I. Somatics & Social Change - Camille Sapara Barton

This session will explore how and why somatics can be supportive for social change. The session will give an introduction to the nervous system to provide an overview of how our stress response functions and how we can avoid burnout, rest effectively and recover after intense moments of stress. The session will also highlight how social movements have successfully used somatics in their long term strategy with context specific examples. Practical exercises will be provided throughout so people will have an experience of some somatic tools that may be supportive in daily life.

Camille Sapara Barton is a Social Imagineer, artist and somatic practitioner, dedicated to creating networks of care and livable futures. Rooted in Black feminism, ecology and harm reduction, Camille uses creativity, alongside embodied practices, to create culture change in fields ranging from psychedelic assisted therapy to arts education. Their debut book Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding Our Sorrow and Growing Cultures of Care in Community, was published in April 2024 by North Atlantic Books.

Based in Amsterdam, Camille designed and directed Ecologies of Transformation (2021 - 2023), a masters programme exploring socially engaged art making with a focus on creating change through the body into the world. They curate events and offer consultancy combining trauma informed practice, experiential learning and their studies in political science.

When: Friday, 27.09.2024, 16:00 - 18:00 CET

II. The Key to Power - Henrique Lody

Through an introductory dive into the history and foundations of community organizing, this session will be a space to learn from each other's experiences and harness the potential of the key to social transformation: the practice of relationship building.

Between an academic background in humanities and a life driven by his art, Henrique Lody has always strived to bridge the gap between separate but complementary paradigms of social change. After a first dissertation on the strategies of education through entertainment in television shows, a Masters in Art and social responsibility led him to carry out research on participation and creative communities. To keep up the work and further investigate the connexion between creativity and agency, Henrique founded an independent research lab in 2023 and worked as an organizer in the French nonprofit Organisez-Vous.

When: Monday, 30th of September, 16:00 - 18:00 CET

III. Repression and Holistic Security in the Training Room and Beyond

Understanding repression and holistic security approach to set up practices and support structures for emotional and physical well-being in the training room.

Hilal Demir, an anarcha-queer DJing at home is an activist, trainer, facilitator for 20 + years and has experience on organizing, strategizing in nonviolent direct action, campaign and social movement levels, working with power, active solidarity, resilience, repression and security. She is passionate about leading informal learning experiences, community organizing, group dynamics and organisational cultures, supporting activists and organizations to build long lasting transformative social movements for a just future.

When: Wednesday, 2nd of October, 16:00 - 18:00 CET

IV. Understanding How to Develop a Good Key Message

In this session, we will walk through a tool that supports activists and campaigners to develop a good message to use as the basis of any form of communication - a campaign, an article, a series of tweets, etc. We will also explore how to teach this tool from a trainer perspective, and what the important elements are in sharing it with others.

Alexander Leon (he/him) is an internationally recognised facilitator, educator, speaker, and writer. Throughout his career, Alexander’s work has spanned a variety of industries and topics, focusing primarily on advocacy / communications strategy, and anti-oppression. Whether training government ministers on LGBTQ+ inclusion, upskilling grassroots activists on how to integrate race and class into their campaign messages, or educating businesses on the importance of understanding systemic oppression, Alexander's approach is anchored in a strong sense of justice, an avid curiosity, and an openness to play. He has co-designed and delivered trainings for NEON, Greenpeace, Ulex, Stonewall, LinkedIn, and others. His writing has been featured in The Guardian, BBC, Huffington Post, 14poems, and more.

When: Monday, 7th of October, 17:00 - 19:00 CET

V. Resilience and Transformative Conflict 

In political groups, we often experience conflict as a threat: it leads to pain, avoidance, paralysis, division, and exclusion. We prefer to direct our conflicts against "those at the top." But what if we understood conflicts as a path through which we strengthen our relationships, expand our awareness of one another, and address the patterns of global power dynamics in the here and now? What if we could understand critique as a gift instead of a threat? In this session we will practice becoming more conscious of the different forms of power, especially the "high rank" that each of us have. As well as practice a tool from Process Work that can help us to give and receive genuine critique to one another.

Since 2018 the Movement School supports self-organized groups, NGOs, and unions in building social movements and alliances. In trainings, coaching, and participant-centered events, we share tools, content, and attitudes that help your movement grow and become more effective. Our goal is to provide more people with experiences of collective agency and to support deep learning and transformative processes—with cohesion, warmth, and solidarity - without right/wrong binaries or perfectionism. Our methods are rooted in decades of experience in social movements, transformative organizing, direct learning, Process Work, bodywork, and other grassroot approaches to movement building.

