Upcoming events
Feeling Seen + Heard | Affirming Dignity (vol tools—based workshop series)
Inside all people is a deep desire to be seen, heard, and to know that who we are matters. When we make people feel seen and heard we affirm their dignity and show them that they are important and valued. Learning to intentionally affirm dignity is an inherent part of practicing love and–in the context of Visionary Organizing–is a powerful way to create critical connections necessary for facilitating change in organizations, communities, and relationships that allow people to equally emphasize their material and nonmaterial needs.
Join VOL in this workshop and learn how to affirm other people's dignity so that you can create spaces where we can all exist differently. Through two hours of facilitated engagement, small group work and discussions, we will define dignity, dignity-consciousness, and reflect on our personal experiences to cultivate an awareness of dignity affirming practices.
Work Differently
Work Differently: Visionary Organizing for Professional and Organizational Development is a four week training for individuals that supports people to develop an approach to work and their organization that equally emphasizes their material and non-material needs.
Learn Differently | VOL’s monthly Reading Group
Writers, poets, philosophers, and artists have written theories and created beautiful worlds that inspire us to live differently. Throughout the history of patriarchal racial capitalism, there have been stories that allude to a different way of being. In VOL’s monthly reading groups, we explore some of these histories and stories in community.
VOL’s March reading group will be an engaging discussion of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things by Raj Patel and Jason W. Moore. This thought-provoking book examines the ways in which the modern world has been shaped by the exploitation of seven essential resources - nature, money, work, care, food, energy, and lives. Join us for an engaging discussion that connects the past to the possibilities of existing differently.
A digital copy of the book will be provided after registration.
Learn Differently | VOL’s monthly Reading Group
Writers, poets, philosophers, and artists have written theories and created beautiful worlds that inspire us to live differently. Throughout the history of patriarchal racial capitalism, there have been stories that allude to a different way of being. In VOL’s monthly reading groups, we explore some of these histories and stories in community.
VOL’s February reading group will be a warming discussion of Bell Hooks’ All About Love. At the root of existing differently is a deep practice of love. In this hour-and-a-half gathering we will build community, trace our love lineages, and discuss what it means to practice love in the context of Visionary Organizing.
Get Warm WEDNESDAYs: naming your lineage
When life gets hard, equally emphasizing our material and nonmaterial needs can become especially difficult. However, when we see ourselves as part of a larger tradition, it can often give us the strength to maintain our commitments in hard times.
To support you in naming the traditions you belong to, VOL will take you through a 90-minute process where you will see and name your lineage. Knowing this lineage can equip you with the resilience and inner strength needed to exist differently in even the hardest circumstances.
practicing relational power: recognizing + nurturing interdependence
Through two hours of facilitated engagement and small group work and discussions, participants will look at moments when they have and haven’t followed their inner-wisdom, explore why it’s hard to connect to, and see that they can trust it.
Come Get Warm: What to Do While the Dumpster Burns
The world is a dumpster fire. The 2024 election hasn’t made things easier. Join VOL to process your experience, what you’re feeling, and explore how you might get grounded after this election in ways that will allow you to exist differently. In this 90 minute virtual workshop, you will journal and participate in small group discussions about your experience and what you can do–individually and collectively–to exist differently despite the circumstances.This is a free workshop, offered as a way to honor each other’s dignity, build community, and grow together.