Why Rhizome?
rhizome /rīzōm/ [noun]: A horizontal, usually underground stem that often sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Sometimes used by plants to store food.
A rhizome is a resource for new growth. It’s a store of potential, a store of energy, a way of growing, a way of connecting. Rhizomes make a plant resilient – harder to weed out. Rhizomes allow plants to weather the lean times. They can be uprooted, divided and replanted, only to come back all the stronger. Bamboo rhizomes can break through brick walls. Couch grass spreads by rhizomes and refuses to be tamed.
Our aim is that Rhizome shares these characteristics and enables you to do the same:
- We are a resource for you and your organisation, for grassroots change.
- We can enable you to be resilient, persistent, effective, to create new projects and nurture existing ones.
- We can support you to break through barriers and always come back stronger
“We facilitate, train and support groups and communities to grow in resilience, and be better able to organise collectively, dynamically, innovatively, and effectively towards a just and sustainable world.”
About our organisation
Rhizome brings together the skills and experience of a co-operative of professional facilitators, trainers, community builders, and mediators for your benefit. Founded in 2010, we have members in various locations around the UK, from the south west of England to the north east of Scotland.
Values and ethics guide our work – the approaches we take and the change we support you to achieve. Our passion is to catalyse sustainable change, whether that’s in your organisation or group, or in wider society.
We endeavour to reflect our values in how we work with each other too, both in our collective internal structures and decision-making, and in how we support each other to develop professionally. As in any group, though we may sometimes stumble on our journey, we learn and evolve along the way. This is the world we want to build, with you.
We are committed to non-hierarchical organising and use consensus in our own decision-making. We endeavour to co-facilitate when possible (that is, work with more than one facilitator) as we feel this offers maximum benefit to the groups and organisations we work with by sharing our experiences and expertises in delivery and planning.
We like to build relationships with the people we work with. We get no external funding beyond what you pay for our services – that said, from the outset we will take into account your means when deciding our fees, wherever our capacity allows. Your ability to pay for our support enables us to do all the value-added stuff that in our work with you makes our decades of diverse experience sparkle and facilitation crackle!
Rhizome is a member of Co-operatives UK, the Grassroots Trainers’ Network, and an associate member of Radical Routes.
