Saturday, July 2, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
LEARNING TOGETHER, MUTUAL AID, SOCIAL ACTION
Resilience Circle
AND Common Security Club
Facilitator’s Guide
Resilience Circle Network
Spring 2011
http://localcircles.org
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..3
What is a Resilience Circle/Common Security Club?.................................4
The Resilience Circle Network…………………………………………….......6
Organizing a Resilience Circle…………………………………………………7
Facilitating a Circle and Using this Curriculum…………………………………9
Facilitator Support……………………………………………………………..10
Overview of Sessions…………………………………………………………11
Notes on Preparing for Sessions…………………………………………….14
Notes on Openings…………………………………………………………….14
Notes on Closings…………………………………………………………......15
Introductory Session - Real Security in Hard Times…………………………16
Session 1 – Security and Insecurity………………………………………………31
Session 2 – Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation…………………………..45
Session 3 – Changing the Story: A New Vision………………………………...52
Session 4 – Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security………...65
Session 5 – Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid…………………………..77
Session 6 – Changing the Rules…………………………………………………..94
Session 7 – What’s Next?...............................................................................113
APPENDIX: Handouts for Session 5, Activity 1……………………………….123
Thanks to Linda and Ralph Schmoldt for their excellent work revising the Guide. Additional thanks to On the Commons and the Institute for Policy Studies - Program on Inequality and the Common Good, and Alexa Bradley, Dakota Butterfield, Sarah Byrnes, Chuck Collins, Loie Hayes, Orion Kriegman, and Andree Zaleska.
Contact the Resilience Circle Network: Info@LocalCircles.org; 617.477.8630 x307; http://localcircles.org.
Resilience Circle Facilitator's Guide by Resilience Circle Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Introduction
Welcome to the Resilience Circle Network!
Before you begin reading this guide, we want to remind you of one important truth: You already know how to do this.
You don’t need The Guide to bring people together and talk about how the economic crisis is touching their lives. You don’t need a handbook to begin to break down the isolation and shame that many people feel when speaking about their personal economic circumstances. And within any group, there is wisdom as to how to move ahead and help one another.
The value of The Guide is that it draws from the experience of other circles. But it has its limitations – and it’s no substitute for your own common sense. So we encourage you to use what is most useful to you.
This is the fourth edition of the Resilience Circle Facilitator’s Guide. Every several months we update this resource based on lessons from circles that we are interviewing across the country. Updated materials also live at our website, http://localcircles.org.
Documents are available in Microsoft Word, in addition to PDF documents. This is so you can more easily revise them to meet the specific needs of your circle. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Why Start a Circle?
Many of us have faced the turmoil of the Great Recession without a community of support. Forming a circle has been a lifeline for many participants, a way to personally prepare ourselves to live in a new and changing economy. Some of the reasons why people are starting circles include:
To Break Down Isolation and Shame. In this digital age, coming together for a face-to-face discussion is one of the most important things we can do.
To Face Changing Times Together. The news coverage about the economic crisis includes positive signs that the economy is rebounding. This is encouraging, but there are many other indicators that unemployment will remain high and home values will not recover. And there are signs that the speculators on Wall Street have no intention of changing their gambling ways. Other signs point to the possibility that our economy is undergoing deep structural changes and that we may be moving into uncharted territory. Many people find it is good to have a group to prepare with.
There is Much We Can Do Together. Circle participants have been inspired by things they can do together to boost their economic security. After two generations of “you are on your own” economics, it is really hard for people to ask for and receive help from their neighbors. We encourage groups to start small. Our mutual aid muscles need to be stretched and slowly warmed up.
We Need to Become Better Informed and Trust Our Own Thinking. The economic crisis has raised an interesting question: Who can we trust? The “brightest” financial minds on Wall Street were blindsided by the 2008 financial crisis. The experts told us not to worry. But it’s clear that unemployment is not going down soon, and that food and fuel costs will continue to rise. It’s time once again to be suspicious of the reassurances of learned experts. We must listen first to our own common sense.
Once There is Trust, There Are Few Limits. For circles that have been together for several months, there are wonderful benefits. People are able to share challenges at a deeper and useful level. The group develops a shared understanding of the changing economy that informs social action.
What is a Resilience Circle (or Common Security Club)?
These are uncertain times. The Great Recession has reminded us of our vulnerabilities. Debt. Foreclosure. Unemployment and anxious employment. Evaporating savings. Rising costs. Job insecurity. Environmental uncertainties.
In response, Resilience Circles (also called Common Security Clubs) are forming around the country, using and adapting free tools provided by the Resilience Circle Network.
What is a Resilience Circle?
A Resilience Circle is a small group (10 – 20 people) that comes together to increase personal security by:
• Courageously facing our economic and ecological challenges, learning together about root causes.
• Building relationships that strengthen our security and undertaking concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
• Rediscovering the abundance of what we have and recognizing the possibility of a better future.
• Seeing ourselves as part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.
In the process, a Resilience Circle allows neighbors (co-workers, etc) to get to know one another, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.
Structure of a Resilience Circle
This Curriculum provides a guide for facilitators to lead groups through seven initial sessions. Participants help prepare for and lead these meetings.
After seven sessions have been completed, a circle can decide whether it wants to continue meeting – with volunteers taking over facilitation responsibilities. Some circles may form self-organizing sub-groups to pursue specific activities and interests.
Three Components of a Circle
LEARNING TOGETHER: Through popular education tools, videos and shared readings, participants increase their understanding of the larger economic forces on our lives. Why is the economy in distress? How did these changes happen? What are the ecological factors contributing to the changes? What is our vision for a healthy, sustainable economy? How can I reduce my economic vulnerability? How can I get out of debt?
MUTUAL AID: Through stories, examples, web-based resources, a workbook and mutual support, participants reflect on what makes them secure. How can I help myself and my neighbor facing foreclosure, unemployment, or economic insecurity? What can we do together to increase our economic security at the local level?
SOCIAL ACTION: Many of our challenges won’t be solved through personal or local mutual aid efforts. They require us to work together to press for larger state, national and even global changes. Coming together, how can we become engaged to reclaim our country from the casino capitalists? What state and federal policies will increase our personal security? What program will truly address the economic and ecological realities of our time?
Putting It All Together
Often times, these three activities, while valuable in and of themselves, are not combined or coordinated. People might convene educational forums and study groups, but don’t engage in action. Others might leap immediately to social and political action, and not value the practical, day-to-day benefits of local mutual aid.
The intent of a Resilience Circle is to combine all three functions – education, mutual aid, and social action – together. We think that “doing all three” will make the circles more effective during economically uncertain times.
Some of you are part of active community organizations with campaigns and policy advocacy programs. We encourage you to think of a Resilience Circle as a complement to your organizing that can enable you to deepen your education and personal relationship-building priorities.
The Resilience Circle Network
The Resilience Circle Network (also called the Common Security Circle Network) is a pilot project of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good (http://inequality.org). On the Commons (http://onthecommons.org) has also provided resources to develop the curriculum.
We view our role as primarily helping organizers and facilitators who wish to start and sustain circles. We are not trying to build a new organization or sell anything. Learn more about how we can support your circle on our website and below.
