facilitator, whatever the context.

Posted Tue, 2010-02-16 21:07 by Web Master

Building a Compassionate Justice System: An Introduction to Restorative Circles with Dominic Barter

Date: 
2009-11-14 09:00 - 2009-11-15 17:00
Course Description: 

Restorative Circles offer ways for individuals, families, groups and communities to establish connection, discover meaning and recover power on profound levels. They create a forum for connecting empathically across differences and reaching agreements that support safety and well-being, both personally and within society.

This systemic approach guides communities in choosing how they would like to respond to future conflict – proactively preventing or diminishing harm – while also giving participants a real-life experience of the practical power of nonviolence to seed understanding and change in challenging contexts.

Developed in the shanty towns, schools, courts and prisons of urban Brazil, Restorative Circles are being used in a wide variety of contexts and countries, where creating the conditions for social justice, group cohesion, resilient relationships and personal healing are recognized as interconnected and vital.

The Circles support dialogue rooted in open-hearted clarity and tangible power-sharing - calling us to rethink our view of and response to living with others, while engaging with the challenge of consciously strengthening community well-being. The results open up revolutionary possibilities for furthering a culture of peace.

In these dynamic two days, Dominic Barter will present the evolution and practice of this work, and its application to diverse areas of our personal and collective lives. Through hands-on exploration of key concepts, grounded in a step-by-step process and illustrated by real world examples, we’ll apply the learning to participants’ issues and increase our ability to see and act from our shared humanity. Finally, we’ll rehearse the development of this new resource in a community of which we are part.

This event will be filmed; you will have the choice to not appear on the videotape.

Dominic Barter began developing restorative practices and systems in the mid 1990s, inspired by the social complexity of Rio de Janeiro, his adopted home, and his study with Marshall Rosenberg in Nonviolent Communication. Since 2004 he has been the training program director and consultant to the Brazilian Justice Department’s Restorative Justice pilot projects, in collaboration with UNDP, UNESCO, the Special Secretariat for Human Rights, local communities and State Secretaries for Education. In 2008 Dominic was a keynote speaker at the International Conference on Restorative Practices. He coordinates the Restorative Justice Project for the international Center for Nonviolent Communication.

CO-CREATING THE RESOURCES FOR THESE EVENTS AND THIS WORK:

We are committed to making this work available to all who request it.

It is offered in the spirit of a gift.

There is no specific fee required in exchange for participation. We invite those who come to do so in the spirit of receiving a gift.

We see us all as sharing power capable of creating the conditions for the world we want to live in. To support the exercise of this power, information on the financial resources used in developing and presenting this work will be shared during the evening. We hope this will support those participants who so choose to contribute financially toward meeting the event's costs and supporting the on-going work.

For those interested, we also welcome contributions before the event, which help to offset upfront costs.

Posted Sun, 2009-09-06 12:03 by BL127

Deepening Awareness

Date: 
2010-08-01 14:00 - 2010-08-15 14:00
Posted Sun, 2009-08-30 14:37 by Louise Romain

Stepping into our Power: A Bi-Coastal, NVC Queer (LGBT) Retreat

Date: 
2010-02-24 13:00 - 2010-02-28 13:00
Preparation: 

Suggested 12 hours of NVC training

Course Description: 

Come enjoy a safe, fun, engaging NVC space for queer folks to explore everything that matters in our lives---our own healing and development, our relationships and families, our spirituality, and our work and activism. Join us in fostering a sense of queer community within the larger NVC network while integrating NVC consciousness within the LGBT movement.

Would you like to …

  • Foster a sense of queer community within the larger NVC network?

  • Transform your enemy images of heterosexual people & society?

  • Heal your internalized self-judgments?

  • Deepen trust within our communities?

  • Integrate NVC consciousness in the LGBT movement?

  • Build bridges toward creating our freedom, belonging and acceptance in the larger world in a way that’s in integrity with your values?

  • AND sing, connect, eat, rest, play, and celebrate who we are---while deepening your NVC practice?

Then please join us for
STEPPING INTO OUR POWER!

