In addition to the following options, we are happy to discuss other possibilities to meet your needs.

Please note: We rarely offer workshops, trainings, or retreats lasting less than 8 hours. Our programs are interactive. They invite people to do the deep work of exploring systemic injustice while practicing the strategic and spiritual resources necessary to be effective agents of change. Therefore, most Allies for Change events last at least two days and often longer. For example, the Doing Our Own Work anti-racism seminar is usually offered in a three-weekend format extending over a five month period.

If you desire a briefer introduction to our work, please see the section entitled Lectures & Keynote Speeches.

Trainings & Seminars

• Doing Our Own Work: A Seminar for Anti-Racist White People
  (to learn more)
• Appreciation Versus Appropriation: Respecting Native American Spiritualities
  (to learn more)
• Confronting Ableism: A Workshop for Allies
  (to learn more)
• Mentoring for Social Change
  (to learn more)
• Understanding Privilege and Oppression
  (to learn more)
• United We Stand: Working to End Racism and Homophobia in Our Communities
  (to learn more)
  

Retreats

• Honoring Our Stories: The Personal Work of Social Change
  (to learn more)
• Staying Power: Nurturing Spiritual Resources for Our Work of Love and Justice
  (to learn more)

Lectures & Keynote Speeches

• The End of Safety: Understanding and Addressing White Privilege
• Honoring Complexity: The Limits of Identity Politics
• Telling the Truth About Our Lives: Seven Ways to Interrupt Historical Amnesia
• Risking Mutuality: Nurturing Authentic Relationships Across Differences
• Guilt, Shame, and Self-Love: Developing a Healthy White Identity
• Soul Work: Qualities of an Ally
• The Heart of the Matter: The Bible and Homosexuality
• Leaving Home: Building Strong Alliances and Coalitions

Doing Our Own Work is an intensive seminar for white people who seek to deepen their commitment to confronting and challenging white racism and white privilege where they live and work. It is our experience and conviction that those of us who are white need to "do our own work" – educating ourselves, confronting racism, holding each other accountable, and demonstrating good faith as we seek to build genuine and lasting coalitions with people of color. Doing Our Own Work seminar is designed as a supplement to, not a substitute for, contexts where people of diverse races and ethnicities discuss and strategize together how racism can be challenged.

Anti-racist action and reflection form the heart of Doing Our Own Work.  Each participant is invited to identify a "sphere of influence" in her/his life that will serve as the focus of action and reflection. Utilizing input from the leaders, assigned readings, videos, group discussion, and structured exercises, participants explore the following topics and issues:

• Individual racism, institutional racism, and cultural racism
• White privilege and unearned advantage
• Claiming and shaping an anti-racist identity
• How to be an effective anti-racist ally
• Discerning our spiritual resources for change
• Practicing the skills of interrupting racism
• Strategies for institutional change

Providing more than 45 hours of “class time,” the seminar is offered in three different formats:

1) Three weekends extending over a five month period;
2) Two long weekends (Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon)
3) Six day intensive.

Many people feel a spiritual hunger that is unmet by the religious traditions and institutions in which they were raised. Sometimes the search for a deeper spiritual connection leads us to explore the teachings and customs of other faith traditions. In recent years, there has been growing interest in Native American spiritual practices and it is possible for non-Indian people to find workshops and retreats that incorporate Native customs such as sweat lodges and visions quests.

However, many Tribal elders and Native activists object to this form of spiritual searching. They insist that the act of removing Native symbols, objects, rituals, and customs from their intended cultural and spiritual context is “cultural theft.”

In this workshop, we will explore the difference between appreciating and appropriating spiritual practices different from our own. Through the use of case studies, we will seek to distinguish between respectful cultural sharing and disrespectful cultural appropriation. The workshop will provide an overview of the historical context in which issues of cultural appropriation have arisen. We will also learn about the centuries-long struggle of Native Americans to reclaim their sacred ceremonial sites.

Ableism is a system of discrimination and exclusion that oppresses people with mental, emotional, and physical disabilities. Like other forms of oppression, ableism operates on individual, institutional, and cultural levels, denying people with disabilities equal access to education, health care, housing, and employment.