Our Assumptions
There are a number of assumptions in our approach to Resilience Circles:
Tough Times Still Lie Ahead. While the economy may appear to be on the road to recovery, we know that the Great Recession will cast a long shadow – and deeply upend the economic security of millions of Americans. Millions of jobs are not coming back. We know that these changes will touch almost everyone. Those most deeply affected will be younger workers, older workers who are not financially able to retire, and communities of color that will face long-term unemployment and continuing home foreclosures.
We’re Not Going Back to Old Models of Economic Growth. The “Great Recession” was not the result of a short-term economic bump in the road. Because of the depth of our economic and ecological challenges, we don’t believe it is possible to return to a familiar model of economic growth and recovery. We will not return to unrivaled global economic supremacy, or to a model of economic growth based on cheap energy and unlimited fossil fuels. Nor do we want to return to an economy built on huge amounts of consumer debt – or an economy that transfers huge amounts of wealth to a few and puts everyone else’s economic security at risk.
Preparation Together is the Key. No one wants be caught unprepared. Our assumption is that we need to break out of our isolation and prepare ourselves and our communities to be more resilient and strong. A Resilience Circle is one place where we can do this preparation work to prepare our families, neighbors, congregations and communities. Our key objective is to have participants feel a sense of power and agency to shape the future.
We Need a New Story About the Economy. The old stories about the economy are inadequate or dishonest. The old economic story kept us paralyzed and isolated, and blocked us from seeing any other possibilities. Without an alternative to the present reality, people could easily gravitate to scapegoating, division, fear, fortress mentality, resignation or self-destructive behavior. Through these initial sessions, we hope participants gain glimpses of another path – of community, shared abundance, and of taking back our lives and country. We hope participants will better see our shared commons or commonwealth – and work to strengthen and defend the wealth and plenty that we hold together.
Role of Government and Local Action. We believe that there is an appropriate role for different levels of government involvement to strengthen the economy, bring greater oversight of the financial sector, and ease our transition to a new economy. At the same time, we recognize that our federal government has been captured by powerful corporate interests aimed at blocking change. In the face of this potential political paralysis, it is critical that local communities and individuals move ahead with solutions that increase our economic security.
Moving Forward. The good news is there is a lot to build on. Parts of our economy are healthy and vibrant. There is tremendous untapped creativity, energy and talent in our communities. We have the tools we need to make a transition to a new economy: the knowledge, technology, and guiding examples. Once we get organized and prepared, our lives will be happier and healthier – and our economy will be fairer and more ecologically sustainable.
Organizing a Resilience Circle
Visit the Resilience Circle website (http://localcircles.org/start-a-club) for detailed tips on organizing and publicizing your Resilience Circle. Sign up to attend one of our webinars for a discussion of these tips, and contact us any time with questions.
Here is how we suggest you introduce the idea of a Resilience Circle to your community:
1. OPEN SESSION. Hold an open “introductory session” to talk about the concept of a Resilience Circle and to ask people to consider starting one. A step-by-step program for this introductory session is part of this guide.
2. INITIAL COMMITMENT. Those who decide to form a circle should be asked to commit to seven initial meetings. Ideally these would happen at least every other week to keep momentum. There is a step-by-step program for each of these sessions in this guide.
3. ONGOING MEETINGS. After the seven sessions are completed, the group will have gained a fuller picture of what is possible. The circle decides whether or not to continue and then plans and carries out its own activities. The Resilience Circle Network has dozens of tools and suggestions for ongoing sessions.
What To Call Your Group?
Throughout The Guide, we refer to “Resilience Circles.” However, we encourage you to call your group whatever seems appropriate. Many groups used the name “Common Security Clubs,” and groups around the country go by many other names, including:
• Economic Security Circles
• Economic Security Affinity Groups
• Mutual Aid Groups
• Resource Sharing Groups
• Neighbor Groups
• Unemployed and Anxiously Employed Worker Groups
Feel free to use one of these or create your own name. Please let us know if you create a new name; we are always looking for new ideas to share with others in the network.
Facilitating a Circle and Using this Curriculum
If you have experience leading small groups, you can facilitate a Resilience Circle. Your role is not to be an “expert” in the economy, the environment, or anything else.
We have tried to make this Guide as facilitator-friendly as possible. Objectives, summary agendas, preparation lists, and lists of handouts are provided at the beginning of each session. Special facilitator notes occur throughout detailed agendas, and italicized text highlights those sections meant to be spoken or read directly at group meetings. We welcome feedback about how this Guide works for you, and we especially welcome suggestions for improvement. Let us hear from you!
It is important to note that the Resilience Circle experience can provide a taste of what life might be like in a new economy with stronger community ties, functional mutual aid, and empowered social action. However, seven sessions can only provide a glimpse of this new economy. After completing the curriculum, this shared glimpse will provide the core vision for the group’s next steps.
Group meetings consciously incorporate a range of different kinds of activities:
Relationship Building: getting to know each other, reweaving social relationships and community; for example, paired or small group exercises, sharing stories, allowing space for meaningful connection
Information Sharing: offering information about what is going on with the economy and the environment; reading articles, watching videos, listening to radio shows
Reflection and Analysis: fostering discussion to enable people to make sense of what is going on; posing questions that help people digest what they are hearing, exploring implications and meaning, getting clear together
Vision and Creativity: encouraging people to see themselves as capable and active, neither victims nor passive; brainstorming, tapping imagination, considering possibilities, generating ideas and activities
Taking Action: taking steps to do something about the problem; homework, small actions, mutual aid projects, social action, etc.
Basic Facilitation Tips
If you’re less familiar with facilitating meetings, you might want to team up with someone who has more experience. These resources about facilitating small groups may also be helpful:
Group Facilitation Guide (3 pages) - www.tinyurl.com/dxenww
Facilitation: The Secret to Smooth Synchronized Meetings (PDF) (6 pages) - www.tinyurl.com/bhqxhb
Developing Participant Leadership
Because the goal of a Resilience Circle is that it will self-facilitate after seven sessions, it is important to foster leadership among the participants. Here are some suggestions for how to do this:
• Ask participants if they would like to facilitate portions of the sessions.
• Invite participants to suggest closing readings.
• Invite someone other than you (or your co-facilitator) to facilitate the Evaluation at the end of each session.
• After the curriculum is finished, consider yourself a “consultant” to new facilitators and leaders. Be present to help and guide, but let others take leadership.
• And of course, be on the lookout for participants who have interests and skills which would make them good project leaders or facilitators.
Breaking Bread Together: Including Food
Consider sharing a meal together at your sessions. A lot of warmth and congeniality can come out of a simple potluck. Your community meal can be organized around a relevant theme, such as low-cost, healthful recipes. If a meal seems infeasible, consider assigning a member to bring snacks each time, and brew a pot of coffee or tea if you can. One or two people could take the job of organizing potlucks – and participants could alternate bringing food to share.
