Session 2: Power in the Public Arena
Dominant Narrative
Beginning with story sharing and political education on the definition, elements and purpose of dominant narratives in our society, this session will move participants into a deep reflection about how dominant narratives like individualism and meritocracy have shaped their lives, including their sense of worth and purpose. This session is an important precursor to the next session on Power.
Power
This session focuses on defining power in the public arena, and provides political education on the ways in which ambiguous and “false” definitions of power are used to keep people and communities powerless. Participants will also have the opportunity to reflect on their own narratives about power, and to reflect on the ways their power narratives define how they regularly and predictably relate to powerful people.
Session 3: Relational Organizing
Self-Interest
This session provides political education on the central role of self-interest in building democratic, inclusive and equitable powerful relationships with anyone, and the ways false definitions of “self-interest” are used to keep people and communities powerless. Participants will reflect upon the differences between “selfish” “selfless” and “self-interested”, and will have opportunities to uncover their own self-interests, and hold space to hear other participants’ self-interests. Lastly, this session will also include a healing exercise to create for participants connections between deep self-interest and spiritual purpose.
One-to-Ones
Building relationships is hard work, yet seemingly one of humanity’s prime directives. Building equitable relationships that allow for real power to be built and utilized requires deeper levels of understanding and awareness of one another. This session provides both practical skills as well as political education in the central role of one-to-one conversations to building power. Participants will have the opportunity to observe a one-to-one conversation, to do a quick practice conversation, and to then make commitments to do several one-to-one conversations, post training.
Session 5: Next Level Political Healing
PH Core Concepts
This session explores the core concepts of the Political Healers Project, as described in the definition of a political healer: someone who uses ritual to bring cultural trauma into public memory. In this session we will explore rituals that allow us to address several cultural traumas that influence our current recovery from the COVID pandemic, and to reflect upon practices that ensure that the people and communities who are at the cutting edge of the devastation are entered into public memory.
Feeling Safe, Seen and Heard 2: TIP & Building Emotional Intelligence
Building upon the theoretical frames discussed in FSSH1 -- namely creating trauma-informed space as spaces where everyone feels safe seen and heard -- this session will explore the scientific process of trauma, and will engage participants to grapple with the distinctions between “trauma,” “trauma response,” and “triggers.” Participants will also explore political analysis that demonstrates how emotional suppression, fear of emotional expression, and emotional un-intelligence are tools that keep people attached to the systems and agents of structural oppression. This session will include mental health support staff, as well as spacious interaction among participants.
Base Building Training Series
Session Descriptions
Session 1: Political Healing & Trauma-informed Practice
Foundation of Feminine Leadership
This session explores an analytical, intersectional, and healing frame that defines and distinguishes feminine leadership and the ways every person, regardless of their gender identity or expression, has the capacity to develop and express feminine leadership in public space. This session is a truncated version of the flagship training for the Political Healers Project, and is open to any person interested in exploring and better understanding their feminine leadership.
Feeling Safe, Seen and Heard: Trauma-informed Practice for Movement Organizations
As we develop and implement strategies to build multi-racial and multi-class people power, we must consider the realities of accessibility and inclusion of diverse groups in our movement spaces. Specifically, we must consider the role that trauma plays in how people show up in our organizations, as well as the extent to which people feel safe, seen and heard in them. This training aims to define trauma, to articulate the impact of trauma, and to begin to develop among participants the ability to recognize, understand and respond to trauma in team settings and movement spaces. This training also explores methods for healing from trauma on individual, interpersonal and institutional levels.
Session 4: Base Building at the Speed of Trust
It isn’t easy to build a powerful, inclusive, equitable and democratic base or team that prioritizes respect and healing practices, and mobilizes around strategic initiatives that win liberation for a group, community or organization. But many of us want to create and maintain just that! This session provides a general overview of building a power base, engaging participants in reflections on common base building challenges faced in organizing and how these challenges exacerbate issues around equity, inclusion, access and efficacy of our teams and bases. Participants will get an overview of how Political Healers’ community gatherings and community protector teams aim to address those challenges, allowing people to build bases where team members feel safe, seen and heard.
Session 6: Organized People, Organized Money
Propositions & Base Building
This session will provide participants with tangible skills in the fundamental element of base building -- making propositions. Participants will discuss the key components of a power base and will then be given an opportunity to observe a proposition, write a real-life proposition for a leader in their base, and make real proposition commitments within their bases. It’s critical that attendees for this session have a clear and pronounced role themselves.
Organized Money
This session focuses on increasing participants’ “money thermometer” -- their own internal gauge for how much money they can organize, and their deep self-interest in organizing money. Similar to the “Power” and “Self-Interest” sessions in training block 1, this session will explore dominant narratives about “money.” This session will also provide participants with an opportunity to observe a money ask, to write a money ask, and to make real money proposition commitments within their spheres-of-influence. It’s critical that attendees for this session have a clear and pronounced role within and commitment to their sponsoring organization.
Session 7: Ordering Your Power
Effective Meetings
Participants will learn over the course of this base building training series that effective meetings are one of the key ways that we organize people and money around self-interest. Put another way, effective meetings are critical points for building leadership and ordering the power we’ve built. In this session participants will reflect upon the bad meetings that they attend and what makes them bad. They will also learn the nuts and bolts of organizing an effective meeting, from self-reflection to post-meeting debrief. Finally, this session will touch upon race, gender, and class scripts as they relate to “accountability” and “assertive leadership” in moving a group toward a shared goal.
Building Teams
Once you’ve propositioned someone into a role, where do you go from there? This session both compliments the effective meetings session and continues where the “Propositions & Base Building” session leaves off by providing additional nuts and bolts skills in relationship management -- an extremely critical AND challenging area of base building. This session will touch upon the following skill-development areas: check-ins, evaluations, addressing conflict & performance issues, and leadership development plans.