 

Dian.jpg Dian Killian kristin, high res.png Kristin Masters     

 

Posted Mon, 2009-08-10 13:22 by christineking

Creating Workplaces Where People Thrive: Successfully Implementing Needs-Based Systemic Change in Businesses and Non-Profits

Date: 
2010-03-21 18:00 - 2010-03-28 09:00
Preparation: 

Co-Requisite 

NVC Training Institute's Seven-Day "Living Energy of Needs" Training or equivalent foundations in NVC skills & consciousness

Course Description: 

For detailed information about this workshop, please go to our website: http://www.nvcti.com/creatingsystemicchange.html

Over the years we've had a lot of people in our trainings express
interest & excitement about bringing NVC into businesses &
organizations, and now we have developed a training to support those
who are venturing into this territory.

With his background
in owning & managing small businesses, Gregg has focused the last
eight years on facilitating needs-based consciousness in
organizations—first in his own 19-year-old business, and then as a
consultant to a variety of businesses & nonprofits including a
4-1/2 year engagement at a company that does pharmaceutical studies.

The intention within our work is to foster the fullness of needs-based
consciousness—the living energy of needs—such that we not only impact
the human relationships within the organization but we systemically
transform the organizational processes, strategies and structures to be
in harmony with this consciousness.

OUR INTENTIONS WITHIN THIS WORKSHOP

Share our experience of NVC/DSG as processes for organizational development

Develop NVC skills & needs-based consciousness, beyond the
intrapersonal & interpersonal, to encompass groups of people with a
common mission & aim

Learn to introduce NVC to people within businesses & organizations through inspiring rather than selling

Expand the mission of any organization so that it becomes a "living organization"

Introduce Dynamic Self-Governance (Sociocracy) as a framework to hold needs-based consciousness

Experience circles as the core organizational unit and explore the
dynamics within those circles that fulfill the needs of the
participants and the needs of the whole

Invite hands-on
practice of essential NVC organizational skills in facilitation of
meetings, expressing & hearing disagreement without blame,
mediating conflicts and coaching

Explore how common
processes—e.g. meetings, employee reviews, hiring, terminations of
employment, email communications—are transformed to create an
environment of authenticity, connection & mutual interdependence
within the organization

Witness—and learn the skills of—a new leadership that emerges in living organizations

Learn the crucial role of systemic feedback for a living organization to thrive

Varied Learning Modalities

Large group sessions
to enhance awareness of significant concepts using short lectures
combined with role play demonstrations and somatic "whole body"
exercises.

An integral Business Simulation
throughout the workshop provides a common context for dynamic learning
through role plays and group interactions … every participant has a
role in the business

Each participant co-creates and participates in a small group of three to five people called an Affinity Group
which has scheduled time to meet each day of the workshop with the
purpose of practicing and integrating core concepts and applying the
workshop material to your real-world situations

Each day has scheduled Personal Integration
time in which each participant makes choices as to how to best
integrate the material, e.g. an information discussion with another
participant, personal reflection, taking a walk, etc.

We
encourage you to "get out of your head," tap into your creativity and
experience the core concepts and awarenesses using somatic movement exercises and simple percussion instruments.

Each evening we invite everyone to a Community Meeting
to celebrate and mourn our experience of the day, to offer feedback,
and to reflect on how we are doing at creating community.

On the final evening of the workshop, we host a Grand Finale Celebration where each participant is invited to express how we intend to carry this transformative work out into the world.

We invite participants to offer session of their own that they want to share with other participants in Open Evening Sessions 

Each participant receives a comprehensive 100+ page Participant Workbook that includes session notes, drawings and diagrams, and supplemental resources. See the following sample from the Workbook:

Co-CreatingtheLearningEnvironment.pdf

Intended Participants

Business owners, managers and NVC/DSG "champions" who want to integrate NVC/DSG into their businesses and non-profits

Consultants who want to facilitate the integration of NVC/DSG into client organizations

Certified & non-certified NVC trainers who want to facilitate the integration of NVC/DSG into client organizations

