I’ve commented before that training around power and privilege in groups and society has been gathering momentum in activist circles here in the UK. We’re lagging sadly behind our peers in the States and elsewhere, but at least it’s happening. I’ve been consciously building elements of this work into my group-work trainings for a while […]
The campaign against a resurgence of GM crop trials in the UK is gathering pace. If you missed out on the action the first time around, now’s your chance. So dust off your gardening gloves and take a look at the Take the flour back website for details of the action.
I was back at Hinkley power station this weekend for the Fukushima anniversary action. Actions at Hinkley have a new poignancy – the site for the new and much bigger Hinkley C reactor has now been cleared, despite valiant efforts to hinder it (a tree-sit and occupation of some farm buildings), and G4S security guards […]
Yesterday I was facilitating at the regular meeting of the Building Activist Networks Forum. The theme of the session was supporting activists in engaging with their communities. To be precise, I was co-facilitating – with Naveed from Oxfam UK. Right from the start we identified that all we could do in the time that we […]
I had the pleasure of working with trainers from Belgian Peace network Vredesactie recently, as part of the work I do for Turning The Tide. Steve, my TTT co-facilitator, and I travelled to Ghent to support a group in delivering strategy workshops to activist groups. We were quite clear from the start that it was […]
The MindTools website is a useful source of all kinds of resources, articles and ideas. I’ve just read the latest e-newsletter on beating self-sabotage which has a great article on perfectionism in it. Read the article and then translate it from the business world to grassroots groups. Recognise any situations? Here’s a few of the […]
In early February, Matthew and I delivered a facilitation training for staff at the World Development Movement, which had developed out of a Rhizome discussion last November with all seven facilitators. We had talked then about the difficulties of delivering meaningful training in a few hours, a single day. We understand why this happens – […]
A month ago I started watching this on Casper ter Kuile’s blog. I soon realised it was a powerful video, but have only just found time to finish it. We don’t hear enough about community organising in the UK activist scene. Much of the activist movement is about mobilising people who, in the grand scheme […]
I’ve been sent quite a few links to the Waging Nonviolence blog of late (thanks – you know who you are), and whilst meandering through saw a link to Beautiful Trouble – a new toolkit in book and accompanying website format. Looks like it could be worth a read… If we get to it soon, […]
I’ve just debriefed with Denise and Annie, fellow Turning The Tide folk . This weekend we co-facilitated a residential on “effective group working” as part of a year-long course that TTT offer. A lot was learnt – including about the vulnerability of the facilitation role as well as the need to sometimes tell a group […]
