Sometimes the right group of people, the right facilitation team, and the right content all come together at just the right time and in the right container to create magic. This past spring, Movement Matters experienced precisely such a magical moment at our 2024 Advanced Facilitation Training (AFT). Our team worked tirelessly in the months leading up to the advanced training. We took a curriculum that had already worked well for us in previous years and we dialed in on the places that we instinctively felt had to be strengthened. We breathed life, ritual, culture, art, spirit, and healing into every aspect of the three days, both as a training methodology and as content to be learned. We invited elder artist Baba Ras D to join our already dynamic facilitation team and accompanied him as he deeply incorporated song and rhythm into each day of the gathering. We watched with awe as people shared their stories, called in their guides and ancestors (human and more-than-human), danced, mourned, sang, and created community with-in rhythm. We demonstrated in real time that when we truly move together, our hearts beat in unison, our brains sync, and we create genuine transformative relationships of trust, action, and belonging. Beginning with the application process, we thoughtfully cultivated a tremendous group of participants, spanning two continents and three languages. We met the challenge of making the AFT a fully integrated trilingual space, recommitting to practices of language justice and deep connection through and beyond spoken language. This AFT cohort came from hyper-local grassroots groups, regional labor unions, and national coalitions. We had native relatives from Hawai’i–Kānaka Maoli–, from the Eastern Cherokee Nation, and the Potiguara Peoples of Brazil join other organizers from across the US representing Black, Afro-descendent, Brown, white, and immigrant communities. Folks shared their culture and stories. They built enduring connections across distance and identity. “The thoughtful consideration that Movement Matters incorporated into the Advanced Facilitation Training as it regards to the curriculum, arts, language justice, culture, ethnicity, gender, and identity is unmatched for any training I've ever been a part of. It is an intentional, purposeful approach that directly impacts the success of this advanced training. The content is extraordinary. I really, “REALLY” loved this MM training.” As participants created profound community over the three days, they also practiced advanced skills around the incorporation of arts and culture-building in facilitation practice. We wrestled with how to engage community members fully in our individual work while also holding a disciplined focus on the issue at hand. We learned techniques for conceiving and incorporating popularized graphics and physical movement-based practices to unlock creative potential when envisioning solutions. We dialed in on appropriate practices for building the content and methodology for engagement based on where a group is in its development. “This might be my favorite training I’ve ever been to. Seeing how MM trainers created an intentional, flexible, joyful, trust-filled generative space has given me the confidence that I can too. Understanding how tools actually feel in the body and can land in the heart or mind brought thought-provoking reflections for everyone. It was beautiful and the energy was lit!” These kinds of magical movement building moments need to be held up, celebrated, and aspired to. If we are to build spaces of radical joy, visionary imagination, expansive learning, and transformational power within our organizing work, we have to experience them for ourselves, integrate them into our bones, reflect on how to create them for others, and practice how to create the conditions to do so. As trainers and capacity builders, it is easy to become jaded, to take for granted the work that we are privileged to do, to believe change within our movements is not going to happen. The Movement Matters team owes a sincere debt to each of those who shared space with us at the AFT for rejuvenating us, pushing us to aspire to this level of inspiration in all of our work, and showing us that it is possible. As we collectively move into another round of profoundly contested struggle in this country, as climate change and racialized capitalism threaten the world’s survival, these numinous animated spaces are critical to keep us moving forward, committed to building decolonized power for the world that can be, and skilled enough to move us in that direction. Connect with us for more information on our Advanced Facilitation Training. Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC. We work regionally and with national partners. Popular education is a bedrock of Movement Matters’ unique approach to community organizing and transformative change. We created our Advanced Popular Education Training (APET) to dive deep into both theory and practice while also allowing popular educators the space to contemplate and reshape their own practice. One of our central themes is the pivotal role of ritual and of somatic healing in building learning spaces for communities, in embodying a “learning by doing” of the world we are trying to build. Without radically transforming our internal processes for connecting, learning, and building together, our work for external change will collapse. Without places and spaces to put into action the vision, trust, communication and relationships built among members, the internal will collapse. And this fine balance, this process of titration, is what we accompany, energize, and sustain as popular educators and cultural organizers. “Movement Matters' Advanced Popular Education Training helped me take a step back and really dig deeper within myself, asking hard questions of who I am as a popular educator, how I got here, and why certain ways of training are difficult for me. I also found new knowledge and learning, and feel stronger and more equipped to curate and facilitate popular education spaces. I feel supported and walked away from the training feeling seen in ways that: 1.) I didn't know I wasn't receiving, and 2.) I didn't know I had been missing or could have access to.” A benefit of the virtual space of the APET is the ability to integrate practice into the life of the training. The time in between sessions is used not just to reflect and process information, but also to experiment with and embody new practices. We are also able to spend one-on-one time with participants in between sessions to tailor course learning to their specific needs. Another key element of popular education that is well served by this more individualized approach is the development and integration of codes as a tool for deeper concientizacion. Being able to envision and integrate prompts that allow community members to simultaneously recognize issues that they face, share their knowledge and understanding, and open the door for new information and perspectives are difficult skills to hone, especially in the abstract. Being able to work through specific examples with participants based on real-time community issues grounds this important piece of work that differentiates popular education from political education. The APET continues to be a unique offering of Movement Matters’ training work. It integrates beautifully with our Advanced Facilitation Training and continues to be a way to build deep relationships with organizers and change makers across the country. “This advanced training provided a variety of ideas for popular education activities and practices that I can bring back to my organization, and a framework to think about the purpose of the practice so that we are not just doing popular education for the sake of it—without moving our peoples to action. I believe I will be more creative in developing our popular education approach with our members, guide conversations way better, and also be more intentional about how I do it and why.” Our 2023 Advanced Popular Education Training was made up of organizers, popular educators and artists from groups around the country including: National Domestic Workers Alliance, African Communities Together, SEIU1199, Kalonize/Aloha ʻAina, PeoplesHub, Black Organizing Center, Center for Popular Democracy, and the Center for Economic Democracy. To apply, visit: Advanced Training Series Application deadline: Monday, August 2nd. Limit 8-10 participants. Questions? [email protected]
For more information on our Advanced Popular Education Training or to bring an Advanced Training to your organization, connect with us. Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC. We work regionally and with national partners. Facilitating Transformational Spaces & Experiences: |
Registration is now open for Movement Matters' 2019 Advanced Training Series: Advanced Facilitation, Meeting Design & Planning and Advanced Communications, Media Tools & Strategies. Our Advanced Trainings provide a stimulating learning and action space where seasoned organizers, popular educators, and community leaders can stretch their knowledge and skills, reenergize their spirit, grow with their peers, and plan their work ahead. |
Advanced Training Series.
We look forward to building with you!
I’m drawing more connections between how my meeting facilitation affects and impacts my relationship with folks I’m organizing.
In the face of these dynamics, our organizations and communities will be powerless without a cohesive and well-developed base that shares a rooted analysis and has built the trust and discipline to react as a united group. Well-designed, consistent gathering places, and the reflective and skilled facilitation of them, are irreplaceable steps in developing this type of constituency. However, these essential skills are often overlooked as expendable “soft” components of organizing.
Far from being a luxury, effective meetings and skilled facilitation are vital in building a sense of common identity and cohesion necessary to transform a group of individuals into a constituency that can envision change and take the necessary risks to attain it. These ensuing ‘relationships of action’ drive movement-based organizing work.
Movement Matters grounds our Advanced Facilitation Training in this constituency building context, lodged within our own community organizing framework. In October 2018, we brought together 24 participants representing 12 regional organizations to connect the theoretical role that facilitation and meetings play as the “spine” of the organizing process with practical skills to create more dynamic meetings.
The MM Advanced Trainings gave me concrete ideas to build from, especially with more creative approaches to centering community members in our work.
I feel that my organizing will be strengthened because of this community and identity building aspect of facilitation.
