Surviving the Festive Season
Do you want to challenge divisive and oppressive language during the winter holidays? Have you tried before and not gotten very far explaining your perspective to your loved ones? Are you already anticipating what your “I’m not a racist, but…”-uncle will say this year? Many of us struggle to know where to start with friends and family who are being racist, sexist, xenophobic, ableist, transphobic, colonialist, scapegoating, etc. Join our community of practice to hone the skills needed to come out of the holidays more resourced rather than emotionally drained!
The online series is aimed at supporting you to step up and challenge bigotry in your personal life. We often underestimate the impact we can have on those we’re close to. People have good reasons to be frustrated about the state of the world, but right-wing media misdirects these feelings away from the real cause. With the rise of the far-right, we’re called on to step-up now more than ever.
Session Dates: (Please attend all three sessions; all times are GMT/UK time)
Session 1: Thursday, 5th Dec, 19.00 - 21.00
Session 2: Thursday, 12th Dec, 19.00 - 21.00
Session 3: Thursday, 9th Jan, 19.00 - 21.00
We’re starting in two weeks, so please sign up to ensure your place. Deadline 1pm, Thursday, 27 November.
What we'll cover
In this course, you will learn techniques to challenge oppressive speech, and role-play how to have a meaningful conversation with loved ones, whilst remaining calm and collected. You will gain confidence through practising with a temporary community of practice in which we will learn together and practice tools. After the holidays, we’ll come back together and reflect on our experiences in order to process and share the learnings of what worked and what didn’t.
Techniques you’ll learn: how to address comments in the moment, 1-to-1 conversations after comments were made, what to say when you don’t have facts to hand, acknowledging people’s grievances and helping people understand the real causes and more…
This will not be a theoretical undertaking, rather a practice environment. Practising these techniques will prepare you to act skilfully with openness and patience.
This festive season, you’ll have confidence and a plan to:
Pro-actively call out oppressive language, jokes, etc.
Have a positive impact on friends’ and families’ beliefs and behaviours
End the holidays more resourced and rested, rather than emotionally drained
Cost: We are running this series in the spirit of the solidarity economy. We don’t want money to be a barrier for anyone. However, this is an unfunded project and we’re offering our time for free. Please consider donating to us if you can.
Who are we?
We are the Movement Ecology Collective. We help changemakers build collective power through training, facilitation and consultation. If you have any questions about this event, please email hello@movementecology.org.uk