This workshop is designed for temporarily able-bodied people who wish to deepen their understanding of ableism and what it means to be an ally with people with disabilities. Whether you are a partner, family member, friend, colleague or personal assistant of someone with a disability, this workshop will provide a context to connect with other allies to build a community of accountability, discuss questions and concerns, and practice the skills of being an effective ally in the struggle to dismantle ableism.

Utilizing the wisdom of the participants gathered, videos, resources created by people with disabilities, large and small group discussion, and structured exercises, we will explore the following topics and issues:

• The history of the disability rights movement
• Able-bodied privilege – what it is and what to do with it
• How to be an effective ally
• Discerning the difference between solidarity and “helping”
• Practicing the skills of interrupting ableism
• How to be a partner working for institutional change.

This training will be offered in the future. For further information, contact melaniemorrison@alliesforchange.org.

Racism, sexism, ableism and every other form of structural inequality are simultaneously systems that oppress some people while granting privileges to others. Understanding where we stand in relation to systems of privilege and oppression is life-long work for all of us, without exception. This interactive workshop will give participants the opportunity to explore the dynamics of different systems of privilege and oppression, examining how these systems intersect and reinforce one another. Participants will also explore strategies for recognizing and unlearning the habits and practices that protect their privilege. Core to this workshop is the assumption that we can become as passionate about dismantling the systems from which we benefit as we are about eradicating the systems that oppress us.

At this historical moment, when public debates about issues such as gay marriage and affirmative action are once again at the center of public discourse, it is crucially important that multiracial alliances and coalitions emerge demonstrating that it is possible and necessary to confront simultaneously both racism and homophobia.

This training is designed for people of different races and sexual orientations who are passionately committed to making explicit the connections between racism, sexism, homophobia, and other forms of oppression. Through dialogue, reflection, and group work, we will explore what it means to be allies who stand with one another in our struggles for liberation. Drawing upon historical examples of the ways that racially and sexually oppressed peoples have been divided from each other, we will explore how such divisions might be healed now and prevented in the future.

Imagine...
If you had abundant time and space to...

• be with others who share a deep and abiding commitment to social change
• grapple with issues of privilege and oppression, exploring how they affect our lives personally and professionally
• reflect – with compassion and clarity – on where we have been and where we are going in our work for social justice
• engage in individual and group reflection about what is life-giving; what is depleting
• mourn the losses and defeats with people who can hold the anger, grief, and vulnerability
• celebrate the breakthroughs and victories with a community that can share the laughter and joy
• wander the meadows, woods, and orchards on 20 beautiful acres of land
• be productive in a different way that allows yourself to relish silence, sanctuary, companionship and community.

Too often, we are so absorbed in the never-ending work of social change, we grow forgetful of our need for each other as we strain to sustain hope in isolation. This retreat offers a different way. If your spirit longs for rejuvenation, deeper connection with other activists, and the nurture of a beautiful natural setting, we invite you to be part of this unique three-day retreat.

For many of us, the work of social change is a source of great energy, joy, and inspiration.  This work can also lead to exhaustion, frustration, and bitterness when we experience disappointments, setbacks and the tenacity of structural injustice. If your spirit longs for rejuvenation, deeper connection with other activists, and the nurture of a beautiful natural setting, we invite you to be part of this unique retreat.

Utilizing small and large group conversation, individual reflection, music, videos, and ritual, this retreat will help participants explore the links between spirituality and social justice organizing through attention to questions such as:

• What resources from contemporary and historical movements for social change can guide us in these troubled times?
• What spiritual practices can we develop that will help us stay connected to the source of our wisdom in the midst of the disappointments and unpredictability of the work for justice.
• How can ritual help nurture a greater connection to spirit for those of us who are struggling for racial, economic, environmental and political justice in the world?
• Where do we draw hope and strength for ourselves, our communities and our nations, as we work for peace and justice?

The facilitators are committed to creating an inclusive environment where diverse spiritual experiences and traditions are welcomed and honored.

Come join us for this extraordinary weekend of conversation, music, movement, and "beloved community" as we seek renewal of our spirits and revitalization of our commitment to social change.