Facilitator Support
The Resilience Circle Network is eager to help you and hear about your Resilience Circle experience. Here are some of the ways we can offer support:
• In-person facilitator trainings – Contact us to discuss holding one in your area
• Free “webinars” with tips for organizing a circle in your community
• One-on-one conversations about organizing or facilitating
• Connections with others in your area who might be interested
• Publicity about your circle through our website and e-newsletter
• Connections with other facilitators through a listserv and support calls
Our website contains links you might find useful as you facilitate a circle during the initial seven sessions and beyond, including resources other facilitators have suggested, opening and closing readings, full-session modules, other curricula, videos and more. Visit the Facilitator’s Corner on our website, at http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
Please contact us at any time during this process:
• Info@LocalCircles.org
• 617.477.8630 x307
Overview of Sessions
The Introductory Session is designed to take ninety minutes. After that, the seven regular sessions are designed to take two hours.
Note that the following visual and written overviews are also presented in ATTACHMENT Intro-3.
Resilience Circles: Progression of Sessions
(Strong Cultural (Weak Cultural
Messages) Messages)
Overview of Sessions
Session 1 – Security and Insecurity
In this session, participants have a chance to reflect on the sources of their own security and insecurity, and the role the larger economy plays in our lives.
Session 2 - Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation
The old story about the economy tells us that we shouldn’t talk about our economic situation: it is either shamefully bad or embarrassingly good. This session creates a space for people to begin to break the habit of silence.
Session 3 - Changing the Story: A New Vision
Debt and over-consumption are large economic trends, and a major part of the old economic story that has formed the background of the individual stories we shared in Session 2. In this session, we consider that our security depends not on a “recovery” to the old ways, but on imagining something different.
Session 4 - Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security
In Sessions 4 and 5 we will consider the vital role our communities will play in building the new economy we visualized in Session 3. In Session 4 we’ll consider new concepts of community wealth and security, and introduce the idea of mutual aid.
Session 5 - Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid
In this session, we will explore the proposition that ecological changes will deeply alter our economic lives – and that there is no going back to the economy of the past. This session also includes the exchanging of gifts and needs - a tangible experience which shows how much we can help each other.
Session 6 - Changing the Rules
In this session, we will explore the proposition that large corporations exert too much influence over the “rules” that govern our society. With a vision of a new economy (Sessions 2 and 3) and strengthened community ties (Sessions 4 and 5), we are equipped to engage in social action to rewrite these rules. We’ll discuss what types of action this group is interested in.
Session 7 - What’s Next
Session 7 reviews what we have learned together and our vision for a new economy. We explore how we can build “resilience” together and what our next steps as a group will be.
Notes on Preparing for Sessions
Here is how we suggest preparing for sessions.
• Read over the Facilitator’s Guide and suggested resource materials for the session. This will give you a grounding in the process and topics and a sense of your role.
• Consider making some reminder calls to participants.
• Decide about food and drink, make copies of handouts, draw up charts, etc.
• Think about an opening and closing activity, song, reading, or ceremony that makes sense given the people you are bringing together. Are there other culturally-appropriate elements to include (symbols, readings, song, prayer, poetry, decoration, etc)? What will make people feel most welcome?
• Create a contact list and a blank sign-in sheet for earlier sessions.
• Make sure you have a calendar so that you can plan future sessions.
• Make sure you have enough seating. A casual, comfortable set-up in a circle or semicircle is more conducive to community building and trust than a classroom set up with chairs in rows.
• Put up flipcharts, place the sign-in sheet and handouts out.
• Welcome people as they arrive.
Notes on Openings
The “Opening” section of each session follows the same format (except for Session 1). We allot thirty minutes for the opening. Be sure to distribute the Participant Agenda during the opening (this is always the first ATTACHMENT after each session’s detailed agenda).
1. Opening Reading
2. Go-Round
3. Review and Overview
We suggest possible opening readings for each session, though you are encouraged and invited to think of your own, or to ask participants for suggestions. All the opening readings suggested in the Guide, as well as others, are available on our website at http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
During the go-round, you will go around the circle and ask everyone to say a few words. During the first few sessions, we suggest a question or topic they could address. In later sessions, this becomes an informal way of checking in with each other, and participants are invited to say whatever feels most important to them. If possible, spend 20 on the go-round. If your group has a potluck, consider doing the go-round over food.
We provide notes to guide the review and overview section in each session.
Notes on Closings
1. Evaluation
2. Next Meeting and Homework Assignment
3. Closing Reading
Similarly, the “Closing” section of each session follows the same format. We allot 10 minutes for it.
The first part is an evaluation. We encourage you to ask a participant to lead the evaluation, especially in the later sessions. This develops group ownership of the sessions, and also frees the facilitator to focus more clearly on the feedback.
During the evaluation, the leader asks the group: what worked well today, and what suggestions do you have for the way we structure future sessions? This isn’t a time to revisit the content of the session, but rather a time to think about how to ensure that future activities work well for the group. When wrapping up, try to solicit positive feedback about the meeting to leave things on a positive note.
Consider letting the Resilience Circle Network know the feedback you hear about the session so we can improve the curriculum.
When you talk about the next meeting, see if any participants would like to facilitate any of the sections or take on other leadership. Also, identify volunteers to coordinate food, if that is part of your meetings, and/or make reminder phone calls.
The homework is described on the Participant Agenda handouts, and is available on the Resilience Circle website: http://localcircles.org/homework. You will probably want to bring a few hard copies of readings for people who do not have computer access. It is highly recommended that you or someone else email the group a link to the homework assignment shortly after the meeting.
Finally, each meeting may close with a closing reading appropriate to your circumstances. We suggest a reading for each meeting, and other options are available on our website, http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
Introductory Session
Real Security In Hard Times
Thank you for making this presentation about Resilience Circles. This introductory session is a way to bring people together and gauge interest in starting a group. We have designed it to give people a flavor of the benefits of being together. Please note that this introductory session is designed to be ninety minutes, whereas Sessions 1 – 7 are two hours each.
Objectives
• Introduce the concept of a Resilience Circle and given an overview of how one works.
• Give people an opportunity to connect with one another around the ways the economic crisis is touching them.
• Establish the theme of a “fork in the path,” that we have choices in how we respond to the stress of the “Great Recession,” and that we can increase our personal security by joining a circle.
• Identify those who want to form a circle and plan the next meeting.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Name tags
• Blank participant sign-in sheets with space for name, contact information, and day availability
• Copy of the opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT Intro-1)
• Optional - Copy of the Pass-Around Read-Aloud, “Facing Economic Change” (ATTACHMENT Intro-4)
Handouts
• What is a Resilience Circle? (Attachment Intro-2)
• Progression of Sessions (Attachment Intro-3)
SUMMARY AGENDA – Introductory Session
Opening (20 minutes)
Activity 1: Brainstorm: What Economic “Signs of the Times” Do We See? (5)
Activity 2: Why a Resilience Circle? (20)
Activity 3: Our Economic Security (25)
A. Circle Ground Rules
B. Pairs Discussion
C. Sharing Back
Activity 4: Next Steps/Q&A (15)
Closing (5)
DETAILED AGENDA – Introductory Session
Opening (20)
Welcome everyone individually and ask them to sign in.
Read the Suggested Opening Reading - “Turning to One Another” by Meg Wheatley (ATTACHMENT Intro-1).
