“Building Local Community” Participant Page

Welcome to the Participant Page for Building Local Community, a two part online training with White Awake. Our work will focus on skills and best practices to help gather and tend small, local groups with a focus on collective liberation.

Your participant page is the place where all homework assignments, and all training recordings (posted 2-3 days after each live session), are compiled. Recordings linked below; homework follows in reverse chronological order.

Your participant page will remain active for three months following last session (until Dec 1, 2019).

Participant Directory from the training

Recording of Session One is available here.

Recording of Session Two is available here.

Homework for Session Two / Sep 1

Your homework for Session Two is activity based. Take a look at the prompts below, and choose an activity to complete (or begin!) before the next session starts. Also, if you were not able to complete the homework for Session One, we suggest that you finish reviewing these materials before Session Two as well. (Homework for Session One is posted below Homework for Session Two.) We will be looking at the Circle of Trust touchstones, and may reference other materials from this homework as well.

We are excited to offer you all a participant directory of everyone who answered “yes” to sharing their contact info and city, state when registering. One of your prompts includes reaching checking this directory and reaching out to folks in your area who may be taking this course. Here is the link:

Homework activity prompts (choose one or more):

  • Is there a group you participated in that has dropped off in connection recently? Rekindle that connection by making contact or hosting a time to get together.
  • Is there someone that comes to mind that you’d like to get to know better? If so, reach out and see if that person is interested in connecting in person.
  • Were you part of an event recently where you made connections but don’t have a way to contact participants? Contact the host and ask if they can help connect you with others from the group.
  • Are there people in your local area (or a group of people) who you’ve interacted with online but have never met in person? Set up a group private message and ask if anyone would be interested in meeting up.
  • Are there family or friends who live in your local area that you’ve started to lose connection with? Reach out and let them know you miss then and would love to connect.
  • Spend some time looking over the participant directory for our course. Are there other registrants who live in your area? Reach out and see if they would like to get together.

Homework for Session One / Aug 18

Please watch the following video of Brene Brown speaking to an audience of teachers. Brown (a researcher of shame and vulnerability) reviews major themes of her work, and discusses how a learning community can establish a culture of vulnerability and courage.

The next two resources come from Parker Palmer’s work with Circles of Trust (intentional, time limited small groups who work with principles derived from Palmer’s experience in the Quaker tradition). We are not advocating for the use of this specific approach, nor are we trained in Circles of Trust modalities. We are sharing because of the values and practices expressed through these resources align well with the focus of this training.

Our final resource is a piece by Charlene Carruthers, director of BYP100 and author of Unapologetic: A Black, Queer, and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements. In this article, Carruthers emphasizes the value of direct, honest and compassionate relationships in the context of radical movements for collective transformation.

Once you have completed these assignments, please reflect on what stands out from them before our first session together. Please also reflect on your intentions in joining this training, coming prepared to share (as time allows).