When: Thursday, 10th of October, 17:00 - 19:00 CET

VI. NEW DATE - We Shake with Joy, We Shake with Grief - Samirah Siddiqui

We shake with joy, we shake with grief. What a time they have, these two housed as they are in the same body.
Mary Oliver, Evidence

Our movements and society are rippled with unprocessed and unaddressed grief from tragedy and loss. And yet, we often lack the tools and the willingness to hold space for our personal and collective pain. Working with emotions such as grief are avoided, and glimmers of joy are tainted with impatience and guilt as pace and urgency call for ‘less emotion, more action’. In this session we will explore how to honour and integrate space for grief in our movements, including multi-faith-based practice. As organisers, what tools and methods can we embed to build an infrastructure of care around grief? What must trainers and organisers consider and be cognisant of when integrating grief tending in to movement practice and spaces? By the end of the session, we will crowdsource practices and how to further integrate grief work into our movement and organising spaces.

Samirah Siddiqui is a marine ecologist, curator and facilitator based between the U.K., Germany and Pakistan. Her experience working with environmental and social impact organisations and training in life sciences has positioned her focus at the intersection of ecology and activism. She centres interdependence, anti-colonial perspectives and lived experience in her work and seeks to disrupt silos between art, activism and academia. Community building and grief tending are essential tools in her decolonial practice as a form of world-building, resilience and resistance.

When: NEW DATE -  Friday, 25th of October, 13:00 - 15:00 CET

VII. Intersectional Disability Justice - Dr. Robel Afeworki Abay

This session helps you to deepen your understanding of disability justice and to implement accessible and inclusive best practices in your workplace and everyday life by demonstrating intersectional and inclusive principles through knowledge and practice. A specific focus will be, developing transformative, intersectional disability justice sustainably throughout your engagements as a facilitator or community organizer to help you creating an accessible and just structures and working towards community wellbeing. The training includes supplemental resources that helps you to practically implement what you’ve learned during the training and your own personal journey of critical reflections after the training.

Drr. Robel Afeworki Abay is sociologist and critically examines the Intersectional Colonialities of Ableism and Racism (Humboldt University of Berlin). Robel is currently working as a guest professor of participatory approaches in the social and health sciences at Alice Salomon University of Applied Sciences Berlin. Previously, Robel has worked as a research associate at the Institute of Sociology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Germany. Robel has studied Sociology and Political Science at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and Cardiff University, Wales, UK, and Social Work in Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Kassel, Germany. Robel’s research and teaching interests include: Intersectional Disability Justice; Interplay of Queerness, Racism & Ableism; Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory (DisCrit); Gender & Queer Studies; Diversity & Itersectionality; Migration & Mobility; Postcolonial & Decolonial Theories; Climate & Social Justice; Participatory Research. In addition, Robel is Co-Speaker of the expert group for „Flight, Migration, and Critique of Racism and Anti-Semitism (Migraas)“ in the German Association of Social Work (DGSA) as well as Founder & Executive Director of the IDJ-Network.

When: Friday, 18th October 13:00 - 15:00 CET

VIII. Power and Rank Dynamics - Nontokozo C. Sedibe-Sabic

Being rank unconscious can create challenges of power dynamics in interactions between individuals and within groups. This workshop is designed to support a deeper understanding and inner work on the dynamics of rank and power. As well as visibilising the privileges that comes with power.

An advocate for climate and social justice, community living and North-South healing and reconciliation, utilising the principles of UBUNTU. Nontokozo works with international organisations to develop ways of dismantling systems of oppression, decolonising and healing. She coaches individuals on their leadership skills and holds space for inner processes. She has experience in different collaborative methodologies in facilitation, project and group dynamics. Currently involved in various organisations in Europe that promote sustainable and regenerative ways of living. And has contributed to different book projects about climate psychology and community.

When: Monday, 21st of October 17:00 - 19:00 CET

IX. Working with our Bodies - Pasquale Virginie Rotter

Our body is the tool of our work, everything we do, we do from and with the body. What does the way we relate to our bodies have to do with how we relate to the world and the beings in it? And where are there still internalised colonial patterns to be transformed? In this session we want to dip into an examination of our approach to the body as our most important tool to help shape the world and find inspirations on how to transform the oppressor within us.

Pasquale Virginie Rotter:(they, them/ Pas) is a Holistic Facilitator, Somatic Coach, Body-Mind-Healer, Mediator and Author. They work on the intersections of body, movement, activism, trauma, healing and community and love to hold space to unlearn physical, emotional, mental and spiritual oppression. Over the last 15 years, Pasquale has developed several approaches and modalities to accompany groups and individuals in holistic transformation, liberation and healing processes.

Picture in promotional material by (c) Shaheen Wacker

When: Tuesday, 29th of October 17:00 - 19:00 CET