We engaged in activities that increased participants’ abilities to utilize physical movement and graphics in their facilitation, reframe and redirect comments to deepen participants’ engagement with a theme, and incorporate activities that create strong relationships of action among members.
Movement Matters staff modeled these tools and approaches to facilitation throughout the training, allowing participants to experience the process and its impact as they honed their own skills.
This training confirmed that I have the capacity to be a bad ass facilitator and I should step confidently into the role.
We are already actively working with several participating organizations to incorporate the skills and approaches from the training into their organizing work. For example, Movement Matters is helping the tenant organizing team at LEDC build a structure for their city-wide multi-lingual, multi-racial tenant leadership group that is based in liberatory approaches to group learning and identity. We are also helping to strengthen the organizers’ utilization of graphic facilitation and meeting design to move away from a lecture style of training and group building. This tenant leadership group is also leading the development of DC's first tenant union, which will launch the Summer of 2019. We are engaged in similar conversations and practice with several other local groups to help them tweak and/or revamp their constituency building practice through enhanced meeting design and facilitation.
As we reflect on this training, we are envisioning ways to strengthen and expand the content. We expect to repeat this curriculum on a regular basis with organizers from the DC area and other regions throughout the country.
This advanced training helped me remember my “why.” I was having a difficult time figuring out if I was in the right position, but now I am ready to apply everything I’ve learned here in my facilitation practice.
Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC.
We work regionally with various communities and with national partners.
Being in a room full of people who also believe in our cause gives me further inspiration and bravery to take risks.
“Changing and controlling meaning” around our issues has been a key area of challenge for local groups and initiatives in the last ten years, a fact that has a direct negative impact on local base building efforts and policy and implementation campaigns. In August, Movement Matters completed our first advanced organizer training: Communications, Media Tools, and Strategies. The 2-day training, attended by 23 participants representing 16 DC area and national organizations, provided a theoretical grounding in media and communications as liberatory tools to combat dominant messaging that reinforces inequity and powerlessness in our communities.
This first advanced training was also grounded in Movement Matters’ own community organizing framework. It connected various aspects of communications and media work to the core organizing competencies of: relationship building, constituency building, and power building. Participants gained an understanding of how each of these organizing competencies can be strengthened by strong communication strategy and media development, and how to begin incorporating these tools and techniques into to their current programmatic and campaign work.
Realizing that video creation and sharing are tools for relationship/base building and power building is game changing.
As importantly, we created a learning and action space that encouraged participants and facilitators to wrestle, question, integrate, and grow both personally and as organizers/popular educators. Expressive arts, decolonization, ally building, trust building, personal story sharing, and altar building were some of the training elements that helped participants draw out their own experiences, open themselves to learning in community, challenge and teach each other, and claim their space and voice.
With the success of the training and requests for support and next steps, we have already begun capacity building conversations with several participants/organizations to help them develop and implement systems that incorporate new skills and practices into their ongoing organizing and base building work. The creation and development of cross-organizational “action coalitions” has been one of the key areas of Movement Matters’ work in the last ten years. With this vision in mind, we are equally excited and ready to build on participant interest in bringing various groups together to develop a joint, intersectional media and communications project that will highlight resident voice and issues in the District and begin to change meaning around our issues. More to come on that.
We are also gearing up for the next training in our Advanced Training Series, focusing on facilitation skills and group process for organizing. This training will ground participants in the necessary skills and theory to create gathering spaces that serve as a foundation for the individual transformation, creation of group identity, deepening of consciousness, and moving to action that drive movement-based organizing work.
Adelante/we move forward.
For more information, visit our Advanced Trainings webpage or connect with us.
Movement Matters is based in Washington, DC.
We work regionally with various communities and with national partners.
Movement Mattters is pleased to announce our Advanced Training Series for seasoned organizers, community leaders, community workers, and advocates, to take place this summer and fall. This year our two areas of concentration will be Communications, Media Tools, and Strategies, and Facilitation, Meeting Design, and Planning. |
Advanced Training Series.
We look forward to building with you!
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