January 2024 Skill Up

Unitarian Universalists are called to grapple with the question of “what is safety?” Black liberation organizers say “We Keep Us Safe" as a way to proclaim that true safety comes from relationship, community and structures of care and mutuality outside of state structures of violence and control. How do we build our political and theological commitment to keeping each other safe in the face of state and interpersonal violence?

In this skill up, Nora Rasman and India Harris define safety and security grounded in abolitionist practice, discuss our spiritual mandate towards building sanctuary, and concretely outline what we can honestly offer to ourselves and each other. View the webinar below, or on Vimeo.

View the slides
Spiritual Grounding (video) from Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen

Resources Referenced

• Transform Harm

• Get In Formation - Community Safety Resource from Vision Change Win https://visionchangewin.org/services-and-programs/community-safety/

• Defund Fear: Justice Activist Common Read Curriculum

• One Million Experiments, including episode #5 (decriminalization) with Signe Victoria Harriday

• Side With Love slack community: Community Safety and Security Channel

Skill Ups are our monthly series of trainings on organizing skills to help build our UU the Vote and Side with Love Volunteer Squads and help YOU build stronger teams in your congregation and community. We'll start the session with some spiritual fun and then launch into our training. See our past trainings.

Unitarian Universalists are called to grapple with the question of “what is safety?” Black liberation organizers say “We Keep Us Safe" as a way to proclaim that true safety comes from relationship, community and structures of care and mutuality outside of state structures of violence and control. How do we build our political and theological commitment to keeping each other safe in the face of state and interpersonal violence?

In this skill up, Nora Rasman and India Harris define safety and security grounded in abolitionist practice, discuss our spiritual mandate towards building sanctuary, and concretely outline what we can honestly offer to ourselves and each other. View the January 21, 2024 webinar below, or on Vimeo.

See the slide deck for this Skill Up

Links referenced during the webinar

Spiritual Grounding from Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen

Transform Harm, a resource hub for ending violence

Get In Formation - Community Safety Resource from Vision Change Win

Unitarian Universalist Association’s Common Read Curriculum for Defund Fear

The Million Experiments podcast and this episode on abolition

Join our online Slack community’s Community Safety and Security Channel

This Skill Up was led by Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, our Congregational Justice Organizer, on November 19, 2023. UUA President Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt invites us to remember "what symbols, messages, principles, or experiences are most central to [our] deep understanding of Unitarian Universalism.” During this Skill Up, we took time to discuss and practice articulating our theologies of justice-making with faith-centric language that can be used in outreach, public statements, petitions, letters, and more.

• View the webinar on Vimeo

• View the slide deck

• View the notes from our discussion

Our Skill Ups are a monthly training series to help build organizing capacity across our congregations and communities. We are grounded in our UU calling to be lifelong learners and organizing traditions' call to share what we know for our movements to grow. View past Skill Ups or sign up for upcoming Skill Ups.

This Skill Up is led by Rev. Ashley Horan, our Organizing Strategy Director. We often talk about partnership and solidarity in organizing, and the crucial role of showing up well in crucial moments. But how do we know which potentially risky asks we're actually ready to say "yes" to -- and follow through with? We discussed a framework for having congregational conversations about risk, including expanding our courage as communities with significant power and resources. Our Skill Ups are a monthly training series to help build organizing capacity across our congregations and communities. We are grounded in our UU calling to be lifelong learners and organizing traditions' call to share what we know for our movements to grow.

View on Vimeo

View the slide deck

Webinar Recording: Risk Discernment for Congregations

As local governments are wielding extreme power over weak and vulnerable people, we need to be efficient and precise in our efforts to fight back and protect at-risk communities. Oftentimes, those who are in a position to support those who are at risk are not directly impacted by the harms that put them at risk. This can result in wasted energy, time, and resources. In this Skill Up, we will explore how we might ensure that our organizing/strategy efforts are rightly aligned so that impacted communities get what they need and that our energy, time, and resources are most effective.

