Mobilizing for Nonviolent Global Liberation – Europe, CANCELLED

An Intensive Experiential Training to Co-create Personal and Collective Capacity

Offered by a team including Miki Kashtan, other NGL trainers, and NGL apprentices

This is a full description of an intensive experiential training to collaboratively build personal and collective capacity to transform a world in crisis, by taking actions that align means with ends.

Call for Participation

• Are you longing for more clarity and inspiration about responding to a world in crisis?
• Do you want more tools to support your work for change?
• Are you longing for more alignment with your values, even within systems that constrain your options?
• Do you feel called to act in service of life?
• Are you wanting framing and tools around power and privilege that affirm the humanity of all?
• Are you inspired by the principles of nonviolence – courage, truth, and love?

The Training

This week-long, intensive training is designed to immerse participants in principles and practices that can support each of us in responding to the global crises of our time, and allow each of us to take the next step to work toward nonviolent global liberation.

A major learning pathway during the intensive is learning-by-doing, by joining a team that attends to a critical aspect of our temporary community’s functioning (like how we make decisions or ensure effective flow of information and resources). Deep learning happens when principles are anchored in action. For this reason, you are encouraged to join a team at the beginning of the training, which will be one of the first things you will be invited to do.

Even before the event starts, you can begin this learning by joining the logistics team. Logistics cares for the material infrastructure that makes it possible for us to move through our days – and is directly related to transforming the world. Unless it is consciously held and shared, this work and the people who do it are often unseen. If changing these patterns excites you, lookout for more information within your registration confirmation letter.

In addition to this hands-on learning, facilitators plan to lead sessions on NGL Core Content (see below) as well as other topics. Participants will also be able to offer workshops, practice sessions, coaching, empathy in response to requests from other participants.

We anticipate 50-80 participants at each NGL intensive training.

What do you mean by “NGL core content”?

“NGL Core Content” includes specific framing, principles, and practices developed by Miki Kashtan, that are inspired by a variety of modalities and schools of thought, and that have been evolving and developing within an ongoing learning community called Nonviolent Global Liberation (NGL). NGL exists online and includes members worldwide, some of whom are likely to be at each training, both within the team and among participants. During the intensive training there will be an opportunity to learn about NGL and ways to engage with the community.

Our time together will draw from many elements of content, including:

Nonviolence: deepening understanding of the path and how to live it

Internal liberation: transcending individual socialization and collective patriarchal patterns to reclaim inner freedom and our ability to collaborate for the benefit of all

Systems Awareness: understanding ourselves as existing within, and participating in, both implicit and explicit collective agreements, to support conscious choice in creating or changing systems rather than unconsciously perpetuating whatever we have inherited

Leadership: willingly and unilaterally embracing interdependent responsibility for the whole, and differentiating leadership as a position from leadership as an an orientation that anyone can have

Power and privilege: understanding uses of power and influence; and attending to the causes and effects of power differences internally, in relationships, within organizations, and in society

Organizational function: applying a needs-based and collaborative perspective to all aspects of group functioning, from internal shifts in perspective to specific skills to systemic interventions

Social change: fleshing out strategic approaches to social transformation, including vision, relationships, inner work, and power analysis

Facilitation: Basic and advanced elements of group facilitation, including attending to power differences and applications of Convergent Facilitation or elements of it in various contexts

Principle-Based Teaching and Applications of NVC: understanding, living, and sharing Nonviolent Communication (NVC) from the perspective of principles and practices rather than specific ways of speaking

About the Team

The training team consists of an international group of trainers and organisers, many who are active members and core designers of the NGL Online community. They bring a breadth and depth of experience sharing Nonviolent Communication, facilitating groups and consulting: living and applying the NGL framework within organizations and communities. This team is collectively responsible for delivering NGL Content.

The team that has been confirmed for the NGL Team at the Europe (Poland) training 2020 are: Asia Berendt, Emma Quayle, Magda Baranska, Miki Kashtan, Verene Nicolas. The rest of the team is still being decided.

Is the NGL intensive experiential training a fit for me?

