Welcome to June 2006!

We are very excited to share the conversation on Dialogue and the report that the Pioneers of Change associates have recently completed. This excellent resource is a culmination and harvesting of many diverse and rich experiences from around the world within the Pioneer of Change network, as well as the other connected networks in the world. It is a wonderful survey of the many tools and methods being used by people who are trying to understand the dynamics of systemic change and the power of conversation! We encourage you to download the report and use it in your Pioneering work.

For those of you that have some history of involvement and want to become more deeply involved in the Network we have an invitation. There are some exciting opportunities available to take on volunteer roles within Pioneers of Change: Web Developer and Fundraising Coordinator. A Web Developer is needed who has experience with Plone or similar platforms. The Fundraising Coordinator is to create and implement a fundraising plan, with the possibility of forming a fundraising team.

For more information please contact Danielle Bowler by e-mailing danielle@pioneersofchange.net before 21 May 2006.

We hope that you enjoy this very full Newsletter and again, please consider joining us for Summer School – the general meeting of all Pioneers this August in Canada visit www.pioneersofchange.net/communities/summerschool For more information, please contact SummerSchool06@pioneersofchange.net

Best wishes,

Danielle, Felix, Femke, Moraan, Pablo, Sean and Sera

Si deseas recibir el boletín en español suscribete con Roger Granada a este correo e: roger@pioneersofchange.net ¡Gracias!

In Focus: Dialogue

The modern world loves answers. We like to solve problems quickly. We like to know what to do. We don’t want to "reinvent the wheel". We don’t want to “waste our time”. And when we have the answers or have a wheel invented we like to pass on the information to others. We do this through the media, through training programmes where teachers pass on answers to students, or through conferences where experts speak on panels while hundreds listen (or pretend to listen) in the audience. This approach may be useful for some situations, but is problematic for a number of reasons, particularly when working on social and human challenges in the 21st century.

Firstly, we live in a world of increasing complexity, where answers have a short life-span. Secondly, it seems to us that people have an inherent desire to want to solve their own problems. Even if only for these two reasons, we need to be adept at asking questions, and at talking and listening to each other. These are age-old competencies. For millennia, people in villages across the world have worked through collective challenges, creating solutions through conversation.

But this art of talking seems to be declining. Why? Many of us seem to have forgotten how to engage in, and be present to, such conversations. In these times of busy-ness, information overload, electronic communications, scientific rationality, and organisational complexity, we are forgetting how to talk to each other. Fortunately, as a response to this trend, a number of methods for facilitating dialogue have been emerging globally, in particular over the past 20 years.

In 2005, Pioneers of Change associates were commissioned by GTZ in South Africa to map a set of dialogue methods. The resulting collection profiles 10 such methods in depth and a number of others more briefly. The approaches are diverse in many ways. Some are designed for small groups of 20 people, some can accommodate up to 1200 or even 5000 in dialogue at the same time. Some focus on exploring and resolving conflict and differences, while others emphasize looking first to what is working and agreed upon. Some are explicitly dialogues between groups while others require each participant to be there only as themselves and individuals. Yet across all these dialogue methods are some clear common patterns. They focus on enabling open communication, honest speaking, and genuine listening. They allow people to take responsibility for their own learning and ideas. They create a safe space or container for people to surface their assumptions, to question their previous judgments and worldviews, and to change the way they think. They generate new ideas or solutions that are beyond what anyone had thought of before. They create a different level of understanding of people and problems. They allow for more contextual and holistic ways of seeing. They lead to "a-ha" experiences.

Now, the collection of dialogue methods is available at http://www.pioneersofchange.net/library/dialogue In addition to the profiles of dialogue methods, the collection includes reflections on basic foundations for good dialogue, descriptions of traditional African approaches to conversation, some assessment of the different tools, and a brief dialogue dictionary.

