workshops and programs:
connecting the inner life of spirit and the outer realm of action
who we work with
We work with young activists working on issues ranging from neighborhood organizing to youth development; issue-based organizations working on education, health, and other community services; networks of leadership and non-profit professionals, progressive faith communities, and peer organizations working in the field of spirituality and social change. And common threads exist. All are working hard and with great passion to address suffering in the world. All are curious, open, and willing to try something new—a different language, an unfamiliar format, a framework that provided a fresh way of looking at the world and the work.
workshops
We lead workshops and programs for organizations and networks. These range from hour-long workshops at the Leadership Learning Community's annual gathering to a two-day staff retreat for the Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey. We've partnered with grassroots organizations to prevent burnout, helped service provides structure a reflection-based organizational culture, assisted activists to increase sustainability, and worked with change agents to explore the inner work of their leadership.
daylong retreats
We convene and facilitate programs for social change organizations on sustainable activism, the inner work of leadership, and creating a reflection-based organizational culture. For example, in 2002-03, we led a series of daylong retreats in partnership with local organizations including the Movement Strategy Center, LISTEN, and No Ordinary Time. Each included time for spiritual practice and quiet reflection, concrete frameworks, dialogue, and strategy ideas. Reaching over 100 activists, these retreats focused on overcoming burnout, spiritual leadership, and sustainable activism.
I thought it was going to be a cheesy, new-age thing; I was going because my staff was so tired that we should try anything... It wasn't cheesy and new-age, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. It made a difference that there were a lot of people of color, and people that work in social justice work and those from the hood and those from the campus. I went to a meditation retreat before and I hated it. I'm not ready for that. I didn't understand it. The mixture of using meditation, some education, small group dialogues and testimonials was right on. The combination is what made it for me.
—Malkia Cyril; Director, Youth Media Council, participant in the daylong retreat in Oakland, CA
interfaith celebrations
Every year for the past nine years we have convened an Interfaith Celebration in Durham, in partnership with the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South. This year's Celebration included five monks from the Tibetan Buddhist Sera Jey monastery in India, who are on the Shiwa Tour for Peace and Healing to raise funds for a new dormitory. The monastery is home to many monks who are refugees from Tibet.
conversations on spiritual activism
We also facilitate conversations on spiritual activism. These are often catalyzed by book readings of The Spiritual Activist: Practices to Transform Your Life, Your Work and Your World (Penguin Compass, 2002), written by stone circles Director Claudia Horwitz. Dialogues take place at churches, synagogues, women's centers, and independent bookstores, and bring the ideas of spiritual activism to a broader audience.
work overseas
And, in summer 2002, Claudia returned to the Balkans with George Lakey, director of Training for Change, to help design and facilitate a second summer youth organizing institute. The institute was sponsored by Johns Hopkins Bologna Center and drew 35 youth from nine different countries, including Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia and Albania. We focused on leadership and project development, conflict resolution, and community-building.