Welcome everyone formally, thank the host, and introduce yourself. Have participants briefly introduce themselves with their name and where they live.
Distribute “What is a Resilience Circle?” (ATTACHMENT Intro-2) and “Progression of Sessions” (ATTACHMENT Intro-3).
Offer a brief description of a Resilience Circle:
A Resilience Circle is a place to come together to increase our personal security in a rapidly changing world.
Learning Together: A way to learn about the root causes of our economic and ecological challenges.
Mutual Aid: A chance to build relationships that strengthen our security, and take concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
Social Action: An opportunity to be part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.
In the process, we get to know each other, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.
Activity 1: Brainstorm: What “Signs of the Times” Do We See? (5)
Post or flip to some blank poster paper to take notes during this activity. At the top of the paper, write the title Signs of the Times.
Pose this question to the whole group:
What are the signs of economic insecurity that you see in these times?
Write responses on the poster paper as participants say them.
Note: Brainstorm exercises are designed to elicit brief responses to a question, to create a list of ideas without a lot of conversation. Be sure to add something about your personal insecurity to the list, and some examples of local and national and international insecurity, e.g. bounced checks, library hours cut back, college loans drying up, unemployment, and so forth.
Activity 2: Mini-Presentation: Why a Resilience Circle? (20)
A. Facing Economic Change
Begin with a short talk on the theme of Facing Economic Change.
Note: There are a number of ways to approach this section: you could offer your own personal story about why the idea of a Resilience Circle feels important to you, making sure to touch on some of the themes listed below. Or you could put together a short talk that is less personal, but covers most of the ideas below in your own words. If neither of those approaches work for you, this material can be presented to the group through what we call a Pass-Around Read-Aloud, where a series of individuals take turns reading a paragraph or two from a sheet of paper passed around the group. You’ll find the talking points below written up as a handout for that purpose (see ATTACHMENT Intro-4, “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Facing Economic Change”).
Read or summarize: Tough times may still lie ahead. While we may see some positive economic changes, millions of jobs are not coming back. Many of us are facing continued economic insecurity in terms of jobs, precarious housing situations, and lack of adequate income. (If possible, refer directly here to the examples that participants came up with in the Signs of the Times brainstorm.)
The economy is going through a fundamental transition. We know that the economy will be very different in ten or twenty years than it is today. Two of the reasons are:
No more debt-fueled economic growth. Our economy has depended on huge levels of debt-fueled consumption. Over the last several decades, we lived through “borrowed times” and ran up against our credit limits as a society. Individuals, companies, banks, and even nations have borrowed more than they can ever pay back. Our financial assets were over-valued which is still leading to foreclosures, bankruptcies, lay-offs, and service cut-backs.
Our economic model is not ecologically sustainable. Humanity has borrowed from the past (energy stored as fossil fuels for eons), and we have borrowed from the future (fouling the atmosphere with carbon that won’t dissipate for a century). Our future economic security requires us to live within the earth’s capacity and adapt to changes.
Our circle is a place to prepare. We need to think now about how we can we prepare ourselves for change – both personally and as a community. There are practical things we can do together that will increase our economic security and community resilience.
Our democratic system is broken. Part of the breakdown is that our political system has been captured by huge corporations that are focused on very short-term gains. The oil industry wants to block changes in energy systems. Wall Street blocked much of the needed financial reform after the economy meltdown. The financial reform that passed in July 2010 does not end the risky behavior that caused the meltdown. We need to be engaged as citizens to hold government accountable and to be on our side preparing for the future.
B. Cultural Messages about the Economy
Prepare some blank poster paper to take notes during this activity.
At the top of the paper, write the title Cultural Messages.
Pose an open question to the group:
What messages have we absorbed about the idea of economic success or failure?
If participants are slow to offer ideas, help them get started by offering a few examples from the list below, so they understand how you’re asking them to think about the question. Allow no more than ten minutes for this activity. At the end, check to see if anything that seems important to you below has been omitted; if so, add it.
• You are on your own (YO-YO).
• “Recovery” might be slow, but it’s coming.
• This economic slump is just a bump in the road, and our economic system is basically okay.
• You need to figure this out alone. Economic struggles are a reason for personal shame.
• Don’t talk about your economic reality with anyone else – it is either shamefully bad, embarrassingly better or just terribly inappropriate and uncomfortable.
• Economic winners deserve to take the best place; losers don’t deserve anything.
• Infinite growth and expansion is the sign of a healthy economy. Limits, conservation and frugality are for losers and occasional bad times.
Closing comment: One of the things we can do in a Resilience Circle is choose a different set of messages about what it means to be economically successful, and how we relate to other people about our financial lives. For example: “There is enough if we share and protect our common assets.” Or, “We all do better when we all do better.”
C. Personal Responses: Fork in the Road
Begin this key section by drawing a quick picture of two diverging paths on a blank piece of poster paper:
Explain that the concept of A Fork in the Road, illustrating the difficult choices that face us.
Talking points could include:
When faced with adversity, our instincts offer two choices: fight or flight. In these uncertain times, we can see these choices reflected in the choice between fear and hope, isolation and social action, self-protection and common security.
One Path: Self-protection -- Retreating into fear, isolation, self-blame, scapegoating, individual action, or a “hunkering down” fortress mentality.
The Other Path: Banding together -- Working together, we can accomplish things that no one person or family can accomplish – as with barn-raisings a century ago. This is a “new story,” a story that shows how inventive, creative and cooperative we can be, even during hard times.
D. Forming a Circle: What Have We Got?
Once you have introduced the idea of A Fork in the Road, explain how forming a Resilience Circle could help us follow a path toward working together to solve our economic problems.
Talking points could include:
An economy organized around winners-and-losers leaves us feeling insecure, isolated, exhausted and anxious.
We feel more secure, resourceful, and empowered when we participate in some group activity, and experience a connection to our community.
We can learn to live differently in changing times.
What we can’t do on our own, we can start to do together – we have the potential to create common security.
We have more than we think we do, when we pool our energy and resources.
Activity 3: Our Economic Security (25)
A. Ground Rules
In the next section of this introductory session, participants will be asked to speak about how the economic crisis is affecting them personally. First, though, it’s important to establish ground rules. Read aloud these Ground Rules, check to see if there are any questions, and then explicitly ask for everyone to actively assent to these agreements.
• Sharing is voluntary. You don’t have to share or personally disclose anything you don’t wish to share.
• Respect one another. We are creating a space of respect and personal safety.
• Confidentiality within the group is required. You should not share any information about anyone else outside the group.
• Give others a chance to speak. Talkative people may want to hold back a little. People who tend to hold back --- please feel invited to open up more.
• Honor our differences. We assume that people are experiencing insecurity differently depending on their class, culture, race, gender and other differences. Let us honor and celebrate our differences. Our intent is not to persuade others of our viewpoints. Regardless of our differences, we all can benefit from strengthening our common security. The main thing is that we listen to and understand each other as our primary objective.
B. Pairs Discussion: Personal Sharing about the Economic Crisis
Ask participants to pair off and introduce themselves to the person next to them. In turn, each person should take four to five minutes to respond to the question:
What are one or two ways the economic crisis is touching you or someone you love?