Events

A weekend of inner journey of personal story telling, and fairy tale card game Denmark 2-4 June

This is an invitation for everyone to step out of their daily routine and set her/his sail for a weekend of personal reflection. Together we would like to open new horizons to our inner stories and with the help of the unique energy of fairy tales we will let these stories unfold themselves and see what they are telling us. For further information please write to sofia@turnupthecourage.com or felix@pioneersofchange.net

The Art of Hosting Conversations that Matter: special youth edition! Castle Borl,Slovenia 6 - 9 July 2006

Engage!InterAct, Netherlands and Novelus, Slovenia are preparing a special training course for engaged youth and youth-driven organisations. It will be a training course to learn about and stimulate innovative youth leadership through building competencies to host meaningful and strategic conversations. In this course we’ll offer skills building in hosting different conversation methods, such as: Circle Practice, Open Space Technology, World Café and Appreciative Inquiry. We will also look into the development of cross-cutting competencies related to hosting, reflection on youth leadership practices and increasing self-awareness and self-confidence through an integral and playful approach to leadership and space and support to reflect on your specific youth-related project, initiative or organisation.

We invite you to extend the invitation to any emerging youth leaders and relevant youth organisations you know. For more information please contact tatiana@engage.nu or find the full invitation at http://www.engage.nu/interact/DOWNLOADS/AoH Youth Invitation.pdf Youth Invitation.pdf and registration form: http://www.engage.nu/interact/DOWNLOADS/Registration Form AoH Youth.doc Form AoH Youth.doc

WYSE International Leadership Programme Lucca (Tuscany) Italy July 31 - August 11, 2006

The International Leadership Programme is a 12-day residential programme which promotes visionary leadership with awareness and provides education that respects diversity of political, religious and social views. The programme is open to young people aged 18 to 32, and will be held at Villa Boccella which is situated 5 miles outside of Lucca, Italy. This exceptional venue has been dedicated to the advancement of inter-cultural understanding for young people. See www.pioneersofchange.net/library/globalevents or contact italy-summerprogramme@wyse-ngo.org

Pioneers of Change Summer School The Shire - Nova Scotia, Canada August 19 – 25, 2006

The 2006 Annual Meeting of the Pioneers of Change Network will be held on the East Coast of Canada at The Shire - a protected ecological learning community, leadership training ground and venue for the common good. Summer School will be an opportunity to engage with other Pioneers from around the Globe. Come and meet with young practitioners who are working in all areas of their societies for positive change. It will be a place to bring your burning questions and best learning to engage in a global community for 8 days. We intend to create a space where we can move to the next level in our individual and collective pioneering. Please join us! To register or find out more visit www.pioneersofchange.net/communities/summerschool For more information, please contact SummerSchool06@pioneersofchange.net

Arts for Social Change Learning Journey Johannesburg, South Africa 22 September – 1 October 2006

This 3rd Arts for Social Change Learning Journey in Johannesburg is for people who are actively working with artistic processes in social change work, young people who are active in social change and wanting to learn artistic processes, or young artists wanting to apply their art towards social change. Our intention with this programme is both to understand the power of, and generate commitment to, working with the arts in social change, and to build motivation and practical capacity of participants to apply creative tools and processes. For more information please contact Nicole on nicole@pioneersofchange.net

Summer Open University: School of Warriors Without Weapons Santos, Brazil 5 of January to 5 February 2007

In 2007, there will be a third session of the Summer Open University: School of Warriors Without Weapons (Universidade Aberta do Verao: Escola de Guerreiros sem Armas) in Santos, Brazil (on the coast near São Paulo). The Summer Open University (SOU) is a program that gathers students and young professionals from around the world to awaken their social entrepreneurship. The program’s goal is for participants to return to their homeland with inspiration and tools to take action to restore their social, cultural and environmental realities. The program emphasizes cooperative, rather than individual, effort and transformation. If you would like to learn more or offer financial or organizational support, please contact (in English, Spanish, or Portuguese) Rodrigo Alonso at rodrigorubido@hotmail.com.

