About this Learning Cohort
Shareable, Transition US, Post Carbon Institute, and NewStories are inviting our members and constituents together to learn about building resilience using a combination of podcasts to be produced by Shareable and Post Carbon Institute and an Action-Learning Cohort to be organized by Transition US and NewStories.
With last year’s hurricanes, earthquakes, shootings, and fires still very much present in our minds the entry point was suddenly clear. In this time of uncertainty and in the midst of volatility and chaos, growing social cohesion and building resilience are essential. Co-creating the lives and communities we want - NOW - is the challenge. Before, or after disaster.
Goal
To learn together how to create social cohesion and build resilience, even in the face of disasters.
By the conclusion of our third seminar and before our final meetings, participants will have defined and committed to undertake a project to create social cohesion and build resilience in their communities. During the intervening months (between session three and four), participants will begin implementing their selected projects with the help of facilitated mentoring and peer support. In the fall, when we meet, we will talk about what happened and what comes next.
Logistics
- Twenty participants will be part of this first online learning cohort.
- The learning cohort will have a total of four seminars (dates and times listed below).
- Various resources will fuel our process including podcasts created by Shareable and Post Carbon Institute. These will feature various stories about those who have built resilience in the face of disaster.
- We will meet on ZOOM video conferencing for 2.5 hours each session.
- Payment logistics (please see above)
- Schedule: Cohort A -- Tuesdays 3 pm to 5:30 pm PM
Dates
- April 24th
- May 15th
- June 5th
- Fall TBD
Next Step
When we are complete, we’ll share project stories, and lessons learned to the constituents of our four organizations and allied networks. We’ll ask members of the cohort for advice on how to broaden this action-learning within the broader community, and we’ll invite participation into the second learning cohort journey.
Questions? Email carolyne@transitionus.org
Flow of Sessions
Building Resilience, Before and After Disaster
Building Resilience Before and After Disaster is a 4-part online seminar which will draw on the expertise of Transition US and NewStories and all participants. The first three parts will be before summer. In the third session you will get enough clarity about something you will undertake in the summer months. It might be further community research or planning, it might be inviting a group of people to form an action team, or perhaps stepping in and getting something done. Then in the fall, we will come back together for the 4th time to share what happened and what what we learned and to deepen that learning.
There will be two separate cohorts doing this work in parallel. For each of our virtual seminars we will use ZOOM, sometimes as the whole cohort and other times in breakout groups. ZOOM sessions will be recorded and available for reference (not breakouts). Between virtual seminars and over the summer, we will be using SLACK (one for each cohort) which will also have channels for the whole as well as breakouts.
What happens in the first cohort session will affect the detailed design and content of the next sessions. Our “starting point” in terms of flow for the first cohort session is below. The basic rhythm in one of connecting, focusing together on a particular topic of theme, going deeper in breakouts, sharing learning from those breakouts, and talking about next steps.
Cohort A: Tuesdays -- April 24, May 15, June 5 -- 3:00-5:30 PT
- Session One: Connecting with each other and our current experience and questions of building resilience before and after disaster.
- Session Two: What works and what doesn’t? Exploring models for successful engagement of community folk in building resilience before and after disaster.
- Session Three: What are the new experiments/work that we will undertake this summer?
First Session (April 24 - 3-5:30pm PT) 2.5 hours
In each whole cohort (around 20 people) as well as breakouts of 6-7 (3 breakout groups), we’ll do something like what’s detailed below. We use an emergent teaching style, following the energy and the questions that emerge, so it won’t be exactly this flow, but this gives you an idea of what to expect.
- Overview - Building resilience before and after disaster? Setting our context -- Transition US and NewStories -- for this offering. Why did we call this cohort into being and what do we hope will happen. An overview of our time together.
- Who are you? Name, where from. What is the context in which you are working? What are the common threads in your contexts?
- Begin in circle, break into smaller groups to go deeper...
- Harvest back to the whole
- What are you already thinking about and doing? What are you doing or hearing about or dreaming about that you think gets good work done in your community to build resilience before and after disaster. Where do you get traction and where do you encounter obstacles? What are you finding in terms of promising practices for engaging people in your community and what are you engaging them around?
- In smaller groups, and then back to the whole
- Stories from the field. What are some other examples we can share of where people are taking actions which build community resilience?
- What helps you think -- what models and frameworks have been most helpful for you in thinking about these questions and opportunities.
- In smaller groups, and then back to the whole
- A framework or two from NewStories and TransitionUS
- Final circle question: What is it that really holds us back from doing what we see? What is it helpful to learn about?
- In SLACK, create learning teams (2-3 person) around particular questions/inquiries that you will bring back to the cohort
Second Session (May 15th - 3-5:30pm PT) 2.5 hours
Welcome & Overview
Tech intro
- Brief Check-In
Question: What are you really grateful for today? (Form: Person will designate who s/he is passing to)
- Setting the Context (Carolyne and Bob)
- Open Space. Calling question: How can we take action, make things better, and build social connection and cohesion?
Open Space MarketPlace: Some of you have ideas you want to bring forward to explore? What are they? Take a couple of minutes to write them on a piece of paper -- six words or less. Then we’ll have space for you to announce them -- 6 words or less -- and we’ll determine whether we’ll have one or two Open Space Rounds.
- We'll break into small groups based on marketplace questions. Group Discussion Guidelines:
- Listen carefully to others.
- Don’t monopolize the discussion. Make sure everyone is given a chance to speak.
- Don’t withdraw from the discussion. Everyone in the group, has unique knowledge and experience to share.
- Small Group Breakouts
Begin with a moment of silence in the group, settle into why you have chosen to be here, and then host begins. Make sure to bring everyone into the discussion -- these breakout groups are self-facilitating.
- Return to whole group
Harvest from small groups (What did you hear/what did you say that really caught your attention/was the critical essence? What were you learning?)
- Summary, next steps
- Closing circle
Third Session (June 5th - 3-5:30pm PT) 2.5 hours
Welcome & Overview
- Brief Check-In
(Form: Person will designate who s/he is passing to)
- Setting the Context for NowCast (Bob)
(Form: Each Person completes each of the sentences outlined below, then group reflects on what they heard)
- In relation to my project:
What holds me back is...
The resources I already have to begin are...
The support I need is...
- The commitment I am willing to make is...
- Buddy Pairs / Trios
The project I am planning to undertake is...
- Return to whole group
- Summary, next steps
- Closing circle
Facilitators
Bob Stilger, PhD and founder of NewStories, is an activist-scholar who explores social change, leadership and community building. Over the lst seven years, Bob has worked with communities, in Japan where people are creating a "new normal" after the devastating Triple Disasters - earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosians - of March 11, 2011. It's not just Japan where the old normal is disappearing, the present is in chaos and the future is cocooned. How will we each find the courage and clarity we need to stand up and step forward in these times? In his new book AfterNow, Bob shows us how collapse can be a gateway to creativity. He illuminates the patterns, practices and actions that give birth to a life-affirming future so that we may all learn to build the lives and communities we want. Now. More info can be found here.
Carolyne Stayton, MNA (Master of Nonprofit Adminstration) and Co-Director of Transition US, is a community-builder and problem solver. With almost thrity-five years of working with nonprofit organizations, community efforts and educational institutions, she has successfully galvanzied numerous communities around various social issues from lofty vision to tangible results. Her current interest is in supporting community members in building a strong resilience fortitude and tenacious response to disasters of all kinds. In this process of bulding, we come to realize the power, force and potency that is community.
A number of others will be joining various portions of our sessions to provide us with their expertise and knowledge.