Remind participants of the Ground Rules.
After five minutes have passed, remind the pairs to trade roles, so that the speaker becomes the listener and vice-versa.
C. Sharing Back: How the Economic Crisis Is Touching Us
After ten minutes have passed, gently interrupt the conversations to ask participants to come back together in the large group. Ask for a short silence while people think about their conversations. Ask for a couple of volunteers to share with the large group how the economic crisis is touching them personally. Ask the volunteers to limit their comments to a minute or two. Remind the group that no one is obliged to share.
Note: Remind the volunteers, if necessary, that we want to hear what they shared about themselves, not what they learned about their partner.
Activity 4: Question and Answer Session (15)
Answer participants’ questions about Resilience Circles. Take opportunities to establish firm next steps: when and where a group might meet, who might co-facilitate, who might coordinate food. Make sure participants sign the sign-in sheet so that you (or someone else) can follow up as needed.
If a group decides to meet, suggest they read through the “Economic Meltdown Funnies” before Session 1. Download at http://tinyurl.com/meltdownfunnies, or contact the Resilience Circle Network for paper copies at Info@LocalCircles.org
Closing (5)
Closing Reading - Thank everyone for coming and bring the meeting to a close with a cultural activity appropriate to your group: a song, prayer, secular inspirational reading, etc. Locate your own or consider the one provided in ATTACHMENT Intro-1: “A Great Time To Be Alive” by Martin Luther King.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-1
Suggested Opening Reading: “Turing to One Another” by Meg Wheatley
There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
Ask: “What’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?” Keep asking.
Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dreams.
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Talk to people you never talk to.
Be intrigued by the differences you hear. Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more than certainty.
Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.
Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.
Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.
Rely on human goodness.
Stay together.
Suggested Closing Reading: “A Great Time to Be Alive” by Martin Luther King
…I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom. In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away, and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. Doors of opportunity are gradually being opened to those at the bottom of society. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are developing a new sense of “some-bodiness” and carving a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of despair. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." Here and there an individual or group dares to love, and rises to the majestic heights of moral maturity. So in a real sense this is a great time to be alive.
Therefore, I am not yet discouraged about the future. Granted that the easygoing optimism of yesterday is impossible. Granted that those who pioneer in the struggle for peace and freedom will still face uncomfortable jail terms, painful threats of death; they will still be battered by the storms of persecution, leading them to the nagging feeling that they can no longer bear such a heavy burden, and the temptation of wanting to retreat to a more quiet and serene life. Granted that we face a world crisis which leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life’s restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In a dark confused world the kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of all.
Excerpt from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-2
What is a Resilience Circle (or Common Security Club)?
These are uncertain times. The Great Recession has reminded us of our vulnerabilities. Debt. Foreclosure. Unemployment and anxious employment. Evaporating savings. Rising costs. Job insecurity. Environmental uncertainties. We can face these changes alone – or come together.
What is a Resilience Circle?
Resilience Circles are forming around the country, using and adapting free tools provided by the Resilience Circle Network. A circle is a place to come together to increase our personal security in a rapidly changing world by:
• Courageously facing our economic and ecological challenges, learning together about root causes.
• Building relationships that strengthen our security and undertaking concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
• Rediscovering the abundance of what we have and recognizing the possibility of a better future.
• Seeing ourselves as part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.
In the process, a Resilience Circle allows neighbors (co-workers, etc) to get to know one another, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.
Three Components of a Circle
LEARNING TOGETHER: Through popular education tools, videos and shared readings, participants increase their understanding of the larger economic forces on our lives. Why is the economy in distress? How did these changes happen? What are the ecological factors contributing to the changes? What is our vision for a healthy, sustainable economy? How can I reduce my economic vulnerability? How can I get out of debt?
MUTUAL AID: Through stories, examples, web-based resources, a workbook and mutual support, participants reflect on what makes them secure. How can I help myself and my neighbor facing foreclosure, unemployment, or economic insecurity? What can we do together to increase our economic security at the local level?
SOCIAL ACTION: Many of our challenges won’t be solved through personal or local mutual aid efforts. They require us to work together to press for larger state, national and even global changes. Coming together, how can we become engaged to reclaim our country from the casino capitalists? What state and federal policies will increase our personal security? What program will truly address the economic and ecological realities of our time?
Structure of a Resilience Circle
One of the primary goals of Resilience Circles and Common Security Clubs is to convene a public process for participants to challenge their feelings of isolation and helplessness. Circles are self-managing; the participants themselves take on responsibilities to help coordinate, schedule and host meetings.
Participants will also help the facilitator to prepare for and lead the initial series of seven meetings. After that series has been completed, a circle can decide whether it wants to continue meeting – with volunteers taking over facilitation responsibilities. Some circles may form self-organizing sub-groups to pursue specific activities and interests.
What’s in a Name?
Many circles use the names Resilience Circle or Common Security Club. However, we encourage you to call your group whatever seems appropriate for your circumstances. Groups around the country go by many other names, including:
• Economic Security Circles
• Economic Security Affinity Groups
• Mutual Aid Groups
• Resource Sharing Groups
• Neighbor Groups
• Unemployed and Anxiously Employed Worker Groups
The Resilience Circle Network
The Resilience circle Network is a pilot project of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. Learn more at http://localcircles.org.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-3 (SIDE 1)
Resilience Circles: Progression of Sessions
(Strong Cultural (Weak Cultural
Messages) Messages)
ATTACHMENT Intro-3 (SIDE 2)
Session 1 – Security and Insecurity
In this session, participants have a chance to reflect on the sources of their own security and insecurity, and the role the larger economy plays in our lives.
Session 2 - Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation
The old story about the economy tells us that we shouldn’t talk about our economic situation: it is either shamefully bad or embarrassingly good. This session creates a space for people to begin to break the habit of silence.
Session 3 - Changing the Story: A New Vision
Debt and over-consumption are large economic trends, and a major part of the old economic story that has formed the background of the individual stories we shared in Session 2. In this session, we consider that our security depends not on a “recovery” to the old ways, but on imagining something different.
Session 4 - Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security
In Sessions 4 and 5 we will consider the vital role our communities will play in building the new economy we visualized in Session 3. In Session 4 we’ll consider new concepts of community wealth and security, and introduce the idea of mutual aid.
Session 5 - Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid
In this session, we will explore the proposition that ecological changes will deeply alter our economic lives – and that there is no going back to the economy of the past. This session also includes the exchanging of gifts and needs - a tangible experience which shows how much we can help each other.
Session 6 - Changing the Rules
In this session, we will explore the proposition that large corporations exert too much influence over the “rules” that govern our society. With a vision of a new economy (Sessions 2 and 3) and strengthened community ties (Sessions 4 and 5), we are equipped to engage in social action to rewrite these rules. We’ll discuss what types of action this group is interested in.
Session 7 - What’s Next
Session 7 reviews what we have learned together and our vision for a new economy. We explore how we can build “resilience” together and what our next steps as a group will be.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-4
Optional Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Facing Economic Change
Why is this a good time for Resilience Circles?
• Tough times may still lie ahead. While we may see some positive economic changes, millions of jobs are not coming back. Many of us are facing continued economic insecurity in terms of jobs, precarious housing situations, and lack of adequate income.
