AORTA: Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance

To govern ourselves with deep democracy requires us to examine our relationships with each other, conflict and all, and embody our fundamental interdependence. When our movement groups are able to move towards the heat, not avoid it, we become less vulnerable and more resilient to the internal conflict that increases in heightened times of political pressure. Join us at any of our Introduction to Mediation and Conflict Work trainings this Fall to learn foundational skills with us. Swipe through for our remaining training dates this season. Learn more and sign up at https://lnkd.in/ggx8K7hT Image descriptions in alt text.

Some of our co-op comrades (or co-op curious folks) might be interested in this article, "How Should Worker Cooperatives Think About Profit?" written by Kate Tyson of Wanderwell and based on a workshop that she and AORTA worker-owner Neily Jennings led at this year's Vermont Employee Ownership Center Conference. "Workers, rather than an expense sinkhole to minimize, are essential people to support abundantly. As a worker-owned cooperative, rather than attempting to minimize labor costs, we’re trying to balance labor costs within the full ecosystem of the business. We want to support our workers’ incomes and needs now, while also ensuring that all the business’s needs are cared for." https://lnkd.in/gEmS4rMD

Learn more about how AORTA is tending to experiences of overwhelm in organizations and movement spaces during this current political moment. Interested in getting tools and practices for your facilitation practice? Come learn immediately applicable tools for building full participation in online meetings at our Facilitate for Freedom training. Swipe through for our full list of training dates this Fall. Learn more and sign up at https://lnkd.in/ggx8K7hT Image descriptions in the alt text.

The skill of working with power dynamics in conflict - not to ignore or extinguish it - is crucial for the success of our movements. Instead of treating the mediation space as if it’s protected from power dynamics, we want to train Left movement groups and organizations to confidently surface these dynamics and make them plain, with the goal of deepening our relationships. Join us at any of our Introduction to Mediation and Conflict Work trainings this Fall to learn foundational skills with us. Swipe through for our remaining training dates this Fall. Learn more and sign up at https://lnkd.in/ggx8K7hT Image descriptions in alt text.

Happy #NationalCoopMonth! 🎉 All month long, we're celebrating the cooperatives across the country that were built for this moment – the electric co-ops delivering essential broadband infrastructure to rural America, the food co-ops helping Americans navigate inflation, the housing co-ops creating lasting affordability and the worker co-ops preserving local businesses. How is your co-op #BuiltForThisMoment? Join us in celebrating Co-op Month: https://lnkd.in/e42jGKjS

The AORTA team has been on a learning journey around AI -- what a gift to able to learn from organizers at MediaJustice and Mijente. Thanks for sharing your hot takes, ya'll. ❤️🔥

Facilitate for Freedom: Inviting Principled Disagreement Skillful and principled disagreement has the potential to spark and catalyze tremendous possibility and healing for our liberation movements. Bringing together an abundance of people with differing worldviews, experiences, values, and perspectives invites opportunities to develop a shared process and vision that pushes the edges of what is possible for transforming our world and relationships. Facilitators of group processes can shape generative conditions for our groups and movements to hone our collective perspective and nourish deeper relating, inviting everyone to be present and whole without abandoning ourselves and each other through avoidance, collapse, or coercion. In our Facilitate for Freedom training, we share and practice some of AORTA’s key tools and approaches to valuing and leaning into disagreement. Join AORTA for another season of leveling up your facilitation skills! The Facilitate for Freedom training lays the groundwork for how anyone facilitating a meeting can make choices that guide the group towards our most liberatory values. Through dynamic storytelling and real meeting examples, this training introduces two of AORTA’s facilitation pedagogy principles: remove barriers to full participation and the practice of principled disagreement. Swipe through for our full list of training dates this Fall. Learn more and sign up at https://lnkd.in/ggx8K7hT Image descriptions in alt text.

While numerous movement intermediaries, including AORTA, provide skilled conflict tending work, the ongoing need for conflict work and the on-ramp to understanding specific contexts and relationships make relying on movement intermediaries untenable as a long-term solution. Instead of solely relying on external consultants and resources, we believe that the capacity to mediate and tend to conflict well can be cultivated in all groups. The Introduction to Mediation and Conflict Work training shares AORTA's principles of conflict work drawn from nearly two decades of being called in to mediate conflicts with hundreds of different groups across the movement ecosystem. Swipe through for our full list of training dates this Fall. Learn more and sign up at https://lnkd.in/ggx8K7hT Image descriptions in alt text.

Facilitate for Freedom: Removing Barriers to Participation Our movements for collective liberation are growing, and as they expand, we will encounter an abundance of worldviews, experiences, and generative differences. In these increasingly polarized times, it is vital that people who are part of our movements feel valued and are able to contribute to a shared vision and process in order to build and sustain power for a world where no one is left behind. Facilitators play a crucial role in removing barriers to people fully participating in a group process from budgeting to developing campaign strategies, and everything in between. In our Facilitate for Freedom training, we share and practice some of AORTA’s key tools and approaches to maximize the number of participants and ways participants can join in to the conversation. Join AORTA for another season of leveling up your facilitation skills! The Facilitate for Freedom training lays the groundwork for how anyone facilitating a meeting can make choices that guide the group towards our most liberatory values. Through dynamic storytelling and real meeting examples, this training introduces two of AORTA’s facilitation pedagogy principles: remove barriers to full participation and the practice of principled disagreement. Swipe through for our full list of training dates this Fall. Learn more and sign up at https://lnkd.in/ggx8K7hT Image descriptions in alt text.

The organizing conditions of this year continue to be shaped by political precarity and heightened pressure for our movements for liberation. As our groups convene to make decisions about tactics, budgets, and plans, we believe that how those meetings are facilitated can have a critical impact on both our outcomes, and the group’s culture. With skillful facilitation, we can unlock sharper strategy, deeper trust in our groups, and more precise focus in our formations. Our flagship 3-hour online Facilitate for Freedom training lays the groundwork for how anyone facilitating a meeting can make choices that guide the group towards our most liberatory values. Through dynamic storytelling and real meeting examples, this training introduces two of AORTA’s facilitation pedagogy principles: remove barriers to full participation and the practice of principled disagreement. The Facilitate for Freedom training is for you if: 🌼You facilitate meetings about decisions, conversations, and processes of collaboration in social justice work. 🌼 You are ready to reflect on your own group process facilitation practice. 🌼 You feel full alignment with AORTA’s commitment to move groups that we facilitate towards: deep democratization and collective governance, developing many leaders, building resiliency and healing, and the practice of principled struggle. Swipe through for our full list of training dates this Fall. Learn more and sign up at https://lnkd.in/ggx8K7hT Image descriptions in alt text.