Posts Tagged: workshop-resources - (130 found)

Our Wise Democracy Pattern Language

This is exciting. Tom Atlee and the Co-Intelligence Institute team have developed a terrific collection of 96 patterns they describe as… “features or design principles that we believe would show up repeatedly in a democracy characterized by collective wisdom, as manifested in collective decisions and behaviors that generate long term broad benefits and healthy living systems, both human and natural.” Wow.

The patterns are available as a beautiful set of 96 cards, along with suggested activities to help your group explore how these patterns speak to their group life – current or hoped for. “Some activities are about using the patterns to analyze real or hypothetical situations or democratic examples.  Some are more focused on self-improvement and building community among students and practitioners, or spreading the word to invite others into this wise democracy adventure.  And some stimulate us to be creative about wise democracy ideas.” You can also download a facilitators guide and other resources.

If you use these resources in your work, we’d love to hear your experience. I know Tom values feedback.

 

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Five Acclaimed Civil Resistance Films Now Available in Full, for Free

The International Centre on Nonviolent Conflict have now posted five critically acclaimed documentary films on civil resistance on their website, in English as well as translated into over 20 languages. Originally available only on DVD or videocassette, and shown in hundreds of screenings in over 25 countries, the films can now be viewed freely, worldwide. The films are: A Force More Powerful; Bringing Down a Dictator; Orange Revolution: Confronting the Truth; and Egypt: Revolution Interrupted?

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The unicorn activity: Political lobbying role play

This role play activity, developed by the Centre for Australian Progress, is an interactive workshop to help people experience a political lobbying meeting in a light-hearted way. The role play involves people being from either the Minister for Magical Creatures, or the NGO “Unicorn Revive”. People have the experience of planning a delegation meeting (if from the NGO) or of planning how to handle an NGO delegation (if from the Minister’s office).

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Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (Theories of Change)

People act on the basis of their understanding of how the world works – their ‘theories of action’. We do X because we believe, based on past experience or what we’ve read, that Y will happen. This applies to projects and programs as well. So it follows that if you can improve a project’s theories of action you can improve how people implement it (project is used here to mean both project and program). This has long been recognized by a particular branch of evaluation, called program theory evaluation, which describes projects’ theories of action in a ‘logic model’ and then evaluates the project using the model as a framework.

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Developing a theory of change

A guide to developing a theory of change as a framework for inclusive dialogue, learning and accountability for social impact. The process of developing a theory of change is an exciting and often liberating process of interaction and discovery that helps organizations see beyond their familiar frames and habits (even if these were quite effective), understand the full complexity of the change they wish to see, and imagine new solutions in dialogue with others. The theory of change unfolds through a facilitated process of open inquiry and dialogue. Participants may hold different views and perspectives, but should share a broad commitment to change. The more the group reflects the voices of all constituents, the richer the dialogue is likely to be. [Keystone Accountability for Social Change] Their template to use in workshops is here.
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The art of advocacy | The Democracy Center

At the Democracy Center, for nearly 25 years we have worked to support people all across the world with one area of activism especially – advocacy. That is a word with many different meanings. Most of all it means to have a specific objective in mind – passing a law or blocking one, demanding action from a community or a corporation, become an advocate for some specific vision and working with others to achieve it. Its targets can include Presidents and city councilors, billionaires and CEOs. Advocacy’s tools are diverse as well – research and protest, lobbying and grassroots organizing, media work and coalition building, and a lot more. Its practitioners range from young people taking action for the first time to long-time veterans who sit at the head of formidable organizations.

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