Skill Ups are our monthly series of trainings on organizing skills to help build our UU the Vote and Side with Love Volunteer Squads and help YOU build stronger teams in your congregation and community. We'll start the session with some spiritual fun and then launch into our training. Find all our past trainings at sidewithlove.org/previous-skill-up-trainings

Everywhere you look the world is on fire! Sometimes you just want to scream at the top of your lungs, “Everything is bad! Do something! AAUGH!!!!” That urgency is real, and also maybe not the best way to communicate about the issues - or to take care of yourself! In our April Skill Up, learn some ways to manage yourself and engage others as you effectively advocate for justice and work for a thriving world for all with Side With Love Climate Justice Organizer Rachel Myslivy.

• View the recording

• View the slides

Put It In Practice!

Skill Up Followup Practice Session

May 1 at 8pm ET / 7pm CT / 6pm MT / 5pm PT

This Followup to April's Skill Up is a practice session for folks who came to the Skill Up live or have watched the recording. If you did not attend live, please watch the recording prior to this session. Come practice having conversations that effectively engage others and keep you grounded as we together seek to effectively advocate for justice and work for a thriving world for all. Register to join live.

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Register for upcoming Skill Ups and view past ones at sidewithlove.org/skillups.

Providing honest, caring, and timely feedback is essential to nurturing trust. That’s why we believe Evaluation is an act of Love.

We need to be able to speak directly and frankly to each other about what we want and need from each other, what we think could be done differently, as well as celebrating our successes. Every time we love one another enough to offer debrief and appreciation, we deepen our relationships and the power of our collective. We can create groups and communities grounded in relationship and trust. Thus, we can meet the justice work of the moment powerfully and nimbly. In this skill-up, you will practice ways to bring debrief culture and loving feedback to your own context.

• Watch the presentation

• View the slides

• Download the handout (with exercises)

Sarah Berel-Harrop, Side with Love Squad and Texas UU Justice Ministry Leader

About Sarah

I'm the Intern Minister at the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry and a seminarian at Meadville Lombard Theological School. I grew up UU in Houston, Texas. During the 2020 election cycle, I became deeply active with UU the Vote and appreciated the leaderful learning culture. I'm passionate about nurturing groups and communities grounded in relationship and trust that offer alternatives to paradigms of domination and control.

Find past and upcoming skill ups here.

led by experienced facilitators Rev. Cathy Rion Starr, Side with Love Leadership Development Specialist; and Elisse Ghitelman, Side with Love Squad Leader

• View the Skill up on Vimeo

• Skill Up Slide Deck - includes all the links & resources shared Sunday and those below 

• Chat thread from the training

• How to Facilitate Meetings the NO Magic way – 350.org – really solid & simple guide

• 350.org Online Training Monster Manual – Slide Deck Template with a lot of great online activities (See more Facilitation resources from 350.org)

•  Meetings that Work – UUA from 2005 – lots of good stuff, even though some is outdated

More Tools: 

• Building Safety In a Group – Training for Change Handout

• Sequencing Activities in a Workshop – Training for Change handout

•  Liberating Structures - an app & website with lots of exercises/tools for conversation

• Public Speaking & Facilitation workshop YOU can lead with your folks

CFJ's Facilitation Tips (from Californians For Justice, where Rev. Cathy got their organizing training)

 Welcoming and Warming up Participants

• Make people feel welcomed. Go up to people you don’t know, talk, make sure no one feels left out or alone – help cliques break up. 

• Pick an effective icebreaker. Get people to loosen up, and interact with each other. Re-seat people and mix up groups so they get to know each other.

• Do a team building activity. This gets people involved together in a group activity and creates the importance of group teamwork. Debrief and reflect! 

Setting the tone

• Lively facilitation.  You have to convey your own energy and commitment for the topic that you are facilitation so others feel it too.

• Speak clearly and loudly. So that everyone can hear. 

• Pace your presentation so that it is not rushed. Give participants time to absorb and think about it so that they have time to ask questions before you move on.  

• Set agreements and stick to them! Use agreements to keep people on track. You can set agreements at the beginning of the session. 

Encourage participation and listening

• Reinforce participation. Look at participants when they speak. Nod in agreement. Smile! 

• Keep order. If there are many people that want to speak, say & write their names down in a “stack” & call them to speak in order. 

• Diversify speakers. Make sure that the order you choose has a balance of men, women, people of color, youth speaking, etc. Make sure you are valuing a diversity of opinions.

• Make sure people can hear each other.  Ask a participant who is speaking quietly to speak up . Say things like “Did everyone hear that? 