• The economy is going through a fundamental transition. We know that the economy will be very different in ten or twenty years than it is today. Two of the reasons are:
1. No more debt-fueled economic growth. Our economy has depended on huge levels of debt-fueled consumption. Over the last several decades, we lived through “borrowed times” and ran up against our credit limits as a society. Individuals, companies, banks, and even nations have borrowed more than they can ever pay back. Our financial assets were over-valued which is still leading to foreclosures, bankruptcies, lay-offs, and service cut-backs.
2. Our economic model is not ecologically sustainable. Humanity has borrowed from the past (energy stored as fossil fuels for eons), and we have borrowed from the future (fouling the atmosphere with carbon that won’t dissipate for a century). Our future economic security requires us to live within the earth’s capacity and adapt to changes.
• Our circle is a place to prepare. We need to think now about how we can we prepare ourselves for change – both personally and as a community. There are practical things we can do together that will increase our economic security and community resilience.
• Our democratic system is broken. Part of the breakdown is that our political system has been captured by huge corporations that are focused on very short-term gains. The oil industry wants to block changes in energy systems. Wall Street blocked much of the needed financial reform after the economy meltdown. The financial reform that passed in July 2010 does not end the risky behavior that caused the meltdown. We need to be engaged as citizens to hold government accountable and to be on our side preparing for the future.
Session 1
Security and Insecurity
Welcome to Session 1! We hope you’re excited to get started.
Our hope is that in this session, participants have a chance to reflect on the sources of their own security and insecurity. And, that they leave the session inspired to learn more and get to know each other better.
Objectives
• Reflect on and share what we are experiencing in our own lives.
• Reflect on the sources of security and insecurity in our lives, and especially on the economy as a source of insecurity.
• Help participants identify and transform the cultural messages which lead to isolation and insecurity.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Nametags
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 1-2)
• Optional – Read over “Background Information for Facilitators: Observations on the Economic Crisis” for Activity 2 (ATTACHMENT 1-3)
• Pens for Activity 3
• Pre-made poster showing flow of sessions, or hand out a few copies of ATTACHMENT-Intro 3
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 2 (ATTACHMENT 1-1)
• Transforming Cultural Messages (ATTACHMENT 1-4)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 1
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Security and Insecurity (40)
A. Overview
B. Ground Rules
C. Group Brainstorm: Signs of the Times
D. What Makes Us Insecure?
E. The Economy as a Source of Our Insecurity
Activity 3: Old and New Stories about the Economy (25)
A. Cultural Messages about the Economy
B. Transforming Cultural Messages
Upcoming Sessions (5)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – SESSION 1
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Opening Reading – “Working Together to Create Common Security” by Chuck Collins (ATTACHMENT 1-2)
2. Go-Round – Please tell us your name, where you live and why you joined this circle.
Note: Normally at this point in the opening, you would review the previous session and give an overview of the upcoming session. In Session 1, we suggest giving an overview of the session after the Common Ground exercise.
Activity 1: Getting to Know Each Other -- Common Ground Exercise (10)
Invite people to stand in a circle.
Read: In order to learn more about one another, I’m going to read some statements. If it’s true for you, move into the center of the circle. If you prefer to not respond to any of the statements, just don’t move forward.
• You were born in this state/region.
• Grew up in this state/region.
• Were born outside of state/region (ask where).
• Were born outside the U.S. (ask where).
• You are a parent.
• Have kids at home or kids that are still dependent on you.
• Have a pet at home.
• Have any young people in your life for whom you have a special connection or concern.
• Have any older people in your life for whom you have a special connection or concern.
• Slept less than seven hours last night.
• Watch news on television.
• Are a grandparent.
• Have lived in this neighborhood for more than 10 years.
• Have a vegetable garden.
• Have a practical hobby (ask to mention some).
• Have an impractical hobby (mention some).
• I need people to talk to about the uncertainty I feel about our economic future.
• You like potlucks.
• You want to be part of shaping a more hopeful vision for our nation.
Add others if you wish.
Activity 2: Security and Insecurity (40)
A. Overview of Today’s Session
Read or summarize: Tonight we will be talking about what it means to feel and be secure and some of the causes of our insecurities. Then we’ll look at insecurity in relationship to the current economic downturn. We’ll close the session by reviewing our options for responding to our insecurities.
Obviously we will only skim the surface. Some of the activities will be group discussions, some “popcorn” style where ideas are quickly tossed out, others will involve talking in pairs.
B. Ground Rules
Before beginning the activity, remind participants of the guidelines for interaction.
• Sharing is voluntary. You don’t have to share or personally disclose anything you don’t wish to share.
• Respect one another. We are creating a space of respect and personal safety.
• Confidentiality within the group is required. You should not share any information about anyone else outside the group.
• Give others a chance to speak. Talkative people may want to hold back a little. People who tend to hold back --- please feel invited to open up more.
• Honor our differences. We assume that people are experiencing insecurity differently depending on their class, culture, race, gender and other differences. Let us honor and celebrate our differences. Our intent is not to persuade others of our viewpoints. Regardless of our differences, we all can benefit from strengthening our common security. The main thing is that we listen to and understand each other as our primary objective.
C. Group Brainstorm: Signs of the Times
Use a flipchart or blank poster board to take notes during this activity. Write down the responses to both questions. Note: Brainstorm exercises are designed to elicit brief responses to a question to create a list of ideas without a lot of conversation.
Ask: What things give you a sense of security?
Here are some ideas to add in if they aren’t mentioned or if input lags:
• Feeling safe
• Having enough money
• Having people you can rely on
• Having skills
• Having sources of healthy food and clean water
• Being warm in winter
Ask: What are the signs of economic insecurity that you see in these times?
Be sure to add something about your personal insecurity, and some examples of local and national insecurity, e.g.:
• Unemployment
• Budget cuts
• Foreclosure
• Rising costs
D. What Makes Us Insecure?
Ask people to raise their hands if they feel less secure than they did 10 years ago. Ask if anyone would like to briefly comment. Then, ask participants to pair off with someone. Ask each person, in turn, to take a few minutes to respond to the questions:
How is the economic downturn touching you or someone you love? Or, how do you fear it could touch you?
What things make you feel insecure today?
Ask for a couple of volunteers to share a reflection. Remind the group that no one is obliged to comment.
E. The Economy as a Source of Our Insecurity
Read or summarize: In the preceding activities we noticed that our feelings of insecurity have a lot to do with money and the economy. Obviously this is a huge concern for many if not most people. Let’s focus a bit on what you perceive to be the main causes of the economic crisis. Understanding causes is a step in the direction of proposing solutions.
Ask people to stand and pick a partner. Then ask them to take turns responding to this question (each taking about 2 minutes): “If you were on an elevator and had only a minute or two and someone asked you how our nation got into the economic mess we’re in, how would you respond?”
After five minutes, ask participants to come back together to the large group. Acknowledge the difficulty of trying to answer a complex question with an “elevator speech” (but often this is how it is in life).
Ask participants to mention things that came up for them as major causes of the economic crisis.
