Transforming Communities
Developing healthy, trustworthy organizations to tackle your community’s most pressing problems
Your organization doesn’t need just another program. Instead of prescribed “one size fits all” practices, we offer processes that help you learn to listen and adapt to your specific context.
Framework
Organizations that make the biggest impact are filled with people who stay attentive to the rapidly changing environments where they serve. They pay close attention to what is happening internally, and work to build a strong sense of identity, belonging, and mission before turning their attention to listening to their community.
Our framework for Transforming Communities provides the tools to be adaptive now and in the future. At the end of this project, participating teams gain:
- Greater clarity on their people and organization
- Foundations for healthy teamwork
- Replicable process to understand identity, belonging, and mission in your context
- New skills based on the social sciences such as shared leadership, design thinking, better listening, ethnography skills, and community development.
Transforming Communities is offered through a variety of workshop-type trainings depending on your organizations’ needs. These training are conducted onsite and can be for both leaders and teams.
Transforming Communities helps you understand your local context and match your organization’s strengths to the needs and opportunities of the community.
Transforming Communities Program for Coaches
The coaching program includes our offerings for training a cohort of leaders in a region to coach teams in their individual churches or organizations. These are “Train-the-Trainer” type programs, where the individuals who participate are equipped to lead the Transforming Communities curriculum and process for their own congregations or congregations throughout their region. The same process could benefit partnering organizations such as nonprofits and school-adjacent programs. The below training workshops will better equip and prepare leaders to coach and facilitate Transforming Communities in any context.
All coaching training workshops will address one or more of the following areas of focus:
Focus 1: Congregational identity plus thematizing
Focus 2: Community listening project plus thematizing
Focus 3: Design thinking process
Focus 4: Effective team building
Workshop 1
Transforming Communities: Adding a Tool to Your Ministry Toolbox
½ Day (4 hours, morning or afternoon) Workshop
- Materials for each participant
- An overview of the Transforming Communities process of deep listening, ethnography, and design thinking for adaptive ministry
- Theological and practical frameworks that undergird the process
- One area of focus from the list above (Focus 1, Focus 2, or Focus 4)
- Focus 3 is a shorter workshop and can be offered as a 2 hour training for $1000.
Workshop 2
Transforming Communities: Understanding the Model and Gaining Skills
Full Day Workshop
- Materials for each participant
- An overview of the Transforming Communities process of deep listening, ethnography, and design thinking for adaptive ministry
- Theological and practical frameworks that undergird the process
Two areas of focus from the list above.
Workshop 3
Training to Lead Congregations through a Transforming Communities Program
2 or 2.5 Day Training Workshop for Nonprofit, Congregational, or Denominational Leaders
This experiential training will immerse your staff in the Transforming Communities process, giving them a full understanding. Over the course of these days, participants will
- Gain the understanding of the concepts and convictions of the framework
- Be guided through an actual design process of an imagined sample congregation in order to get a felt sense of each step of the process and to see how those components fit together to create congregational vocation and community initiatives.
- All four focuses from the list above will be covered.
- Each participant will leave equipped with materials and a felt experience of what it is like to run this process.
Transforming Communities Program for Teams
The Teams Program focuses on helping your institution build strong, effective teams through onsite workshops to meet the needs of your congregation or community. When teams learn group-relations skills and are committed to a shared purpose, they can transform the world. They not only contribute to positive change, but they also provide us with the joy of working together in the flow of collaboration. Each team should include 5-8 people from a congregation or organization.
For the below options, a down payment of 20% of the base price is required at scheduling.
Option 1
Transforming Communities: Facilitation Skills
2 Hour Workshop
This training, on site at your location, includes a booklet on facilitation for each participant. The time includes instruction on facilitation skills and how to give and receive feedback, ending with an opportunity to practice.
This workshop is designed for a single team (staff team, vestry, session, board, etc.); to host the workshop with multiple teams at once, please inquire for pricing. Limit 7 teams, 6+ months advanced scheduling required.
Option 2
Building Capacity through Functional Teams
½ Day (4 hours, morning or afternoon) Workshop
This half-day event, on site at your location, includes the book for each participant and one workbook per team. The time includes an overview of the listening process and our convictions – theological and practical – of the process in practice. The bulk of the time is spent building congregational capacity through developing functional teams by training facilitation skills, constructive group behaviors, and reflecting on individual contributions to group dynamics. At the end, teams will have more language, skills, and tools for working together on any projects in their future. This workshop will explore:
- Group leadership and dynamics
- Debriefing and sharing feedback
- Task and maintenance roles in teams
- Noticing roles
- Facilitation 101
Option 3
Equipping Teams for a Transforming Communities Project
2 or 2.5 Day Workshop for Nonprofit and Congregational Teams
This program sets up your team (5-8 people per congregation) to start a Transforming Communities initiative through designing congregational and community listening projects. The curriculum adds content and activities that develop the team and grow their capacity for honest engagement, productive conflict, and fruitful work together for years to come. 6 months+ advanced scheduling required.
Who Will Benefit from Transforming Communities Program?
This is a good fit for organizations facing internal change, a new context, revitalization, or looking to develop sub areas.
Let’s Connect!
Let us know which program you are interested in and we will email you with more details and when the next offering will get started.