Invitations & Announcements

Escape Guide Are you unhappy and disillusioned with your job, but not quite sure how to get out of this situation? Satu Kreula has recently put together a free ebook called the Escape Guide. She now worked with over a 100 clients on these issues, and has put together 7 steps that she has found useful for somebody wanting to begin their escape into more meaningful work. You can get a free copy at www.escape-club.org – or read through previous issues of Satu’s monthly e-newsletter: Escape Stories.

Leadership in Sustainability-Pioneers of Change in Ecuador Dania Quirola (PoC, Ecuador) and Naia Oliveira (Fundacion GAIA, Brasil) co-hosted three workshops with around 90 participants in the capital city Quito, the entrance to the Amazon Basin in Rio Verde and Puerto Baquerizo Morento in the Galapagos Islands. The topics included "Women and leadership: Awakening our potencial", "Ecovillages as a feasible alternative for a sustainable living"; "Women, Culture and Nature". As a result new learning circles have been formed and partners will support the follow-up of activities, including Brahma Kumaris in Quito, grass-roots groups in Rio Verde, and the Ministry of Social Welfare in Galapagos." For more information, please contact: dania.quirola@gmail.com

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.

More information please visit http://pioneersofchange.net/ventures/caravan

Social Entrepreneurship in Sweden and South Africa 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.

AISE visited Pioneer of Change in Johannesburg in November, as a part of the planning for the Learning Journey on Social Entrepreneurship planned for 2006. An exchange between members of AISE Sweden and PoC South Africa is planned to take place in April and May. If you have suggestions for topics to explore, social entrepreneurship related URL’s, organisations to visit or project to attend please share your information with us at AISE; jakobsundberg@gmail.se or jonasm@idelaboratoriet.com. For more information about AISE visit www.aise.nu or send Harry McNeil an email at harry@mcneil.se.

Activating the Sustainability Dialogue Susana Muhamad invites you into an active on-line dialogue on the sustainability network (to join email sustain-join@lists.pioneersofchange.net)

"I am very interested to know more about the sustainability work of different PoC members around the world and find synergies and possibilities of cooperation. I currently work for Shell as sustainable development consultant and the most important initiative I am working on, is the development of sustainable settlements for Shell capital projects. I am learning and working on the technical issues: such as integrated eco-design, green buildings, sustainable energy systems, sewage systems, water conservation and social aspects of sustainable settlements. In PoC I participate in the Amsterdam and The Hague Personal Sustainability networks. I will be interested to know more about Pioneers work on sustainable living in different parts of the world."

"I am suggesting we introduce ourselves and plan a sharing agenda during 2006. "Sharing agenda" means to explore together different sustainability themes and make connections among us based on our work."

For more information email Susana Muhamad susanamuhamad880@hotmail.com

Support Adriana Bertini bring her work to AIDS conference

The Arts for Social Change community is currently trying to raise $1500 for Adriana Bertini from Brazil to attend the international AIDS conference in Toronto in August 2006.  Adriana is a well-known artist and a member of our community who has dedicated her work to AIDS prevention through the arts.  She works with art and fashion design using condoms as a way of demystifying condoms and changing behaviour.  She hosts workshops around AIDS prevention, integrating psychology and education with the arts.  

The Arts for Social Change Community of Practice has rallied behind Adriana’s efforts and set up a web page to raise funds and there will even be a draw to win a piece of her incredible condom fasion!! Check it out at http://www.tagstudio.net/devarts/node/276 and make a donation.

On the Web

If you are a Pioneer in the Pacific Northwest side of the USA and W Canada, have a look at http://www.thegreatstory.org/ev-salon3.html

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 femke@pioneersofchange.net

------------------------------------------------------ Si deseas recibir el boletín en español suscribete con Roger Granada a este correo e: roger@pioneersofchange.net ¡Gracias!

If you would like to help translate this newsletter into your own language and make it available to others, please email femke@pioneersofchange.net

Thank you!

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