Finding Our Way Home

Building Relationships for Stronger Communities

A Collaboration of Asset-Based Community Development, ALIA Institute, and Inclusion Press

April 14-16, 2009
Friends Meeting House
Toronto, Ontario

When a community is on the path to becoming more vibrant, alive, prosperous, and whole, a kind of homecoming takes place. Even in the midst of uncertainty and struggle, we discover that we are 'coming home' – to ourselves and to each other.

As agents of positive community change, our core challenge is to build relationships that last. Out of these relationships – out of friendship, openness, and commitment – incredible action will emerge...and keep emerging.

This workshop was born out of personal friendships and the synergies among three complementary fields of practice: Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), Authentic Leadership as presented at the Shambhala Summer Institute, and Inclusion Press, our on-the-ground hosts. Together our intention is to create a powerful field of learning for ourselves and others.

This participatory workshop is for social innovators working with local or regional community challenges and who are seeking new tools and a deeper understanding of the principles underlying these tools.

Together we will practice...

• building a safe, challenging, and inspiring environment for authentic conversations and partnerships
• moving strategic conversations into strategic action
• discovering and mobilizing the wealth of people-assets in our community
• maximizing the hidden potential of community-agency partnerships
• sustaining ourselves and our inspiration in the midst of complex challenges

• engage as learner and contributor
• be on the edge of your own learning and challenge your own assumptions
• push through fear and chaos, and stay in the process until the next level or pattern is found
• take responsibility for the things that you care about

Patterns That Connect

Asset-Based Community Development is about local people working together for their home place. ABCD is relationship building for action for a collective purpose, a path to organize groups and people in a community to act together. The focus is upon building shared power through relationships. ABCD is an approach to discover local community assets. Second and more importantly ABCD is "practices and principles" for mobilizing a local community to move into action with residents, not outsiders, at the centre. Community development that works best is not about manufacturing anything but about bringing out the basic goodness that is there in each local community. Every community is a place filled with gifts to be given and care to be discovered. The song of community is, "We need you. We need you. Join us."

ALIA Institute creates the conditions for transformative learning and action. Our programs are rooted in the premise that authentic leadership is always accessible, as the expression of our fundamental human nature, which is intelligent, caring, creative, and courageous. The cultivation of that nature in ourselves and others is at the heart of community leadership and action. The Institute integrates cutting-edge leadership theory and tools with practices that invite those innate qualities to show up – such as meditation, reflection, movement, circle dialogue, and the arts.

Inclusion Press International, based in Toronto, works with individuals, families, organizations and governments through facilitating conversations, planning sessions, and offering training workshops. We create person-centered resource materials for training events, public schools, high schools, community colleges, universities, human service agencies, health organizations, government agencies, families, First Nations organizations – nationally and internationally.

Fee
Individual: $900
Team of three or more: $750/person

Venue / Accommodations
Friends Meeting House is located at 60 Lowther Avenue, near Bedford Road. It is close to the intersection of Bloor St. and Avenue Rd. From Bloor and Avenue, it is 2 blocks north and 1 block west. The meeting room entrance is at the left-rear of the house. For wheelchair access, enter from the meeting parking lot on Bedford Road. Please go to their site for more information on their location, or have a look at this map.

If you are looking for accommodations, we've compiled a short list of hotels in the neighbourhood. You might also want to explore Bed and Breakfast options.

About the Workshop Hosts

Mike Green is a faculty member of the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Institute working with Jody Kretzmann and John McKnight for the past fifteen years to develop ABCD practice. Mike has written a new book with Henry Moore and John O'Brien on ABCD in action, entitled When People Care Enough To Act. He has worked in community development and community organizing for almost thirty years. "I believe that community work needs to be more alive and creative to address today's complex problems. We need new friendships where people work together in new ways. My deepest dream is that more and more people can come to see that 'there is no one we don't need' and that a community without a place for everyone really has a place for no one." Also see www.mike-green.org.

Alan Sloan is a consultant and coach who has worked with communities for many years. His approach to facilitation focuses on the collective wisdom and strengths of each community, through recognizing and connecting the many gifts that each individual contributes. Alan is an experienced practitioner of a number of powerful, collaborative methods, including Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), Appreciative Inquiry, World Cafe, and Open Space Technology. Most recently, he has been working with the Government of Nova Scotia, co-facilitating workshops throughout the province entitled Collaborative Strategies in Community Development. Since 1976, he has taught mindfulness practice (the art of being present) to diverse audiences in North America, Europe and New Zealand. Alan is a faculty member and coach at the ALIA Institute, teaching mindfulness at the Shambhala Summer Institute in Halifax.

Susan Szpakowski was one of the founding members of ALIA Institute (formerly the Shambhala Institute for Authentic Leadership) and is currently the Executive Director. She brings to this position a lifelong passion for learning, and a curiosity about the conditions that make transformative learning possible. She began her career as the head (and only) teacher of a one-room school in a remote coastal community on Vancouver Island. After attending a summer session on "The Artistic Process in Teaching" at Naropa Institute (now University) in 1978, she went through a radical reassessment of what it means to learn and to teach. She later pursued a freelance career in writing, editing, and curriculum development, founding the Naropa Magazine (now Journal), publishing Speaking of Silence, a collection of Buddhist-Christian dialogues (Paulist Press, 1987), creating nationally acclaimed curriculum packages (P-12) for Nova Scotia's Department of Health, and revising much of the Department of Education's health and career education curricula.

Lynda Kahn is a co-leader at Inclusion Press International, Toronto. She served in the public sector in the United States as Rhode Island's Director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities (1996-2005). Lynda, with her partner, Jack Pearpoint, live in Toronto and work internationally designing learning and planning processes created to engage people in action for social change. "I am passionate about leadership, change and personal engagement to realize a more just world where everyone's voice and gifts are welcome. This event is a remarkable convergence of practices. I am eager to be part of the unfolding."

Jack Pearpoint is an independent Canadian Publisher (Inclusion Press) and catalyst for team work, diversity and change! He is co-creator of person-centered approaches such as PATH, MAPS and Circles of Friends. Jack with his wife and partner, Lynda Kahn, consult and learn with people with disabilities and their families, and organizations engaging in positive change, through planning events and workshops. "I believe that 'everyone belongs' and every person (without exception) has capacities to contribute. My mission is to find ways so we as individuals, and as a society, can create nurturing places where every person's gifts can be acknowledged and contributed. When we have the courage to reach out through our vulnerabilities, we can make such remarkable spaces and places."