Self-selection criteria

If you’re energized by what you have read above and want to join us at the training, please ask yourself the following questions. The more clear your “yes” is to each of them, the more we believe, based on learning from the 2018 and 2019 seasons, that the training will work for us all, achieve its purpose, and have reach beyond itself. This is our attempt to care for each of us and maximize our collective capacity as we enter into this intensive training together:

1. Have I read the full description of the training and NGL values? Does delving for a whole week into what it means to put that into practice individually and collectively excite me?
2. Do I already have clear ideas about how I want to apply what I anticipate learning at this training within a particular context or an existing project?
3. Do I have confidence that I can remain self-connected and compassionate towards others when under stress, and to engage with support systems when the level of stress exceeds this capacity?
4. Have I read the statement about power and access? Am I open to the assumption that my social location has a large impact on my worldview, actions, and experience? Do I have full willingness to explore what this means when issues of privilege or internalized oppression arise? Am I open to hearing about the impacts of my actions on others? Am I open to sharing with others the impacts of their actions on me without blame? Am I open to investigating my own judgments or assumptions? Am I open to receiving coaching about any of the above?
5. Am I excited about participating in the experimental nature of NGL, knowing full well that some things won’t work out to my satisfaction and that what is being attempted here has rarely been done and no one fully knows how to liberate us from 7,000 years of patriarchy, which means that the holding team will not necessarily know how to respond in all occasions?  Do I have confidence that I have the capacity to stay focused on a shared purpose even if my personal needs are not met?
6. After reading all that is written here, do I sense deeply that there’s a clear fit between what I want and what I am being invited to co-create at this training?

If after you consider the above, your answer is ‘no’, you are not sure it is a good fit for you, and you still believe it’s important for you to come, you are invited to contact the organizers. If you decide it is not a good fit for you and you would like to stay connected with NGL Online Community, we invite you to become an NGL Friend, where you can access a variety of resources for developing clarity about purpose/vision, more personal resilience, and more understanding of our content and commitments.

You will also be asked whether you have considered these questions as part of the registration form.

Care and Capacity Questionnaire

During registration, you will be asked to review our questionnaire about care and capacity. The purpose of this questionnaire is to assess our collective capacity to attend to needs for care and support at the training. We want to know if you may need some specific or additional care/support; or if you are a person with skills and training that can offer this support as service during the training. This would be a much appreciated contribution to the community and our overall purpose – and is an area where we are trying to build capacity as a community. If you would like to review these questions before going to registration please do so here.

Logistics

Venue

The workshop will be held at Taraska – The Centre for Health Promotion in Poland, 150 km south-west from Warsaw. It is located in the Sulejow Landscape Park. A short walk in the forest leads us to a charming pool where the Czarna, one of the cleanest rivers in Poland, flows into the Pilica River, which in turn meanders into Sulejów Lake, 6 kilometers from Taraska. The famous Cistercian Abbey, an architectural gem and a unique European monument, towers over the lake.

It takes 2 hours by car from Warsaw airport and 1 hour from Łódź airport.

There are 8 direct train connections from Warsaw’s main station to Piotrków Trybunalski (90 min), where you can take a taxi to the venue (40 min) or take a bus to a town called Sulejów and take a taxi to the venue (10 min).

The journey from Łódź airport by public transportation requires several changes. If you would like to get more details, please contact us.

There will be an opportunity to connect with other participants prior to the training to coordinate ridesharing to and from the training center when possible.

Physical address:
The Centre for Health Promotion
Taraska 19A
26-337 Aleksandrów (Łódź Province)

Lodging and Food

Room and board costs are handled separately from contributions towards the sustainability of the training. These are non-negotiable and required by our host venue.

In the registration form you will be able to provide your dietary restrictions or other preferences so that we can work with you for a comfortable stay. Room assignments are subject to availability and are first-come-first-served.

Every meal includes vegetarian and vegan options. They can accommodate gluten-free, dairy-free, and a variety of other dietary requirements.

Their strong request is to not bring meat to the venue as an expression of their care for animals and for the environment. If you struggle with this request, please contact us.

Please see options of food and accommodation for the whole training. All packages include all meals and coffee breaks starting from lunch on Wednesday, May 20th, ending with lunch on Tuesday, May 26th.