• Make sure that participants respond to each other’s comments. Keeps the participants responding to each other rather than to just the facilitator.

• Call for a go-around. If you want to make sure everyone has a chance to speak to the topic, call for a “go-around” to have each participant speak, or pass 

Presentation and Move it Forward Tips

• Use visual aides to help clarify points and make things more interesting. Write legibly and large and make sure everyone can see it.

• Summarize main points to move discussion forward. After everyone has spoken, pause and summarize the main points so that people have a clear idea of what has been said. 

• Find the proposal. The facilitator’s job is to “find” the proposal – to pull together ideas and present it to the group.

• Keep comments to the point. If someone brings up an issue that doesn’t relate to the topic, respectfully ask them to hold that point, or “park it” for later discussion. 

• Create Next Steps: never let anyone leave the meeting before reaffirming the commitments (sign ups) they have made.

Thanks to Cal Ball, Paige Bacon, Barb Rodman, Lora Powell-Haney, and Wendy Weirick for volunteering with our Squads to make our training smooth.  

Future Skill Ups

Mar 19 - Evaluation is an Act of Love Apr 23 - Facing the Apocalypse With a Smile

I came to activism late in life after retiring from a career in music and then technology.  I didn't know anything except that I wanted to do something to contribute to making the world more equitable for all.  Armed only with my lofty goals, I reached out to folx in the UU community, a little intimidated but willing to learn.  I was met with welcome, patience, humor and support by some extraordinary folx that had been doing this work for years.   

Now I coordinate Side With Love’s Skill Up Series, our monthly trainings on organizing skills to help YOU build stronger teams in your congregation and community.  When I think about our Skill Ups, they mirror my experience:  welcoming, fun, and educational offerings to help all of us get to a higher level in this work that we cherish of harnessing love’s power to stop oppression.

Will you join us this semester?

This Spring, our Skill Up Theme is "How to Talk About Hard Things.”  You are heartily invited to attend these very informative and rich workshops that not only cover high-level concepts but also offer practical guidance and hands-on practice. Each topic will be delivered by experts and long-time organizers with special knowledge and experience presenting:

• Feb 19 - Facilitation: Leading Gatherings with Grace and Impact, led by experienced facilitators Rev. Cathy Rion Starr, Side with Love Leadership Development Specialist; and Elisse Ghitelman, Side with Love Squad Leader 

• Mar 19 - Evaluation is an Act of Love, led by Sarah Berel-Harrop, Side with Love Squad and Texas UU Justice Ministry Leader

• Apr 23 - Facing the Apocalypse With a Smile, led by Rachel Myslivy, Side with Love Climate Justice Organizer  

• May 21 - What Do Impacted Communities Need - How Would I Know? Led by Rev. Michael Crumpler, UUA LGBTQ and Multicultural Programs Director 

All Skill Ups run 90 minutes starting at 4 ET • 3 CT • 2 MT • 1 PT 

These topics cover some of the most daunting challenges that we face going out in the world to do this work.  How can I design and hold really fun and impactful meetings - even when the subject matter is hard?  How do I give my colleagues feedback in a way that is loving and builds us up?  How in the world can I talk about climate change without sounding all doom and gloom?  How can I know what impacted folx really need before even thinking about how to engage?   

Our Unitarian Universalist faith calls us to be lifelong learners, and organizing traditions teach that we need to share what we know for our movements to grow.  We begin each session with grounding from our Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad volunteers and then dive into the training content.    

Our Skill Ups are our invitation into a regular practice of learning together.  Join us for one or all of these wonderful workshops! 

Will you join us this Sunday?

You can view and sign up for the events at sidewithlove.org/skillups.  We post all of our Skill Up recordings, slides and worksheets there too – so browse our Skill Up Library for more resources!  

We look forward to seeing you as we come together to learn and be energized!

In faith, love & learning,

 

Cal Ball

Side with Love Squad Skill Ups Coordinator

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Cal joined the First Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco in 2020 and since then, has worked as a squad volunteer with Side With Love supporting voting rights and voter mobilization initiatives through the UU the Vote campaign.  In his career, Cal worked as a professional musician and producer.  He was a staff songwriter for EMI Music Publishing and recorded albums for Atlantic, Universal Music Group, and Curb Records. Prior to his retirement, Cal also worked for a variety of technology companies in the California Bay Area.