This fully virtual daylong retreat takes place on Friday June 14th from 8:30am-2:30pm PDT / 9:30am-3:30pm MDT / 11:30am-5:30pm EDT with a 1 hour break from 11:30am-12:30pm PDT/ 12:30pm-1:30pm MDT/ 2:30pm-3:30pm EDT.
Join the Spring Up Collective and peer facilitators in learning the 5 core principles in practicing liberatory facilitation.
This if for you if:
- You want to experience a liberatory space as a participant
- You have struggled to make virtual meetings or training spaces feel relational, engaging, fun and experiential
- You want to make your spaces more trauma informed / responsive
- You have felt frozen or anxious when something goes wrong while you are facilitating
- You have seen participants call each other or you out or say harmful things, and were unsure of how to respond
The daylong retreat is great for anyone who facilitates learning experiences, whether they are teachers, trainers, community accountability facilitators, or leaders. Through dismantling notions of what ‘should’ happen in facilitated spaces and how people ‘should’ learn, participants learn skills to lead people and spaces towards differentiation and self-directed learning.
This retreat is facilitated by Spring Up
Spring Up is a collective of 11 Transformative Justice practitioners, liberatory educators, and care coaches. Each breakout group will be paired with a Spring Up facilitator to guide discussion, answer questions, and go through scenario practice with you.
We intentionally pair breakout groups based on the kind of work participants do or challenges they are dealing with. You will be with a group of 4-7 other participants and one Spring Up facilitator, with space to get to know one another, set your intentions, and share how you are entering the space / what your access needs are for the day.
If 4 or more people from the same organization register together, you will have a private breakout group with an aligned facilitator. The breakout space can be used to strengthen relationships among colleagues as well as problem solve and strategize around your programs and how you will directly implement what you learn.
Learning Portal
When you sign up for this retreat, you will get access to the accompanying online learning portal. On that portal you will be invited to introduce yourself and share a bit about what you are hoping to learn - this introduction will be used to help us sort you into aligned breakout spaces, so please do so as soon as you are able. You will also see the agenda for the day, an introduction to your facilitators, as well as an overview of our community agreements and harm response process.
This platform includes our Facilitation Guide, which is a 25 page workbook detailing all of our core facilitation tools and frameworks, as well as case studies, worksheets to prepare for your facilitation, and suggested resources to learn more.
You will also get access to our safety and care plan that we encourage you to fill out in order to identify your support system and plan for how to care for yourself before, during, and after the retreat.
Before the retreat, we encourage you to let us know if you have specific accessibility needs that you would like us to meet. You can request live ASL interpretation, Spanish interpretation, visual descriptions, or other needs. Please try to give us at least 2 weeks notice for ASL or Spanish access.
During the retreat itself:
- There will be plenty of space for you to ask questions or guide the learning based on what you need support in
- We encourage you to take care of yourself and do what will make you feel most comfortable including standing up, sitting down, laying down, stimming, turning your camera off, eating, moving around, stepping in and out of the room as needed
- Closed captions will be on for the entire retreat and all text on slides will be read aloud. There is also space for you to let your facilitator and breakout group peers know if there are other requests that could support you
- Most slides have accompanying visuals to support you in digesting information through text and imagery
- There are consistent breaks and pauses throughout the retreat in addition to the 1 hour break in the middle of the day
- Some breakout prompts include the option to journal independently instead of having conversation which allows you to choose how you prefer to digest and integrate what you are learning
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There are optional prompts throughout the day for somatic and embodied activities to get you into your body or to play a game. It is totally up to you if that is something that feels right, or if you would prefer to opt out.
Once the retreat is complete, you will get access to the slides from the day as well as suggestions for how you can learn more about the topics explored within the retreat. We will also share a feedback form for you to tell us how the experience was for you or if you have any suggestions to make it a better experience in the future.
Coaching
Registration for this course includes a 1:1 coaching session with one of our coaches. Spring Up coaching is a peer-based, flexible, non-therapy offering to help you clarify your goals and build your self-care and communication skills. Our collaborative approach to coaching is based in a non-hierarchical relationship that is solution focused — coaches recognize that clients are experts in their own lived experience. Coaching is strengths-based and culturally specific in that coaches help the client enhance their inherent strengths, skills, and resources accessible to them. Spring Up coaching has an expectation that the client is ready to engage in further learning and implementation outside of the session.
Get the Full Liberatory Leadership Experience
Join all three of our daylong retreats this summer to get a discount and free access to the cultivate consent mini class. This bundle includes the Harm Systems Design Retreat on February 23rd, the Conflict Analysis Retreat on March 8th, the Liberatory Facilitation Retreat on March 22nd and 3 coaching sessions in addition to the cultivate consent mini-class.
Can my organization or workplace pay for me to register for the retreat?
- Yes, email us if you need an invoice for your group
- You can also register yourself and you will receive a receipt for reimbursement
- Email [email protected] with any other questions
- 2-10 people from an organization can register for this retreat. If you have more than 10 people who want to take this, we encourage you to reach out and schedule a private version of the retreat just for your organization.
Who else will be attending?
We are excited that these spaces are a place for folks to connect across the ecosystem of liberation work. Many of our participants are leaders in nonprofits, education, grassroots community organizations, therapy or social work, intentional communities and philanthropy. We encourage you to make new connections or attend with your colleagues and focus on your own community. We do not have participation requirements: we trust that if this seems like a good fit for you, you are welcome.
How long do I have access to the online portal with the slides and resources?
Forever! Access to the online content associated with this retreat does not expire.
When will this retreat be offered again?
This retreat is offered three times a year, in the Spring, Summer, and Fall.
Can you share more guidance on how to choose the right price out of the sliding scale?
If you are a resourced formal institution, like a school, foundation, business, or nonprofit with a budget of over $1M, we ask that you pay at the top of our sliding scale options. This helps to subsidize our ability to provide at cost services to informal community based organizations and student groups with small budgets, who we invite to pay at the lower end of our sliding scale. Somewhere in the middle lie small and medium nonprofits, conferences and events, advocacy groups, etc, where we will follow your lead on the budget you have available for professional development, continuing education, and/or community engagement.
Is this retreat only in English?
We can offer live translation to Spanish and ASL interpretation with at least 2 weeks notice.
Does this retreat work for folks outside of the US?
Each individual can choose if the timing of the retreat works for them based on their time zone. If the time zone differences would make it difficult to attend, we would encourage you to sign up for one of our 6 week courses instead.