Note: Refer to the list of statements made by various critics and analysts of the economic crisis in ATTACHMENT 1-3 to supplement what people offer.
To close this activity, read the following story and comment:
“A man was standing beside a stream when he saw a baby struggling in the water. Without a single thought he jumped in and saved it. No sooner had he placed it gently on the shore than he saw another and jumped in to save it, then another and another. Totally focused on saving babies, he never thought to look upstream to answer the obvious question: Where were the babies coming from, and how did they get in the water?” --- Anonymous
Read or summarize: Most of the solutions being proposed today to fix our economic problems do not address root causes. In order to “look upstream” for the real causes of our economic crisis, we have to think about real system and structural changes for our economy, not just making minor adjustments to or tinkering with a failed system. We’ll think more about structural changes in a later session.
Activity 3: Old and New Stories about the Economy (25)
A. Cultural Messages about the Economy
Prepare some blank poster paper to take notes during this activity. At the top of the paper, write the title Cultural Messages. Pose an open question to the group:
What messages have we absorbed about the current economy and our own economic success or failure?
If participants are slow to offer ideas, help them get started by offering a few examples from the list below, so they understand how you’re asking them to think about the question. Allow no more than ten minutes for this activity. At the end, check to see if any of the major points below has been omitted; if so, add it.
• You are on your own (YO-YO).
• “Recovery” might be slow, but it’s coming.
• This economic slump is just a bump in the road. Our economic system is basically okay.
• You need to figure this out alone. Economic struggles are a reason for personal shame.
• Don’t talk about your economic reality with anyone else – it is either shamefully bad, embarrassingly better or just terribly inappropriate and uncomfortable.
• Infinite growth and expansion is the sign of a healthy economy. Limits, conservation and frugality are for losers and occasional bad times.
Note: We will reuse this list in Session 3. If possible, keep it to re-post then.
Read or summarize: We can bundle these messages together and call them the “old story” about the economy. They contribute to keeping us isolated and alone.
B. Transforming Cultural Messages
Read or summarize: How do we respond to the insecurities we face? We can follow either of two paths. One is “going it alone” by following the old story. The other is “banding together” to form community.
Hand out ATTACHMENT 1-4, “Transforming Cultural Messages,” and ask participants to take some time to fill in the right-hand column.
Possible responses:
GOING IT ALONE BANDING TOGETHER (FORMING COMMUNITY)
Fear…………………………………………Hope
Isolation……………………………………Social Connection
Self-protection…………………………… Common Security
Flight (running away; hiding, denial)……Fight (face challenges; hold your ground)
Accept winner-loser economic model… New Economic Reality
Insecure………………………………… Feeling supported, loved, cared for
Exhausted…………………………………Energized
Self-blame…………………………………Collective responsibility
Anxious……………………………………Encouraged
Scapegoating…………………………… Accepting collective responsibility
Individual Action…………………………Collective Action
Hunkering Down………………………… Rising up together
Fortress mentality…………………………Open door attitude
Shame in having needs…………………Recognition that we are interdependent
Limited…………………………………… Resourceful
Powerless…………………………………Empowered
Go through the list and ask people to call out ideas for the left column.
Read or summarize: We are concerned that many people will face economic challenges in isolation. Even those connected to extended families, religious congregations, unions and civic groups may be embarrassed or ashamed to reach out for assistance. A Duke University study about social isolation found that in 2004, one in four Americans said they had no one to confide in about personal troubles. Another one in four had only one person to talk to, usually a spouse. This is twice the number of people who, 20 years earlier, had no one to turn to for this crucial support.
Banding together is one of the best ways to increase our personal and collective security. By working together we can accomplish things that no one person or family can accomplish – like a barn-raising a century ago. This is a new story, a story about real security, that shows how inventive, creative and cooperative we can be, even during hard times.
In our future Resilience Circle sessions we will talk about how we can join with others to make changes in our lives and increase our security. A Resilience Circle is about learning together, providing mutual aid, and joining together in social action. In the process, we get to know neighbors and friends better, find inspiration, have fun and strengthen community.
Upcoming Sessions (5)
Post the prepared chart showing the overview of upcoming sessions. See ATTACHMENT Intro-3 (SIDE 1) for a model. Alternatively, you could pass out a few copies of ATTACHMENT Intro-3 for people to look over. Summarize the flow of upcoming sessions in your own words, and invite any questions.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you haven’t already, read through the “Economic Meltdown Funnies.” Download at http://tinyurl.com/meltdownfunnies, or contact the Resilience Circle Network for paper copies at Info@LocalCircles.org.
B. Before the next session, consider getting together at someone’s home to watch “Inside Job,” an Academy Award winning documentary about the economic meltdown. You can rent the DVD or stream it online through Amazon.com.
3. Suggested Closing Reading – Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor (ATTACHMENT 1-2)
ATTACHMENT 1-1
Session 1
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Our Security and Insecurity (40)
Activity 3: Old and New Stories about the Economy (25)
Upcoming Sessions (5)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 2
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you haven’t already, read through the “Economic Meltdown Funnies.” Download at http://tinyurl.com/meltdownfunnies, or contact the Resilience Circle Network for paper copies at Info@LocalCircles.org.
B. Before the next session, consider getting together at someone’s home to watch “Inside Job,” an Academy Award winning documentary about the economic meltdown. You can rent the DVD or stream it online through Amazon.com.
ATTACHMENT 1-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “Working Together to Create Common Security” by Chuck Collins
I recently had coffee with a single friend who rents an apartment in my neighborhood. She was worried her job would be cut. I said, offhandedly, “You can come live with us.” “I can?” she said, and started to cry. “Of course. You will always have a place to live.” She began to sob. Then a thought crossed my mind, “as long as we have our house.” How quickly we go to our most vulnerable place.
In the coming year, I believe that personal economic security will further erode for millions of us. This economic crisis is not “out there.” It is real and present in our daily lives. Many people will face these challenges in isolation. Even those connected to religious congregations, unions, or civic groups may be embarrassed or ashamed to reach out for help.
My friend told me later that she burst into tears that day because she “felt held”—not physically, but emotionally, by her friends. In our most anxious moments we must hold one another, remind one another of what we have together.
We need to find those who are being left behind and hold them. We must build a solidarity economy that leaves no one behind. We should banish the myth of the autonomous individual and embrace the full reality of our covenantal existence: We are not alone. And we are nothing without each other.
Let us hold one another and move from autonomy and isolation to community and covenantal existence, from anxiety to divine abundance, from an economy of greed to one of neighborly generosity.
UU World, Spring 2009.
Suggested Closing Reading: Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor
There is a way forward, and I call it plenitude. The word calls attention to the inherent bounty of nature that we need to recover. It directs us to the chance to be rich in the things that matter to us most, and the wealth that is available in our relations with one another.
Plentitude… involves a way of life that will yield more well-being than sticking to business as usual, which has led both the natural and economic environments into decline…
Plentitude is also about transition. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Creating a sustainable economy will take decades, and this is a strategy for prospering during that shift. The beauty of the approach is that it is available right now.
Anyone can get started, and many are. It was the right way to go before the economic collapse, in part because it predicted a worsening landscape. It makes even more sense in a period of slow growth or stagnation.
