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WHY BUILD?

As Practitioners we all need to build community, peer support, and opportunities for professional growth. We work in complex and challenging environments, sometimes with clearly successful outcomes and sometimes with ambiguous outcomes. If we’re not mindful, there are even times when our work can add to the system of harm and toxicity we were brought in to help ease. We need spaces to digest the hard-to-digest experiences we have as practitioners and also to learn from each other. We need to find out what’s helpful; what expectations we might have for ourselves and others; how best to adapt to the multitude of social and political environments we encounter; and how we get ourselves unstuck, or plan our engagement to prevent getting stuck in the first place!
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What is BUILD Community of Practice?

BUILD Community of Practice is a lab and learning space for conflict engagement and other practitioners who are working on pro-democracy efforts. It is also a ‘connecting space’ for lay and professional practitioners who are just beginning to explore how to bring their skills to community-building and democracy spaces. 

• By "practitioner", we mean everyone who is a facilitator, mediator, host, convenor, community-builder, activist and/or organizer, -- whether formal or informal, paid or volunteer, relatively new or relatively experienced.
• By "democracy", we mean a way of life where when we make decisions together for the benefit of the larger whole, we listen to and consider one another's perspectives.
• A republican form of government is one where we vote for representatives. A republic can be democratic, to the degree that elections are based on informed consideration of issues. 
• We see healthy democracies as leader-full.  Democracy thrives when we have accountable, facilitative leadership at all levels.

The BUILD  Framework for Engagement:
Our community of practice is built on the principles of humility, curiosity, confidentiality, and respect. Participants commit to responsible sharing, focusing on their own experiences without overstepping boundaries. We ask participants to uphold the following commitments:

• As a participant, I commit to embodying humility, showing curiosity, practicing confidentiality, and holding myself and my fellow practitioners in high regard.

• I commit to sharing my experiences responsibly, which means not sharing what's not mine to share, what's not ready to be shared, and what I can't share without shaming and blaming. 

DIFFERENT THINGS YOU CAN  ASK FOR, FROM OTHER PARTICIPANTS:

• Reflection: think out loud and have the group summarize and reflect back what they heard 
• Ideation: get ideas of what to do from the group
• Clarifying Questions: have the group ask coaching questions that help you get clarity on your purpose, goals and challenges
• Creative Questions: have the group ask creative, insightful, open ended questions to help you see different possibilities where you are stuck by getting deeper into somatic and subconscious layers
• Resources: get tools, handouts, activities, research, referrals, etc

HOW BUILD IS STRUCTURED

• Our format is loosely inspired by the Pro-Action Cafe Model. See details in the Agenda Section below.
• Meetings are scheduled monthly for 1 hour 45 minutes (105 min) with 15 minutes additional for those who would like to stick around! 
• TIME: 10 a.m. PST/1 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CET
• Hosted by NCDD via ZOOM
• Facilitated by volunteers from a trained and supported network of practitioners working in community building and pro-democracy spaces. We will meet monthly with the facilitators to assess how things are going, if structure, context, etc. needs to change, as an ongoing offer to the volunteers ​

The BUILD Monthly Gathering

• Welcome, Initial Engagement and Introduction - TOTAL 15 minutes:
  • Participants engage in casual conversation, setting the stage for a collaborative session.
  • Participants share their background and engage in light check-ins in the chat.
• Connecting Round - TOTAL 15 minutes
  • Asking and Answering the Question “What would you attempt to do in the pro-democracy space if you knew you could not fail?
  • Start with 2 min of individual journaling, followed with breakout groups of 3 for sharing and witnessing. 
• Explaining In-depth case cafe  - TOTAL 5 minutes
• Case Cafe’s with 3 Case Narrators:  a TOTAL of 50 minutes for three 15 min rounds of Project Breakout Groups, + 5 min wiggle room.
  • Step 1: Prior to each CoP, we will solicit interest from participants to offer a Case Narrative in the upcoming CoP. Facilitators will choose 3 Case Narratives and inform the Narrators. 
    • If you are interested in submitting a case, please fill out this form and/or email [email protected] with a very brief overview of your case NO LATER THAN the FIRST OF EACH MONTH . 
  • During the CoP session there will be 3 Breakout Groups. In each breakout group, one of the 3 Case Narrators  will describe a situation, illustrate challenges/opportunities, and ask for input, feedback, thoughts, ideas, and resources from the group.
  • After 15 min, presenters will rotate to another small group. This means all participants will have the opportunity to interact with each of the three Project Presenters. Each round will use the same format.
• Integration Time - TOTAL 15 minutes
  • Back in the group as a whole, Case Narrators are invited to offer a brief reflection on the support received. Then participants are invited to share the value received from the experience. 
  • Session Conclusion TOTAL 5 minutes
  • Details of the next meeting, link to offer Project Participation, and Closure Survey Link for feedback  
• The Afterparty!! - TOTAL 15 minutes
  • Formal meeting ends at 1:45 then 15 minutes of open conversation among participants who choose to stay.

During the session conclusion, facilitators make following announcement:
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN OFFERING UP A PROJECT TO share with THE GROUP for a future meeting,
PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM AND SUBMIT BY THE 1ST OF EACH MONTH.
WE WILL NOTIFY YOU IN ADVANCE OF THE MONTHLY GATHERING IF YOUR PROJECT IS CHOSEN FOR Exploration. 
If you’re interested in offering up a project to share with the group for a future meeting, PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM and submit by the 1st of each month. We will notify you in advance of the monthly gathering if your project is chosen for exploration. 


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