Welcome to August 2005!

All too often people in the world committed to social change, can get sort of serious. With all of the tough challenges we face in our communities and as a planet, it is easy to feel a sense of burden in the work we do. If you ever suffer from this fate, we hope to lighten and sweeten your day with a fairy tale. A story, which in a way is what Pioneers of Change is all about.

Over the last months, a group of Pioneers in Europe have been meeting around the power of Fairy Tales and storytelling on the journey to transform our lives and our societies. Collette, Sophia, Carsten and Felix now want to invite more people in the global network to join this inquiry in a new Community of Practice on story telling; See www.pioneersofchange.net/communities/storytellingjourney

In a recent e-mail Felix articulated how this new community is a great illustration of the self-organizing spirit of Pioneers of Change:

"In my opinion this initiative is also a wonderful example of the power and beauty of Pioneers of Change. It all started when Sofia moved to Germany and was trying to get hold of some Pioneers in the country. We talked to each other on the phone and shared our ideas and interests - and the story began. We invited some friends and loved ones to help and join us to make our first tour, followed by a second one. With an ongoing reflection we discovered that something was missing and our call was heard when the flow game and his host talked to us.

Thank you PoC for this. Your power is to be found within each and everyone of your members. Humans who dare to face the challenges and look for new ways to live and act. People who never stop asking questions and never stop working on themselves, never stop searching, hoping, dreaming…" - Felix Döppner

Be welcome into the Story Telling Journey and even more that to join with other Pioneers to create what you need to further your own and each other’s pioneering actions.

Best Wishes,

Sera & Dumi (Cultivation Unit)

IN FOCUS: Story Telling Journey

So far it has been a challenge for this group to really express what excites us about our story telling idea. What we experienced in our journeys was a strange, magic energy guiding us when we followed the roots of the Grimm brothers and used those magical sights as an inspiration to practice story telling in a new way. And it might have been also this energy which brought us to the idea to combine this with the openness and wholeness of the flow game which we modified to a fairy tale module. All we know so far is that it works and that it is very special and precious. It is starting an inner process of self discovery. Telling and reflecting on the story, you dare to speak outis a vehicle and this helps you to carry out your deep, magical inner voice which is hidden in you, behind big walls, like a golden ball which has fallen in a deep, deep well.

And the more we think about how we could tell and invite you to experience this, the more we start to relax because we know it is within all of us. In The Healing Wisdom of Africa, Malidoma Somé he writes about the way his tribe has used stories for thousands and thousands of years - not only to pass on wisdom and knowledge from generation to generation - but also to nourish something within you. A feeling that brings together the world of the ancestor and yourself, in the past, presence and future. He adds that stories lead you to a place of higher self awareness and we believe that this is where this energy comes from.

We also believe that we have found a way to consciously feel this energy and use it to look at deeper undiscovered sides of ones inner voices and personal stories which are waiting to be discovered and to be told.

If you could only see the faces and gestures of the one telling her or his story… It is as if the soul is creating an atmosphere of presence and a bitter-sweetness of daring and fearing to show what really is inside of you.

For those of you who are interested in discovering even more of this we would like to invite you to join our list for sharing stories and planning gatherings to practice story telling (to join e-mail storytellingjourney-join@lists.pioneersofchange.net ). Look out for an announcement of our next journey (late November – early December).

Collette, Sophia, Carsten, Felix

Events

Between Integration and Isolation Rotterdam, The Netherlands 7-11 September 2005

A Learning Journey about the Challenges and Opportunities of Immigration in 21st Century Europe The learning journey will enable stakeholders to deepen their understanding and develop their own practices further. We will also explore the possibility for new networks to emerge, which can create and inspire new insights, better tools and alternative approaches. Participants are brought together in order to go through a learning process together with the aspiration of sharpening and reframing their understanding of what it means to live with cultural diversity. See http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/integration or e-mail moraan@pioneersofchange.net

Ecology of Business 17 September London, UK

Exploring The Ecology of Business - Using Dialogue & Collective Intelligence. London, Saturday September 17, 2005, 10.00 - 16.30. We need to move upstream in our whole process of thought. To exercise Corporate Responsibility is to take account of the significance and implications of our actions in a much wider context than traditional business measures typically would allow for. You are invited to a dialogue at the very edge of new thinking on this subject - exploring the ecology of business. The fee for this event is £25, no VAT. To apply for participation forward an e-mail to Leon Olsen at leon@pioneersofchange.net with name, occupation and a short motivation for your participation (one short paragraph will suffice) as soon as possible and before September 1 2005. For more information, visit http://pioneersofchange.net/localnetworks/london/events or email leon@pioneersofchange.net

