Online Connection Circle

Hi Stan - here is the invitation to the group:

The third series of the Online Connection Circle will begin on Sunday, January 26, at 4:30-6pm PST, (7:30-9pm EST). This group will meet weekly for 8 weeks, online, in video communication, ending on Sunday, March 12th.  If you'd like to enroll, or have questions, please send an email to Upgeya, [[1]].

Communities succeed or fail on the quality of the connection between members of those communities. The quality of connection depends on the quality of communication between those people. In domination culture we are actually taught ways of thinking, perceiving and communicating that disconnect us from one another. Is it any wonder that we have such difficulty forming and maintaining communities?

Where the quality of connection and communication becomes particularly critical is when conflict occurs in the strategies that people want to meet their needs. Conflict in communities is inevitable.  How can we resolve them in fulfilling ways?

The Online Connection Circle is intended to address this quality by facilitating safe social connection, networking, solidarity, and mutual support among people on the path of creating communities to deal with the reality of multiple concurrent existential crises. People from the Resilient Communities Project and Climate Safe Villages will have a chance to meet one another in this joint offering.

There is no fee, only your sincere commitment of time and energy to participate. Consistent attendance is recommended for maximum benefit (though it is not “mandatory”), as it takes time for connection, relationship, trust, and reciprocity to develop. If you find this group is not for you, you can drop at any time. More details follow below.  When you enroll you'll be sent additional details.

This facilitated and semi-structured group is intended to do several things:

1.     Provide the opportunity for personal connections to form and

  develop.

2.     Provide education, tools, and training to:

    * Increase our emotional and social intelligence that fosters

      the kind of social connection and cooperation needed to create

      and live together in fulfilling ecovillages and close-knit

      communities.

    * Support the authentic and compassionate connection necessary

      for people to resolve conflicts and solve challenges

      safely, creatively, and peacefully while living together.

    * Consciously and intentionally practice those tools.

3.     Provide a container for us to feel whatever we feel about the

  harrowing truth of our situation. Mourning all that we wish

  were true, but isn’t, opens the door for us to be and express who

  we truly are, and engage our power to create a more fulfilling future.

4.     Develop the shifts in consciousness in us needed to bring

  into existence the culture of safety, care, trust, aliveness

  and fulfillment for which our hearts yearn.

Your facilitator is Upgeya Pew. He has a background in meditation, compassionate communication, group work, and permaculture, and has lived in multiple group living situations, including communes. He has facilitated Nonviolent Communication (NVC) groups for several decades. While this group will not involve a formal teaching of NVC, your facilitator will employ it and other models informally in the exercises he proposes you engage in to connect with others.

During the group, participants will have lots of opportunity to connect and share one-on-one with others in breakout sessions, practicing what you are learning.

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