DSG (Sociocracy) consultants who want to understand how NVC integrates into DSG

 

Posted Sat, 2009-07-25 11:09 by Gregg Kendrick

The Diversity Retreat: NVC & Race, Ethnicity and Social Class in North America

Date: 
2009-08-02 17:00 - 2009-08-07 15:00
Course Description: 

The Diversity Retreat

Nonviolent Communication and
Race, Ethnicity & Social Class in North America

http://diversity.learnnvc.com

 

August 2 - 7, 2009

with Roxy Manning, Jane Connor, Nancy Kahn and Edmundo Norte

CA licensed MFTs, LCSWs and nurses can earn 35 CEUs in the areas of
cultural competency and communication skills. Click here for more information on CEUs.

In this 5 and ½ day retreat, we will:

  • Explore how existing power dynamics in North American society impact our ability to connect with our own and others full humanity;
  • Examine the societal messages we have received about our own and others’ race, ethnicity and social class, and begin to find ways to heal and move past the impact of those messages;
  • Learn and deepen our practice of concrete communication skills that
    can support authentic connections across traditional race, ethnicity and
    class barriers;
  • Understand how to deepen your connections with everyone, regardless of their background, through authentic, honest and compassionate communication;
  • Identify effective strategies to support engagement with those
    currently working within the current systems of power in North America;
  • Share with each other the practices and strategies that support the building and strengthening of organizations and communities
    focused on creating social change.

This residential intensive combines experiential exercises and activities, theoretical learning and multiple coaching opportunities to create a deeply meaningful and powerful learning experience for those wishing to find a
new way to engage with the existing structures in North American society and their own relationship with those structures. Our trainers bring expertise in diverse fields: Diversity Work, Social Work, Clinical Psychology,
Multicultural Psychology, Program Development, Critical Pedagogy, Educational Programs, and Direct Service with under-served communities and communities of
color. Read more about our training team here:
http://diversity.learnnvc.com/trainers.html.

Join us for a powerful week as The Diversity Retreat comes to the west
coast for the first time. Our retreat site is a beautiful rustic setting nestled
in the Ben Lomond area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. At this time,
lodging accommodations for the retreat are limited, especially if you want
sleeping accommodations in the lodge areas. More lodging space is available
for people willing to tent camp on site or to sleep off site at the
local Econolodge (one mile away). Our fabulous chef, Tod Nysether,
will prepare all of our healthy meals each day - 3 incredible meals per day
and snacks, with options for those adhering to vegetarian or vegan diets.

Please distribute this information to your members of your community you think
would be interested. You can also download a flyer about the retreat to share with your colleagues here:
http://diversity.learnnvc.com/the_diversity_retreat.pdf.

Posted Wed, 2009-07-22 08:51 by Jane Connor

Creating Peace in Ourselves...and the World!

Date: 
2009-08-19 17:00 - 2009-08-23 15:00
Course Description: 

Brooklyn Nonviolent Communication and the Facilitate Change program are pleased to offer:

Creating Peace
August 19-23

A Four Day NVC workshop and retreat, focused on claiming peace as our
legacy, shifting cultural paradigms and creating social change.

Facilitated by CNVC certified trainers Dian Killian, Gina Cenicose, Henry Wai & Martha Lasley

 

Within a framework of Nonviolent Communication,
some of the topics we will explore are:
�Facilitating Restorative Justice Circles
�Transforming Enemy Images
�Partnership-Based Leadership
�Creating a Culture of Abundance & Connection
�Using NVC to Connect Across Political Divides
�NVC-based Meeting Facilitation
�Gandhian Principles in Action & Nonviolent Models of Social Change
�Additional topics pending participant interest
Who will this training interest?
Activists, community organizers, cultural visionaries, & social
entrepreneurs wanting to:
- Maximize the impact of their organization's vision and work
- Live a "partnership"-based leadership & a transformational model
of change
- Re-invigorate their mission/work with a "consciousness-based" form of
leadership
- Connect with their deepest vision for themselves & the
world---and generate
REGISTRATION CLOSES August 7. No on site registration for this program
available.
NOTE: This program coincides with the second retreat of the FACILITATE
CHANGE program. For more information about this 9 month, project-based
program, please visit www.FaciliateChange.org.