The Art of Hosting Johannesburg South Africa September 21-23 2005

How can we create safe learning spaces where strategic and meaningful conversations take place in order to create comprehensive and innovative solutions for the problems that our world, organisations and communities are facing today? How can leaders encourage collective intelligence and creativity to emerge? We offer The Art of Hosting that can help you to explore and develop your own competencies. We invite leaders, trainers, teachers, entrepreneurs, politicians, consultants, pioneers - people with the courage to let go of control in order to achieve better cooperation and results. See http://pioneersofchange.net/localnetworks/johannesburg/events for the full invitation. Contact sera@pioneersofchange.net

Deep Democracy: A three day course in collective decision-making and conflict resolution Johannesburg, South Africa: 5-7 September Copenhagen, Denmark: 23-25 September London, UK: 29 September - 1 October

You are invited to a three-day intensive course in Deep Democracy in Johannesburg, Coppenhagen or London. The course will provide insight into your role in facilitating decision-making processes in dynamic group situations, understanding of conflict and practical conflict resolution, and unique facilitation tools. The course will be led by Myrna Wajsman Lewis from South Africa. Myrna is a clinical psychologist who has studied Process Oriented Psychology in the US and Switzerland. Together with her late husband Greg, Myrna has been applying and teaching conflict resolution techniques internationally in the corporate sector over the last five years and in South Africa for several years before that. In addition to teaching these techniques in the corporate sector, Myrna is also leading an exciting project to teach these skills to children in South African schools.

The Deep Democracy approach has been developed by Myrna and Greg, and they are the original trainers in this field. The course is designed for participants who are working with change processes in groups, be that in a work team, a school, self-help groups, conflictual groups, associations, or elsewhere. The course will take its own participants as the starting point, and will focus on developing competencies of participants in:

Working with the diversity of the group to discover valuable and hidden wisdom about the group’s own resources Learning to generate initiative through facilitation Becoming aware of your own capacities for decision-making and adaptability.

To register, contact: Johannesburg: myrnalewis@iafrica.com / Copenhagen: carstenohm@carstenohm.dk / London: Adam.Hembury@paconsulting.com see full London invite at www.pioneersofchange.net/communities/london/events

Film Night London, The Hub September 27 19:00

Pioneers of Change, Waterluton (www.waterlution.org) & The Hub are delighted to welcome Futerra to screen 3 films they have produced: The Carbon Trust: ‘In Our Hands’ a film about energy saving in the work place ‘What Works for You’ a film about following your heart in the world of work ‘The Seasons Alter’ a shakespearian drama about climate change. For an evening of inspiring films and conversation please RSVP to lisa.emerson@the-hub.net The cost is 5 pounds. For more info visit www.futerra.org for directions to The Hub visit www.the-hub.net/where

Learning journey on Sustainable Development Brazil 2-12 October 2005

Pioneers of Change in Brazil is offering a Learning Journey on Sustainable Development to be held from 2-12 October 2005. The learning journey is a 10-day experience, starting in an eco-village close to São Paulo to set the context for personal, organisational and societal sustainability. We will participate in a deep ecology experience to enable us to understand our connection to nature and identify how we can personally live more sustainably. We will spend a few days in São Paulo to participate in a cross-sector dialogue and fair and explore the various dimensions of sustainability in one economic sector. We will then travel to Curitiba, a city famous for its integrated social, economic and environmental actions to deepen our understanding of sustainability on a municipal level. We will end the Learning Journey with a day and a half to reflect on the experience, plan next steps and share how each can take personal responsibility for shifting the systems in which we operate to create a more sustainable world. Throughout the journey there will be space for personal and group reflection, meditation, sharing experiences, action planning and cultural events. For more information, visit: http://pioneersofchange.net/communities/sustainability/learningjourney Subscribe to: ljsust@yahoogrupos.com.br

Knowledge Sharing

Book Review

The World Café: Shaping our Futures through Conversations that Matter By Juanita Brown, with David Isaacs and the World Café Community - reviewed by Tom Atlee

The World Café is a profoundly insightful and richly practical book, designed for evolutionary times. For me, it is already a classic... The essence of true dialogue is the exploration of questions that are important to us, that shape how we think and what we do next. These questions are central; they are the channel through which our life-passion flows when we are evolving, deepening, and learning. When we do that together - in rich conversation - our passions can flow and evolve together, usually going deeper and wider than we tend to go alone.

