SALMON ARM — Shuswap Settlement Services Society, along with their community partners, has undertaken to host a community symposium dedicated to enhancing the community’s capacity to embrace diversity.
Traditionally, the model for achieving social change has been a retributive approach that seeks to establish blame and to lobby others with the authority to impose change. The Mandela Symposium, “Respect Lives Here,” will introduce participants to a restorative approach which promotes taking accountability over placing blame, making a personal commitment over finding excuses, and building community over seeding discontent.
Shuswap Settlement Services has been quietly working, in conjunction with other community partners in the Plan B:E Society, exploring civil forms of community development that are more inclusive and respectful. The work of Peter Block’s, in particular his book Community: The Structure of Belonging reflects a powerful approach to shifting how we engage in community. Block extols the power that conversations in small gatherings between individuals of diverse interests but committed to a common goal can have in bringing about significant change.
The symposium includes a public presentation by Charles Holmes, a co-founder and part-time associate with the Learning Strategies Group in the Faculty of Business at Simon Fraser University. He helped the establishment of the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education. He works closely with Peter Block in creating conversations amongst many diverse groups. The presentation is open to the public and will include a virtual appearance by Block.
Holmes’ number-one interest in helping groups is to see the potential of what they might be able to create together; to acknowledge, but not be constrained by the past, and to explore opportunities for working together toward a common future.
The symposium is dedicated to the memory of Nelson Mandela, who championed the power of the individual to bring about change, the need to reach out to those who are socially marginalized, and to acknowledge and reconcile past injustices without abandoning a better future.
Respect Lives Here takes place March 5 in the auditorium of First United Church in Salmon Arm. The public presentation starts at 7:30 p.m.
The following day, Holmes will facilitate a workshop, coaching participants in the art of facilitating small group gatherings in a manner that engages the marginalized, builds community, respects differences, promotes personal accountability and fosters personal commitment. The workshop goes from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on March 6, and is limited to 60 registrants on a first-come, first-served basis.
Individuals wishing to register should e-mail someroses@shaw.ca or phone 250 804-2726. The symposium is made possible, in part, through funding from the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia made available through the Thompson-Okanagan Respect Network.