 To learn more about the CNVC certified trainers
Dian Killian, Gina Cenicose, Henry Wai & Martha Lasley please visit
http://www.facilitatechange.org

visit http://www.campdewolfe.org/contact.html for directions and public transportation 

 

Sliding scale: $650-$1250 (Plus Facility fee of $225-$400 depending on type of accommodation)
(We ask that you contribute as close to the top of the sliding scale as
you can- this is the real cost of creating and continuing this kind of
programming in NYC.)

If you value the learning of peace-making skills in NYC and beyond, we
invite you to partner with us in by supporting our work and making a
tax-deductible contribution to Brooklyn NVC, a 501(c)3 organization.
Secure donations can be made via www.Justgive.org; simply select
Brooklyn Nonviolent Communication. 

Posted Fri, 2009-07-03 07:21 by dianzapp

Living From Within - 4 Day Empathy Intensive - NONRESIDENTIAL

Date: 
2009-08-13 14:00 - 2009-08-16 15:00
Preparation: 

Dialogue with Thom Bond (212) 496-3111

Course Description: 

From Thom:

Many of
the people I've worked with over the years (myself included) get to a
point where we know what NVC is... we have read Marshall Rosenberg's
book(s), participated in a practice group, gone to workshops yet still
struggle to "integrate" empathy into moment by moment experience or at
a depth that we know is possible yet can't seem to get to. 

This intensive is
intended to support motivated NVC participants in breaking through and
having a deeper and more sustainable integration of empathy and
self-empathy in our lives.  In a supportive community environment (60-
90 people including 4-6 Trainer/facilitators) we experience challenge,
guidance and support in all the "pieces" that go into the empathy
process. 

Being present, being aware of and maintaining our focus and connecting with our intention are some of the skills we will work on throughout the Intensive.  We
will deepen our experience of Feelings and enrich our relationship
to the energy of Needs (our own and others).  These practices deepen
and increase our experience of empathy as well as our ability to give
empathy to others.

We will also work with our own self-empathy processes.
Many people experience a correlation between self-empathy and how well
we are able to stay in "NVC Consciousness."  For many of us, the
ability to Self-Empathize represents a key to integrating NVC into our
professional lives and significant relationships.  We learn that our
ability to self empathize becomes a requisite skill for Living NVC
Consciousness.  

Deep Empathy, Dialogue, Mediation, Being an NVC Trainer,
and perhaps most importantly, knowing what we want to do versus what we
think we should do, all are supported by our skills in Self-Empathy.  

This intensive presents an opportunity to understand and
practice Self-Empathy at a new level and identify practices you can use
for the rest of your Life, as an NVC practitioner and as a Human.

As an NVC Trainer, I am committed to supporting myself and those around me to share in a level of connection that can transcend conflict and habitual ways of being and to enrich and empower ourselves, our relationships and our organizations.  There is more information at http://www.nycnvc.org.  If you are interested or have questions, please call me at 212 496 3111. 

 

Posted Thu, 2009-07-02 12:54 by thombond

Facilitate Change: Program on Nonviolent Communication for Organization Development and Social Change

Date: 
2009-08-18 20:00 - 2009-10-25 02:00
Preparation: 

Please contact us for details

Course Description: 

Vision
The 9-month Facilitate Change program supports the development of social change leaders and their organizations to create the change they wish to see in the world. By applying the consciousness and skills of compassionate, Nonviolent Communication to social change projects, Facilitate Change fosters “compassion in action” at a personal, group, and international level, taking tangible steps towards creating a world where human needs are peacefully met.

Dreaming Big: Eyes on the Prize
Through sharing an NVC-based approach to social change with an ever-widening circle of activists, our goal is to transform societal beliefs, institutions and practices so as to create a partnership/power-sharing society where basic human needs are met, all needs held with care, and human beings can live together free of violence. Inspired by NVC principles, we seek to create a social activism that is holistic, sustainable, inspiring, powerful, and joyful—transforming hearts, minds, individuals and the world.

