COMMUNICATION & ENGAGEMENT GUIDELINES

Overview
Through the digital infrastructure of this course, we are positioned to generate a robust sense of community that will support us with networking and engaging in discussions beyond the live Zoom sessions. To ensure that each person gets the most out of this experience, we recommend using the various aspects of the course’s digital infrastructure to engage with the course material, communicate with staff and dialogue with other participants. We invite you to experiment within these virtual sanctuaries and digital channels and engage with the ones that work best for your learning style and schedule. Our digital infrastructure is built to support busy people in a world that demands more of us. Remember to take your time.

Logistics

To get support with logistics, such as accessing the Mighty Networks portal or any Zoom related difficulties, please reach out directly to Maria Tan at [email protected]. You can also reach out to her to discuss any issues concerning accessibility.

Virtual Access

We will meet for our live sessions on Zoom. To access each session, just click on the Access Link. There is no password required to access the sessions.

Access Zoom Link

Social Networks

Our course’s Mighty Networks and Marco Polo Group exists to build community and enable organic networking and discussion outside of our live Zoom sessions. Use these virtual spaces to explore the assigned course content with peers, to ask probing questions on the subject matter, and network with each other. This is optional.

Mighty Networks -- The mobile app helps to make chatting with others and responding to posts seamless.You can access the Mighty Network Circle directly through your computer HERE. You can also download mobile versions for Apple here and for Android here.

Marco Polo Group -- This is a dynamic platform to have more personal communication with video and audio. We have created a group only for our class. You can join the group by clicking HERE.

Community Agreements

Our goal is to provide a space that is as safe, brave and as inclusive as possible. We acknowledge that safety is relative and often not guaranteed in light of the complexity of our societal problems and unique social locations. In any group, there is always the potential for harm to happen and for conflict to emerge. Drawing on restorative principles, we step into this course ready to hold space for whatever emerges and engage difficult topics and emotions with care and resolve. We will lean into the discomfort that comes with exploring course content at a pace that honors everyone’s sense of dignity. As we go through this course experience, we hold the reality that we are still navigating a global pandemic, in addition to the vivid manifestation of various forms of violence. As we explore course content, we will create space to process any relevant issues that are unfolding in society at large as well. We view the course as a communal and emergent process, hence the topics and questions that surface throughout the live sessions will contribute to shaping the collective experience.

In regard to harmful comments and content, we are committed to keeping our community protected. We will remove harmful content from any of our digital platforms and will ensure that what is shared aligns with our commitment to creating a respectful space. Above all, we aspire to create a container that will support participants feeling a sense of vibrancy, belonging and flourishing. We hope that the agreements below will help us deepen our relationship to each other and to ourselves throughout this process:

Agreements

Be Gentle with Yourself and Others

Honor Privacy and Confidentiality

Honor Your Needs

Disagree Respectfully

Hold Space for One Another

Frankly, human affairs are often messy and bring up tension and trauma. Be mindful that participants may bring up things in collective and small group discussions that might be troubling, bothersome or challenging. We are all at different stages of our learning journey. If you are experiencing any difficulty with a discussion or moment and need one-on-one attention to restore a sense of groundedness or if any conflict between participants surfaces that requires a supportive and restorative process, please reach out through our online Alert & Check-in System. Our course facilitators in partnership with Dr. Acosta will review your message and reach out as soon as possible.

Check-In & Alert System

If at any point during this course, you need additional social and emotional support, please use our check-in & alert system by simply CLICKING HERE.

Each live session is paired with a number of readings and podcasts that will stimulate the collective learning process. We estimate that it may take between two to three hours a week to engage with the assigned material.

We know that participants are incredibly busy, hence we provide the recommendations below to adopt your unique rhythm with taking in course materials:

Listen to any audio material while lounging, driving or cleaning
If you can’t get to all assigned material, select one or two dive into
Take notes on any things that resonate with you from the material or
anything you need clarification on
Use Mighty Networks to engage others on the material or explore material you could not get to
Bring questions or reflections to the live sessions as time is allotted for
discussion of course materials
The supplemental materials are not required readings. They are there to provide additional scholarship on the respective theme explored during a given session.

Building a Framework

Part of the course is focused on encouraging you to develop your own framework and approach to this work or you may use this as an opportunity to reflect on and enhance an existing one. You will be given opportunities to think through your framework during live sessions.

Four Probes

Use the Four Probes to reflect on the course materials and on the live sessions. They are a profound way to think through what is emerging in your mind and body in response to all aspects of the course. There is a Four Probes question at the end of each Live Session section below. CLICK HERE TO USE A SURVEY TO EXPLORE THE FOUR PROBES AFTER EACH LIVE SESSION AND AFTER EXPLORING ANY OF THE COURSE MATERIAL.

Prompt 1: I was struck by...

Prompt 2: I found myself wondering...

Prompt 3: I see a connection between what we are reading and discussing to...

Prompt 4: I would like to contribute to the conversation by...

SESSION ONE:

SITUATING THE HEALING-CENTERED & RESTORATIVE PARADIGM

This first session will invite us to pinpoint where and how this paradigm has emerged. Selected course materials for this session will provide a foundation for understanding the distinctive features of healing-centered education.

Healing Through the Archaeology of Self with Dr. Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz

Listen on Sound Cloud

Listen on Apple Podcast

Listen on On Being Site

Listen Now

The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement by Dr. Shawn Ginwright

Read Now

Healing-Centered Leadership by Shawn Ginwright

Read Now

SESSION TWO:

LIBERATION, FUGITIVITY, & ALCHEMY IN THIS PARADIGM

This session will invite us to explore a variety of expansive frameworks and explore the spaciousness that these approaches provide us as we dream together within this paradigm.