Tools For Meaningful Conversations

How can we build meaningful relationships that have real impact to bring about lasting change?

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"Going beyond our egos and our fears to build strong relationships, communities, networks and organisations"

Explore

How to work with collective intelligence, diversity, complexity and conflict

Learn

How to design and facilitate large groups using a suite of powerful conversation tools

Practice

Circle Practice, Open Space, World Cafe, Appreciative Inquiry, Design For Wiser Action

Why now?

In a divided and polarised world with ever growing diversity and complexity, we need to explore new and creative ways of listening, engaging, working together, learning, building community and being in conversation with the other.

We are more connected than ever through technology and at the same time the disconnect with ourselves, others and our environment is growing.

We need tools and practices to help us reconnect, going beyond our egos and our fears to build strong relationships, communities, networks and organisations, so that through collaboration we can begin to co-create a more sustainable future.

What is Tools For Meaningful Conversations?

Tools for meaningful conversations is a set of methods and practices to support collaboration, participation, self organisation, co-creation, peer-learning and reflection.

This workshop has been created by Community CoLab as a response to the need to create safe spaces for conversation where people can really meet each other as humans so that we begin to reconnect with ourselves, each other and our environment in order to co-create more collaborative and participatory groups, networks, organisations and communities.

In creating this workshop we draw on a variety of our practices including, Community Organising, Conflict Transformation, The Art of Hosting and Harvesting Conversations that Matter, Participatory Leadership, Dragon Dreaming, U Lab, Permaculture, Social Theatre and our love for the arts.

The methods we work with include Circle Practice, Open Space, World Cafe, Appreciative Inquiry, Pro-Action Cafe, Design for Wiser Action, Storytelling, Games and more

Here are some videos with some of the capacity building work members of our team have been involved with

Who is this training for?

This invitation is aimed at community practitioners, community organisers, activists, community artists, trainers, engagement workers, group facilitators, network coordinators, leaders, social entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in gaining awareness on how to host meaningful, democratic, participatory meetings, events, processes, networks and organisations that bring about lasting positive change.

You will particularly benefit:

If you want to discover new and innovative ways of meeting and collaborating in groups of any size
If you want to meet other people who share your passion around working with people and convening spaces for dialogue and learning.
If you want to increase your capacity to work in ways that empowers those you are working with and for.
If you want to dive into a deep personal and collective inquiry to begin to understand our complexity, our fears and our potential
If you have a participatory project already going on or about to be launched and you want to get support to maximise its impact
If you run peer learning and networking events and want to try a different approach
If you are curious about how to get better results.

What will you learn?

.By taking part in this interactive, intensive and practical two day course you will be learning by doing how to use powerful methods to enable you to begin to design and host large groups events, meetings, conversations and projects by creating dynamic and high trust environments that support groups to be more generative, effective and fun.

Beyond a set of methods we will also explore some process design tools and models to help you understand how to work with purpose, in complex environments and spaces where high levels of passion and diversity create potential for conflict.

You will learn the basics of design and hints and tips to give you the confidence (with support) to lead on your own participatory work

You will learn how to facilitate meaningful participation and harness collective intelligence, passion and responsibility

You will meet people from Nottingham, different parts of England and beyond who share your passion for people and who knows what collaborations might emerge.

You will have access to a 3hr online session after the training event to come together with other participants to continue to connect and digest your learning

MEET THE TEAM

Paulette Singer

Paulette is a Community Organiser, AoH Practitioner, Community Development research facilitator and Permaculture gardener/trainer. Her frustrations working across the homeless sector led to a desire to connect locally to her community and ultimately to her becoming a Community Organiser.

Paulette believes most systemic and structural issues can be overcome through the power of truly connected and resilient communities.

Co-founder of Our Yard and Field to Fork workers co-operative Paulette has a keen interest in innovative social businesses and their role within communities to support individual and collective power.

Fausto Llopis Peña

Fausto is a Spaniard based in the UK, he is a member of Civic Wise and has been a Community Organiser for Pembroke House Community Centre in London for a number of years, working with the local community to create positive change through grassroots action. He specialises in designing and hosting conversations that matter to people and organisations.

Throughout his career Fausto has been involved in community work in diverse environments, providing advice, training, personal support, project management and networking with a range of agencies and target groups including the disabled, community residents, homeless, Roma children and subsistence farmers.

His experience also includes graphic and video harvesting of events, developing strategic project plans and evaluating tools to continuously improve actions using a participatory action research approach.

Jose Augusto Barco

A Community Organiser and Art of Hosting practitioner, Jose Augusto Barco, is a social entrepreneur based in Bristol, UK and Founder of Community CoLab. He is passionate about people power, social change and social justice, creating spaces for meaningful participation and collaboration at an organisational and grassroots level.

He understands the complexity of working with diverse groups and communities and his experience includes working with local and national organisations as a trainer, group process designer, campaigner and consultant, in the England, Spain and Colombia where he is from.
Jose is also a founding director of Community Organisers Ltd, a national body supporting the training and development of community organisers in England. He currently is the organiser of The Bristol Social Action Hub

His work is influenced by his creative practices, musical roots and permaculture principles.

Georgina Wilson

Georgina is passionate about helping others to fulfil their potential and to be empowered to realise their vision of positive change in business, community and their personal development.

Social Entrepreneur, Trainer, Teacher, Coach, Public Speaker, Author, Community Engagement, Marketing and Sales are just a few of the talents she offers around her ethos of empowerment.

She has delivered training with various organisations in London, some of her favourite courses are in Community Development, Starting your own Enterprise and Discovering your Potential.
Her innovation, creativity and ability to think “outside the box” has enabled her to continually work alongside clients to develop strategies for project growth, engagement branding and publicity.

David Jones

David is passionate about helping to rebuild communities and setting down roots (having lived a nomadic life during childhood in India). He has been volunteering and working in the community sector in Sneinton, Nottingham since 2006, and is personally passionate about community cafes and lunch clubs (he set up Nottingham Community Cafe Network), community festivals, setting up youth provision, and recently setting up and running a local football club, Sneinton Town FC.

Since 2012 David has been a Community Organiser with the Locality, and now COLtd, programs, working locally in Sneinton, hosted by Sneinton Alchemy CIC. A three year lottery funded project called Street Level (designed by David and colleagues) has recently come to an end but that was a pilot for a nationally adopted programme called the Volunteer Training Programme (VTP). David and his colleague Steve Smith have always been trying to push forward with community organising in many ways, but especially in terms of brings the training that a few paid organisers receive into wider availability. As "sharing is caring" as one of his colleagues would always say!

David is now the East Midlands members Organiser for COLtd and is working now for the next 12 months on bringing ten monthly meet-ups of around 25-35 people together with the meetings run by network member themselves as far a possible. And as such there is a need to bring our facilitation team together on this training and turn them into "hosts".

Where?

St Christopher's Church Hall, Trent Road, Sneinton, NG2 4AL

How Much Is The Investment?

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As we want to invite diversity, we are keen to not have a fee, and ask you to make a contribution to costs on the day. Pay as you feel, trusting in the generosity and synchronicity of rightful economy.

This 2 day intensive workshop costs £200-£300 per person, if you really cannot afford this, we invite you to pay as you feel.

We will take payment on the day, if you can't make it please let us know so someone else can take your place

Sign up now to reserve your space!

If you would like to find out more about what we are offering, lets have a conversation, please get in touch using the button just below

***If you aren't a Community Organisers Ltd member, please contact admin@corganisers.org.uk to request a membership pack***

***Please notice this is a 2 day training and our fee doesn't include accommodation, breakfast and diner****