General
Welcome!
We are thrilled that you have chosen to participate in piloting the newly created Master Community Builder Program (MCBP). Despite this program being just eleven weeks long, we believe this will be a transformative experience which will equip you with a set of new tools to build resilient communities. Here is an overview of what you can expect.
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Rationale
Resilience is a quality that is innate to our survival and if fostered as a skill contributes to our long-term health and wellbeing. The Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Study highlights the implications for when resilience as a skill is not fostered, as well as the importance of a robust community to support family systems and provide an environment that actively creates a culture of belonging.
Goal
As a community builder you will gain a foundational understanding of:
- The impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on our health and wellbeing
- Protective factors in individuals and communities based on the science of resilience
- Socio-ecological model as tool to place individuals with their larger historical and cultural contexts
- Strategies and tools to building community
As a community builder you will be able to raise awareness, give workshops, hold trainings, develop approaches, influence policy and provide technical assistance for existing or new programs and approaches that promote healing-engaged communities and a culture of belonging.
We also hope that you will be involved in the continued development of this program and its expansion, including on the MCBP Advisory Board.
Timeframe
This program will take place over a 11-week period, on Tuesdays the following dates: 11/10, 17, 24, 12/1, 8, 15, 22, 1/5, 12, 19 and 26. Sessions will be held from 3:00 – 5:00 pm and they will be recorded. There are optional materials to review between sessions, including readings, videos, podcasts and resources, which will be accessible on Moodle (the learning platform we use).
Program Outline
Each of the sessions, as well as the overall flow of the sessions are organized to follow the movements of the Nahui Ollin as a way to invite thinking, learning and knowing that actively engages in a process that leads to decolonization. Given that the mainstream ways of thinking, learning and knowing in the Western world are based on colonial and post-colonial ideologies, which continue to create division that leads to discrimination and exclusion as opposed to a healthy variety of opinions that enrich the wellbeing of our communities, the Nahui Ollin offers participants an opportunity to gain an internal orientation that is in alignment with a human-centered perspective of community building.
Since there are many different ways of thinking, learning and knowing, you are encouraged to explore your own tendencies and abilities, as well as to apply other formats that best respond to the context in which you live and work.
Session Overview
11/10 – Welcome, introductions, program overview
11/17 & 24 – Tezkatlipoka – smoking mirror, outside of the self
Emerging context: cultural, historical and social background
Emerging context: movements of change
12/1 & 8 – Quetzalkoatl – beautiful and precious new knowledge
Science of resilience: adversities and oppression
Science of resilience: social ecology and protective factors
12/ 15, 22 & 1/5 – Huitzliopochtli – will to act
Activism: building a framework
Activism: tools and strategies
Activism: community café
1/12, 19 & 26 – Xipe Totek – transformation
Leadership
Self-Care/Repair: resilient zone
Bringing it all together