As it sometimes seems figuratively, training people means filling an empty glass with knowledge; but it’s more about creating an appropriate environment for putting into action the actual content, or knowledge that is already in the glass.
How many times have we been in training expecting the facilitator to give us all the answers to our questions?
How many times have we been in a training feeling so “comfortable” because there were not big challenges?
Also, how many times have we been in a training stretching our comfort zones, taking challenges and having some feelings of fear and/or risk without being in physical or emotional danger?
How many times have we found the answer to our questions within ourselves?
Too many questions? Good place to start!
My dad use to say that in a crisis moment, people become more creative. So why wait for a critical moment to catch us by surprise when we can take the step and let it push us a little bit outside of our comfort zone and encourage the creativity?
Because every single person has a unique life, with unique experiences and different ways to learn that sometimes are not recognized even by ourselves, we tend to forget that we are the experts of our own life.
We could extend our arms and take something from our own bank of learning experiences to create change or to resolve a conflict, but how often do we turn to this resource? Or maybe, we have learned to believe that somebody (school, church, or government) has to fill our glass and answer all our questions, thus canceling our ability to meet challenges.
Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is working towards having the kind of training that allows the participants to have the appropriate environment to discover how to use the knowledge based on our own experiences, developing it and putting it into action with the help of specific tools, to organize our community and create social change.
This training is for guiding a group through the path of identifying concepts and principles that we can harvest from everyone in the group, including the facilitators.
Historically, organized communities are those who have created a transcendental social change in the world. And the list of issues “to change” is still a big one.
In August, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center will hold the third training, Grassroots Organizing Training, G.O.T. Poder in Spanish for the growing Latino Community in Memphis and surrounding areas.
There is a big group of latino people working hard for “The Community”, getting ready in case Tennessee becomes like Arizona or Alabama, states with anti-immigrant laws that will not only harm the latino community, but the Tennessee community as a whole.
We will learn from each other and grow together for continuing to make Memphis a much better community in which to live.
G.O.T. Poder in Spanish training is so new we highly recommend that even past G.O.T. Poder graduates take this training, as completely new tools are used to teach the skills in a totally new way.
Topics covered include: Intro to Organizing, Organizing your Community, Campaign Planning, Facilitating Meetings, Media, Transforming Conflict, and Direct Action.
A maximum of 25 people will be trained in order for all to get individual support and for the maximum learning potential for the group.
Format: A one week training. On August 3 – 5, 2012.
**More details about hours and location soon.**
Cost: Sliding scale based on the individualʼs income. If your organization is sending you to the training, use the organizational budget to determine the fee. It costs MSPJC $200 per person to do the training. Fee includes over 14 hours of training, simple snacks and lunch on Saturday, and follow up support from a network of the mid-southʼs best organizers and activists.
If your annual income is… You pay …
Less than $15,000 $30
$15,000-$25,000 $50
$25,000-$35,000 $100
$35,000-$45,000 $150
$45,000-$55,000 $225
Over $55,000 $300
MSPJC offers many workshops publicly, but we also offer our workshops to organizations and people working around a specific issue, with workshops tailored to meet the organization or group’s individual needs. We are able to offer one of our Core organizer workshops, or we can design a workshop to meet your organization or group’s specific needs.
If you are interested in bringing MSPJC to your organization or group to do a workshop, please contact us at 901-725-4990 or by email at gio@midsouthpeace.org or allison@midsouthpeace.org.
*Nuestros entrenamientos también están disponibles en Español
Our trainings are also available in Spanish.