• 3-person room with private bathroom – 1055 PLN
• 4 or 5-person room with private bathroom – 875 PLN
• 4 or 5-person rooms with shared bathrooms – 815 PLN
• 18-bed lodges with shared high-standard bathroom facilities in a separate building – 755 PLN
• Your own camper with access to electricity – 755 PLN
• Your own camper without access to electricity – 695 PLN
• Your own tent – 695 PLN

If you need any accommodation in addition or different than what is described above re: food restrictions, lodging or access to the physical spaces, please contact the venue before registering.

If you would like to arrive earlier and stay overnight on May 19th or purchase additional meals, you can choose these options in the registration form.

Language: The training will be held in English. We mourn the fact that at this time we are not choosing to put resources toward providing translation, as our capacity is very limited.

Children: The program is designed for adult participants and we mourn that we do not currently have the capacity to either provide child care, nor hold a training that integrates both children and adults. There may, however, be children present at the training. We recommend that if you want to come with your children, if possible, please bring with you a companion who is willing to take on caring for them so you can engage as you wish. We may at times ask to limit access to spaces if it impacts other participants or presenters.

Tuition (contribution towards the sustainability of the training)

In a needs-based gift economy, resources flow from where they are to where they are needed for no other reason than they are needed and there is a willingness to attend to the need. As part of NGL’s learning about how to create a world that works for all, we operate this training partially on a gift economy.

We ask all participants to pay for their own food and lodging. These are non-negotiable fees set by the venue to attend to its needs. (See Lodging and Food above.)

For all other financial impacts related to doing the training, we invite you to step into the gift economy with us. Rather than being asked to give a certain amount in order to attend, we will make our costs and sustainability needs transparent and invite you to support the sustainability of the training (attending to our needs) and to give only what you can and are willing (attending to your needs). In this way, we aim to make the training as accessible as possible. If the training purpose is a fit for you, we encourage you to attend even if you can give $0 beyond your own food and lodging. At past trainings, individual people have contributed amounts ranging from $5 to $4400 USD. (There are usually also participants who contribute $0.)

Because we value choice, participating in our gift economy experiment is optional. If after learning more about the process before or at the training, you prefer to give a set amount that we choose, we ask that you give between US$700-US$1700. It is not a “market value” price for a 7-day, 6-night training. It is a rough estimation of what is needed on average to make the training sustainable. If less than US$700 is a better match for what you are whole-heartedly willing and able to give, we still prefer that.

We hope you are intrigued and will participate with us, because we think liberation in relation to money is critical for a world that works for all. To read some extra information about the gift economy, please go here.

Registration Details

Registration:

If you already filled out the registration form, we will contact you directly about finalizing your registration.

If in response to the full training description, you decided to cancel your registration, please let us know by email by March 10th.

If you haven’t filled out the registration form yet, please do it now to register.

Deposits:

You will be asked to reserve your place by making a $400 USD deposit via paypal at the end of the registration process. If you are unable to provide the amount of US$400, please choose a smaller amount. Then the venue will contact you to finalize your registration and you will be asked to send a deposit of 50% of the cost of your stay. When making your deposit, please pay any applicable transfer or foreign transaction fees. For foreign transfers we recommend using https://transferwise.com or paying via Revolut if you are a card holder of this service. Credit cards are accepted.

Please contact us if you have any questions or doubts concerning registration or contributions.

Registration will remain open until Tuesday May 12th: To confirm your place at the training please complete your registration by May 12th. This allows us time to coordinate between the venue, caterer, and supporting participants with the registration process. After this time, we cannot guarantee our capacity to respond to your request to register as late registrations are substantially more difficult to handle.

Cancellations

If you cancel by May 1st, 2020:

• BayNVC will gladly refund what you have given toward your gift economy contribution to training sustainability minus $100 to cover the administrative costs,
• The venue will gladly refund your deposit minus 200 PLN / 50 EUR to cover the administrative costs.

We offer no refunds if you cancel after May 1st, 2020.

If after May 1st you decide to cancel based on care for collective capacity (see Care and Capacity Questions) please contact the organizing team.

We accept name changes (i.e. replacements). Please contact us to see what is possible.

Contact

If your question is about the venue, accommodation or diet, please contact the venue directly, kontakt@centrumtaraska.pl. The venue staff speaks Polish and English.

If your question is related to the training itself, its content or gift economy, please email the organizing team, ngl-europe@nglcommunity.org

You may also join our Facebook event to receive updates.