ICRA Community Call

Come together to connect with others who are bringing or want to bring ‘inner work’ or care into their activism, community action or change-making. Share, hear and learn from other initiatives of how this is being practised and integrated, as well as cultivating supportive relationships with others finding their way in this space.

ICRA Community Calls 

Join us for our monthly iCRA Community Calls.

These monthly online calls are intended to be a supportive, nourishing and connective space for those engaging in inner work in response to the climate crisis and other crises we face. They are a space to connect, share and exchange initiatives and ideas, and learn from each other. Each call we will spotlight an initiative who is integrating ‘inner work’ or care into their activism, community action or change-making.

29th September Community Call: We will be spotlighting the Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders programme, with Andy Crosbie

Andy is the director of the Collective Impact Agency and, until June this year, was the convener of the Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders, a systems change initiative helping community members to step into local decision-making. 

Gateshead Community Bridgebuilders is a community-led network that builds power and capacity from within marginalised communities, working through trusted local people with lived experience to shape decisions, develop leadership and strengthen relationships. Their work is particularly relevant to ICRA in its focus on building connection and trust across difference, including in contexts of polarisation, while creating spaces where communities experiencing poverty, discrimination and exclusion can cultivate their agency, collective power and sense of well-being.

Andy’s work spans the themes of ‘Power and Place’, ‘Learning Differently’, and ‘Inner Work’. He is very interested in Dougald Hine’s question “What work makes sense in times of collapse?”

What to expect

The Community Calls are an invitation to come together to connect with others who are bringing or want to bring ‘inner work’ or care into their activism, community action or change-making. There will be opportunities to share, hear and learn from stories of how this is being practised and integrated, as well as cultivating supportive relationships with others finding their way in this space. 

Each Community Call will be slightly different but the typical flow will be:

• Initial grounding practice to collectively settle 
• Small group or paired breakouts to connect with others
• Spotlight of an initiative who is integrating ‘inner work’ or care into their activism, community action or change-making
• Larger group discussions around the spotlight initiative or other work or initiatives that wish to be shared

Who might the community calls be for?

If this interests or resonates with you in this way then this is for you!

It doesn’t matter if you are already bringing ‘inner work’, care, emotional resilience, relational support, or whatever you call it (!) to your change-making work, or if you are just interested and feeling a pull to doing so.

We hope this is a supportive space for all who need it.

About ICRA

ICRA (Inner Climate Response Alliance) is an emerging network and community of practice for people engaging in inner work in response to the climate crisis. We aim to support, uplift and resource those who are doing the crucial work of creating and holding spaces to process difficult truths, connect with honesty and care, build practices for staying in healthy relationship with each other, and respond to the crises we face with courage and compassion.

Across the UK, many practitioners and communities are already doing this work—through conversation, art, music, faith, grief tending, and land-based practices. ICRA seeks to connect these efforts, fostering a sense of interdependence and shared learning so that people can strengthen their capacity to serve life in these times.

They will be held by Hannah Leigh Mackie from Climate Psychology Alliance and Harrie Ayliffe from Climate Majority Project, two of the projects in the partnership.

ICRA (Inner Climate Response Alliance) is a partnership between Climate Psychology Alliance, Climate Majority Project and MI, funded by the National Lottery Climate Action Fund.

Visit our website: https://www.innerclimateresponse.org/