In The World Cafe, this creative dance of conversations and questions is chronicled by more than 100 practitioners, each more articulate than the last, each leading us to another level of understanding about one more important dimension of the transformational magic of dialogue. Their voices are warm, engaged in the shared exploration, not lecturing. Juanita Brown includes all these folks quite intentionally and comfortably. She is being more than "author". She is being "host" - as in a café conversation in her living room - welcoming all voices, including her own, into a place of common learning and deepening.

Read the full review on http://pioneersofchange.net/library/books/worldcafe

Invitations & Announcements

Diversity Caravan

The Diversity Caravan is a virtual and physical project where people are invited to post sustainable change projects on a web site. Later a physical caravan will drive to the selected places (starting in South Africa) and document the projects by film, photo, texts or other material. With this documentation material the ideas can be shared with the rest of the world. Networks can be formed, leaders can get inspired, projects can be analyzed, and there are probably many more possibilities.

You can get involved by joining the mailing list by e-mailing caravan-join@lists.pioneersofchange.net or joining the physical caravan, please let me know if you're interested in any or several of these options.

For more information please visit http://pioneersofchange.net/ventures/caravan/

Social Entrepreneurship in Sweden

In Stockholm the PoC connected NGO "Association for International Social Entrepreneurship" has launched it’s website at www.aise.nu. The activities for the autumn is being planned, amongst them a "Learning Circle" where a group of AISE members will be meeting once a month for discussing publications from the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. AISE representatives will also take part, by giving a talk about poverty and structural injustice, at the art event Human Works arranged by Andrea Hvistendahl at the 11th of September in the Gallery below Café 44.

The preparations for the Learning Journey Social Entrepreneurship has taken a big step forward as planning meetings where held with PoC the 13-14 of August in Copenhagen. The LJ will consist of exchanges where AISE members will visit PoC in SA (April 2006), and PoC members in South Africa will visit AISE in Sweden (May 2006). For any inquires or interest in activities in AISE you are welcome to contact harry@mcneil.se or info@aise.nu. AISE Newsletters are now available. Sign up at http://www.aise.nu/tibet/shoton/template/Index.vm?pageid=1475

Article 2

Article 2 is group formed by young people from all over the world whose target is to take action in order to help the children and youth in conflicts and make a real change in their life. Our group was formed in VOY (Voice of Youth) Unicef forum http://www.unicef.org/voy/discussions/forumdisplay.php?f=71 where we gather together to debate how we can make the difference as young people. For this reason, we created a newsletter "Article 2- Youth for a change" http://www.unicef.org/voy/takeaction/takeaction_2161.html with the objective of inform, educate and raise awareness upon crucial social issues such as children explotation and abusion, poverty, discrimination, war, etc. Also, we intend to encourage young people to get involved and take action, to give them tips and advices on how they can help the ones in need. In this newsletter we want to invite young people interested in making a change to express their ideas, to make their voice hear, to encounter with other youth with the same interest and we all together can find a way to make this world a better place. We want to invite every young person interested in helping to get involved and gather together with other people who share the same goal in life.

FINANCIAL MATTERS

Pioneers of Change is an independent network that believes it is critical to retain a free and unbiased position. We also believe that financial barriers should not be a constraint to learning and engaging. As such we work hard at ensuring that our learning is available to as wide and diverse an audience as possible.

We invite you to make a donation to support us in our work. We encourage you to think of this donation as an investment into learning that has the potential of enriching all of our lives. If you have any ideas of individuals or organizations that might like to support us, let us know, sera@pioneersofchange.net

SMALL PRINT

What is Pioneers of Change?

Pioneers of Change is a global learning network supporting practitioners in their mid-20s to mid-30. Founded in 1999, by a group of people from 16 countries and now includes participants from around the world.

Pioneers are people who questions underlying assumptions and move into new territory in order to create the change we want to see in the world. We include social entrepreneurs, member of the business, government and non-profit communities, as well as artists, teachers, and free agents from a variety of cultural and social backgrounds.

When you join Pioneers of Change you explicitly commit to the following principles:

Be yourself Do what Matters Start now Engage with others Never stop asking questions

For more information on Pioneers of Change, see http://www.pioneersofchange.net

To have something included in an upcoming Newsletter contact cultivation@pioneersofchange.net

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