Mission
We offer a project-based leadership program, including three residential intensives and an on-line learning community, to foster and support NVC-based social change projects and initiatives. By expanding the number of people who can apply NVC practices to organizations and social change work, the Facilitate Change program contributes to creating a world where all human needs (and the needs of all life) matter and are held with care.

How Nonviolent Communication Supports Social Change
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) offers practical skills to support a consciousness where individuals, groups and communities can fully hear each other, restore care and connection, and discover new strategies that work for everyone. NVC training offers integrated practices (such as deep/empathic listening, group facilitation skills, needs-based decision making) that can support organizations in doing their work and achieving their mission with flow, effectiveness, integrity and ease.

On a larger scale, Nonviolent Communication offers an integrated practice to support the transformation of society and culture towards a “partnership” or collaborative paradigm where all human needs and the needs of all life can be held with care.

Questions to Explore to Facilitate Change:
• What does a “partnership” or “shared-power” culture and society look like, both in our “own” culture/society/neighborhood/home and around the world?
• How do we go about creating such a society in a way that’s already “creating the change” (in integrity with our goal and vision)?
• How does the practice of Nonviolent Communication inform such social change (both in terms of vision and activism)?
• How, in exploring these questions, will the form and practice of our organizations and activism itself transform?

Building a Learning Community—a Live Lab for Social Action
Facilitating Change will address the interests and needs of new and experienced activists, those who work full time in non-profits and NGOs, as well as “grass roots” activists and those wanting support in social entrepreneurship; it will also support CNVC Certified Trainers and candidates for certification wishing to integrate social change in their NVC work and apply NVC skills to organizational planning and development.

In Facilitate Change, we will create a learning community of those who have social change experience and passion with those who are fluent in NVC. We seek to create a “live lab” where, as a community, we address social issues (such as race, class, sexuality, and gender, money and public space ) and our differences, pain, and incompletion in relation to these societal beliefs and practices. While exploring such issues (and how they impact us as a group/community, individually and as a society) we will also learn organizing and organizational skills informed by NVC practice, taking these “resources” back into the community through our social change projects and activist work.

Learning Objectives:
Participants will have an opportunity to develop internal resources and practical skills to:
• Transform enemy images
• Foster self-connection and choice
• Make powerful requests
• Address issues/structures related to diversity
• Shift how you relate to resources of time and money
• Facilitate meetings in NVC consciousness
• Build leadership capacity in others
• Stay grounded and in your own power in the face of authority/power-over
• Give life-serving, needs-based feedback
• Lead mediation and restorative justice circles
• Lead NVC-based strategic planning
• Write and design value-based media
• Design, implement, and effectively manage projects
• Integrate NVC in everyday organizational operations
• Foster community and mutual support
• Work effectively with allied organizations/coalitions
• Create opportunities for social entrepreneurism

Facilitators
The lead facilitators are Dian Killian, Martha Lasley, Gina Cenciose, and Henry Wai. We bring NVC skills and experience in social change and leadership development. For information about each trainer go to http://facilitatechange.org/?q=node/7 During the year, guest trainers from the NVC network will offer special topics via TeleClasses.

We expect to attract many people who want to be part of this program and for the program team to reflect the broad skills, talents, and experiences of the NVC network. Wanting to support diversity, inclusion and the development of leadership within the network, we plan to include both “seasoned” NVC trainers and those relatively “new” as trainers who also bring key experience in organizing and social change.

Participants- Who will this program interest and support?
You don't have to come into the program with a project! You can develop your project during the program or support other participant's projects in whatever way you wish. Projects can be big or small - no pressure!

