There are some exciting developments happening in the Rural ABCD Community of Practice! Below are some of the developments happening for the group in the new year.

1. In the January meeting, the group will be revisiting its group covenant together to make any necessary adjustments for the new year.
2. A new Rural group is under development to make the community more accessible to those in times zones that make participation difficult. If participation is a challenge due to your time zone but you would like to engage with the community, please email Wendy McCaig at wendy@embracecommunities.org, and she can forward you the appropriate information and contacts.
3. The structure of the group discussions will rotate between the topic of community engagement and tough questions facing rural practitioners. New deep dive topics will be selected from those questions that are of greatest interest to the group. The group will use an open-source format to address any questions participants want to pose to the group. Based on the questions that emerge, everyone will pick the discussion they are most interested in participating in. 

Based on the December meeting and participant contributions, the group's January and February discussion agenda will be as follows:

1. January: Community Engagement Series – the questions below will frame our conversation.

• What does successful engagement look like for you in your context?
• Why don’t people engage in your context? (Or, if they do, why do they engage
• What resources (capacity) do you need for the level of engagement you desire?

      2. February: Tough Questions Series – open-source structure

Are you a Rural ABCD practitioner who is new to this conversation? Consider joining the Rural ABCD Community of Practice group sponsored and co-facilitated by the ABCD Institute, Embrace Communities, and the Tamarack Institute. 

Who is the Rural ABCD CoP? A group of individuals who have a working knowledge of ABCD and who are practicing ABCD in a rural environment.

What are the group's core values? As an ABCD Community of Practice, the group strives to embody the shared principles defined by the international ABCD community, which can be found here. 

What is the purpose of the group? To gather rural practitioners of ABCD together to share stories, experiences, tools and ways of building on the assets in our rural communities, addressing shared or recurring challenges and how we turn them into opportunities.

What are the member benefits and responsibilities? The group is: 

• Participatory: ABCD doesn't happen if you're doing work for someone or to someone; authentic community building occurs when we do our work with one another. This CoP will strive to create a space for mutual exchange. There are no “experts”, only peers. This is not a webinar series. 
  
• Co-created: Participants will co-create the content by sharing their knowledge, skills, ideas, tools, techniques, resources and provide feedback and suggestions to other participants.  
  
• A networking opportunity: Facilitators will provide networking opportunities with the opportunity to make connections and build deeper relationships outside the group if so desired. 
  
• An on-going Learning Opportunity: Focused on ongoing dialogue and learning rather than the production of an end product
  

What does a membership cost? There is no cost for membership.

When does the group meet? This community of practice meets on the 4th Thursday of the month at 10am EST. 

How does one join? If you are interested in the Rural ABCD Community of Practice, please email Heather Keam of the Tamarack Institute at heather@tamarackcommunity.ca or email Wendy McCaig of Embrace Communities at Wendy@EmbraceCommunities.org with the subject line: "Add me to the rural ABCD cop."

We are excited to announce that the pilot Soul Care group that emerged from Embrace Communities summer listening project has launched! In fact, due to the growing interest and energy behind this initiative, we have already exceeded our goal of 12 participants and are adding new elements that will allow us to grow larger and smaller at the same time. 

In our launch meetings on September 21st & 22nd, those in attendance affirmed the emerging vision of creating a safe space for community builders everywhere to find the encouragement they need to encourage others.   We are seeking to do this by providing space for honest, heartfelt sharing that allows us to release the hard stuff, celebrate the good stuff and find inner peace so that we can be peacemakers in our respective communities. Our strategy for providing these spaces is to co-create them. 

Each participant has committed to gathering together once a month to encourage each other and to take turns sharing a soul care practice that has helped them to thrive and build resilience in challenging times. Together, participants will reflect with one another on how that month’s shared practice can be incorporated into daily life for continued benefit and renewal. 

GROWING SMALLER AS WE GROW LARGER

As this group grows larger, we recognize that, in order to achieve the deep level of sharing envisioned, we must also grow smaller. In addition to a globally accessible monthly gathering described above,  there will be opportunities to meet once a month in smaller groups between the large group meetings where an intimate setting will allow participants to check-in with one another, talk about how their respective soul care practices are going, and share insights and support with one another at a level that is difficult in a larger group setting. 

Richmond Group: The first small group we are launching is composed of community builders across various sectors (Non-profits, Educators, Governmental & Faith Leaders)  based in Richmond, Virginia.. 

Virtual Group: The second small group we are launching is composed of Asset-Based Community Development Practitioners from across the globe. This group will remain virtual so that it can be accessible to its geographically diverse participants. 

HOW SAFE SPACE IS BEING CREATED

As we shared in our previous post, the listening project revealed that the top priority for community builders was to have a safe space to come together. Our first task as a group was to discover what would make the space safe for everyone. 

While everyone in our Soul Care Initiative is a community builder engaged in strengthening communities in some way, we all come from different backgrounds.  Where there is difference, we must be intentional in ensuring we honor that diversity and strive for inclusion of all voices and perspectives. Inclusion is imperative to making these safe spaces work so that each participant feels fully seen and heard as their authentic selves. 

The group worked together to create a social contract of basic guidelines that everyone could commit to abiding by. This contract is a living document that will evolve and grow as the group does. The social contract allows participants to build bridges of support across differences in a way that is accessible, inclusive, and celebratory of the complexity and vastness of human beings. 

Practicing inclusion is hard! It requires assuming positive intent, a willingness to admit when your intention did not match your impact, and a commitment to “getting it right” instead of “being right”, as Sociologist and Author Brene Brown says. But as safe spaces are created, bridges can be built that lead to joyous, thriving communities of support and encouragement. 

AN UNEXPECTED EMERGING OUTCOME

While our initial listening project was focused specifically on community builders, it has become clear through our conversations this past month that every human being needs soul care -  a way to renew the energy and life-force within us that allows us to be fully alive and wholly ourselves. This is particularly true during this very stressful season!

At the time Wendy and Cheryl launched this project, they envisioned it as a way of supporting community builders but several community builders from within this project as well as those in our Network have expressed an interest in launching this type of project in their local communities as a tool for strengthening communities from the inside out. 

As with all ABCD efforts, you never know where it is going and unintended outcomes like this are what makes the process so exciting and rewarding!

WANT TO JOIN IN?

We are excited about the transformation that is already happening in this project and among participants so early in this initiative. If the energy and intention of these spaces resonates with you, and you identify as a community builder, we would love for you to join. 

To get connected, contact us here. In your email, include how you would define your role as a community builder and what community you are seeking to strengthen through your community building efforts. If you are interested in joining a small group in addition to participating in our large group gathering, please let us know if you are local to Richmond or if you are outside the Richmond region. 

As of right now, there is space for four new members in both the virtual and Richmond-based small groups. Please reach out to us if you would like to have a conversation about joining a Soul Care group!

You can also visit our Soul Care For Community Builders webpage to learn more and follow along as this project unfolds.