The NVC Social Change Program is designed to support:
• Those working in not-for-profit and social change organizations who want to maximize the impact of their organization’s vision and work
• Community organizers and grass roots activists who desire “partnership”-based skills to enhance the impact and effectiveness of projects and outcomes
• Activists wanting to create change around particular issues/concerns and desiring resources, skills, companionship, community and support in initiating, designing and implementing a social change project
• “Seasoned” activists and organizers who want to re-invigorate and inspire their organization/mission/work with a community of those practicing a “consciousness-based” form of social change, and the skills to sustain it
• Those interested in learning NVC at depth who are drawn to social change as a way of bringing their NVC skills into the world
• NVC trainers and candidates for CNVC Certification who want to learn about applying NVC to social change and creating NVC-based social change projects
• Those wanting to create social-change enterprises and/or initiatives and desiring community, companionship, support and the integration of NVC principles in their “business” and/or organization’s ventures

Led by a team of CNVC Certified Trainers, completing the FC program also counts towards Certification hours with the Center for Nonviolent Communication.
Retreat Dates
The dates for the 2009 retreats are:
April 1st-5th
August 19th-23rd
October 21st-25th

Each retreat will begin at 5pm on Wednesdays and close at 3pm on Sundays.

For more information please visit http://www.facilitatechange.org/?q=node/6

Posted Thu, 2009-06-18 16:28 by henrywai

In-depth Restorative Circle Facilitator Practice - module 1

Date: 
2009-06-07 20:30 - 2009-06-10 04:30
Preparation: 

Requested experience:

In order to create a learning environment focused on facilitation practice we ask that all participants: 

- Have completed a 2 day Restorative Circle Introductory workshop with Dominic Barter

and participate as facilitator and participant in either a Restorative System or an ongoing Semi-Simulated Restorative Circle practice group, or both.


Briefly, we understand a Restorative System to be an ongoing and utilized agreement between members of a community that they come together to collectively respond to acts which impact their well-being and that of their community through restorative practice. A Semi-Simulated Restorative Circle practice group meets at least monthly to work on issues live for one of those present.
 
We intend to offer 5 such Facilitator Practice modules at various times and locations in North America over the coming 18 months. Completion of 3 modules, and re-experiencing the 2-day Introductory workshop, is designed to give participants a thorough grounding in the theory and practice of facilitating Restorative Circles. 

Course Description: 

As interest in and application of Restorative Circles has grown in North America, the conditions have grown for further exploration, support and deep group practice. In response to this, Dominic is developing a 9-day In-depth Facilitator Practice, organized in a series of 3-day modules, with the first scheduled for Toronto.
 
The Facilitator Practice is an invitation for those engaged in, and those beginning to engage in, facilitating Circles. We will come together for further integration of key RC concepts through guided practice, in-depth study, peer support, and contact with those who currently have the most experience with this process.


Over the course of 3 modules participants will be invited to:
- Experience a Circle from every vantage point (author, receiver, community member and facilitator)
- Observe others facilitating
- Listen to each others’ questions, experience and lessons learned
- Discover what each of us has to offer our developing learning community
 

Cost: contact Henry Wai          Registration required: Please contact Henry Wai at 416-913-8861 or wai_renooy@sympatico.ca

 

Restorative Circles offer ways for individuals and communities to establish connection, discover meaning and recover power on profound  levels. They create a forum for reaching agreements that help sustain effective and nurturing relationships both personally and within society. They have been successfully used in schools, neighbourhoods, organisations, and the criminal justice system in Brazil. The Circles bring the profoundly open-hearted clarity and tangible  power-sharing dynamics of Nonviolent Communication to restorative practices, which in recent decades have rediscovered and adapted ways for communities to promote responsibility and healing. Rethinking our view of and response to conflict, and engaging with the challenge of consciously building whole system responses to community well-being, has opened up revolutionary possibilities for furthering a culture of peace

 

L earn more about Restorative Circles
http://www.youtube.com/user/RestorativeCircles
http://www.iirp.org/on08/ON08Papers/ON08_Barter.pdf
http://www.iirp.org/realjustice/library/brazil.html

Posted Thu, 2009-05-07 17:12 by henrywai

The Center for Nonviolent Communication
5600 San Francisco Rd. NE Suite A
Albuquerque, NM 87109 USA
Tel: +1.505.244.4041 | Fax: +1.505.247.0414 | US Only: 800 255 7696

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