As individuals take up the principles of plenitude, they are not merely adopting a private response to what is… a collective problem. Rather they are pioneers of the micro (individual-level) activity that is necessary to create the macro (system-wide) equilibrium, to correct an economy that is badly out of balance.
Penguin, 2010.
ATTACHMENT 1-3
Background Information for Facilitators: Observations on the Economic Crisis
In the fall of 2008, the financial system came close to a total collapse. Economic stability was brought about through massive bailouts, a stimulus bill to create jobs and government guarantees. But while the economy was temporarily rescued from free fall, it hasn’t been fundamentally fixed.
Here are some of the reasons that people give for the economic crisis.
• Home prices were allowed to soar for a decade, outstripping their real value, despite warning signs of collapse. When the debt bubble eventually burst, $8 trillion of artificially inflated value vanished overnight.
• For decades, government failed to provide effective oversight to Wall Street investment bank. A large “shadow banking” system emerged –including complex financial investment schemes such as hedge funds, derivatives, credit default swaps, etc. These were complicated investment schemes for the very wealthy, who used their lobbying power to keep government from watching out for the public interest.
• A shady sub-prime mortgage scandal was fueled by unethical and illegal practices on the part of companies that issue mortgages, many of which were not banks (like Countrywide Financial). They sold their loans to the “shadow finance” sector – which then sold them to all kinds of investors, including retirement investment funds, school boards, religious organizations and individual investors. No one was responsible for ensuring they were reasonable loans.
• A lot of us got in over our heads – by borrowing too much and living beyond our means. Individuals are responsible for this.
• Credit card vendors and mortgage brokers pushed easy credit and encouraged people to buy more things than they could afford. Our whole culture encouraged excessive borrowing and spending rather than saving.
• Over the last 20 years, huge amounts of wealth have become concentrated in the hands of a small number of people. These wealthy investors wanted to make lots of money fast, so moved large sums into unregulated and unethical investment schemes. When the bottom fell out on these, it triggered the meltdown.
Our economy is going through a fundamental transition. We had economic growth based on borrowing. That is over. Over the last couple decades, the fastest growing part of the economy was “finance” (banks, lending, investments). According to experts, fantastic amounts of wealth were created. But how much of this was real wealth – based on creation of real goods and services that serve our lives and make our communities healthy? And how much was paper wealth – an illusion – like the inflated value of land and houses?
The author David Korten makes a distinction between REAL WEALTH and PHANTOM WEALTH. REAL WEALTH includes the things we can see and touch in our local economies: food, medicine, and useful goods. It includes services like electricians, bus drivers, and mental health workers.
PHANTOM WEALTH includes betting, financial speculation, gambling on the movements of money. It is disconnected from the productive economy with its tangible goods and services. The phantom wealth economy squeezes value out of the productive real economy by charging fees, interest, ATM charges, and extracting money as it moves through the economy.
ATTACHMENT 1-4
Handout: Transforming Cultural Messages
GOING IT ALONE BANDING TOGETHER (FORMING COMMUNITY)
Fear…………………………………………
Isolation……………………………………
Self-protection……………………………
Flight (running away; hiding, denial)……
Accept winner-loser economic model…
Insecure…………………………………
Exhausted…………………………………
Self-blame…………………………………
Anxious……………………………………
Scapegoating……………………………
Individual Action…………………………
Hunkering Down…………………………
Fortress mentality…………………………
Shame in having needs…………………
Limited……………………………………
Powerless…………………………………
Session 2
Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation
The old story about the economy tells us that we shouldn’t talk about our economic situation: it is either shamefully bad or embarrassingly good. This session creates a space for people to begin to break the habit of silence.
As a facilitator, you should prepare to hear about people’s economic struggles. If people open up, thank them for their bravery. Remember, your role as facilitator is not to solve their problems. The key is to hold a relaxed, accepting space for people to share.
Objectives
• Hear each others’ stories, and share our reasons for joining this Resilience Circle.
• Begin to think about what it means to live in “Borrowed Times.”
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Copy of the opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 2-2)
• Optional - Wristwatch or “talking stick” for Activity 2
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 3 (ATTACHMENT 2-1)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 2
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Getting to Know Each Other (70)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 2
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – “The Ancient Redwood Trees of Northern California” (Anonymous) (ATTACHMENT 2-2)
2. Go-Round – Please share something that brought you hope or joy since our last meeting.
3. Review and Overview
Brief Review of First Session
In our first session, we talked about:
• The things we need to feel secure, and the insecurities we face.
• We confirmed that many of our insecurities stem from financial struggles and the larger economic downturn.
• The old story tells us that we are on our own to figure out how to cope.
Focus of Today’s Session
Today we are going to focus on getting to know each other by finding out more about why each of us joined this Resilience Circle. We’ll also touch briefly on the theme of “Living in Borrowed Times.”
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Tell participants that we are going to do a common ground similar to the first session. Invite participants to stand up in a circle to see where we have common ground.
Remind participants that you are going to ask a question.
Read or summarize: If it’s true for you, take a step or two into the middle. For instance, if you have a pet at home, step forward. Some of these questions are more personal. If you’d prefer to keep your privacy about any of them, that’s fine, just don’t step forward. You can also call out your own questions; just be sure to ask questions that are true for you. The theme of this common ground is “Living in Borrowed Times.”
Begin with several questions until others volunteer their own. A list of suggested questions is included below. Keep the energy up by injecting questions if others don’t have any. End with several questions on the “lighter side.”
Step into the circle if you…
• Have debt.
• I feel like I’m “up to my eyeballs” in debt.
• Have more than two credit cards.
• I have no credit cards.
• Owe more than I own.
• I have a car loan.
• I have gotten a “pay day loan” or advance on a paycheck.
• My bank has charged me overdraft fees.
• For homeowners: The bank owns my house (humor).
• Homeowner: I have a mortgage on my house.
• Homeowner: I might owe more than my house is worth.
• Homeowner: I’ve borrowed against the value of my house – a second mortgage.
• Some months I don’t pay off the balance of my credit card.
• I’ve renegotiated the fees on my credit cards.
• I know people who’ve gone to “Debtors Anonymous.”
• I know people in foreclosure or eviction.
• I buy stuff I don’t need.
• I shop when I’m sad or lonely.
• My family expects expensive gifts as a sign of love.
• My kids want expensive things.
• I don't have money put away for my future or my kids’ future.
Activity 2: Getting to Know Each Other (70)
This activity is designed to give participants an open space to talk about why they joined the Resilience Circle.
A. Pair Sharing
Ask participants to pair up with someone near them. Tell them that in this activity, we will be sharing why we joined this circle. When listening to others, our role is to be respectful and accepting, without giving advice or trying to solve people’s problems.
Ask people to address the following questions with their partner:
Why did you join this Resilience Circle? What is one specific thing you want others in the group to know about you?
B. Full Group Sharing
After about ten minutes, bring everyone’s attention back to the full group. Explain that we will be doing an extended “go-round,” the practice we used at the beginning of this and the first session. In this go-round, participants will have about five minutes each to share with the group their thoughts on the above questions. Anyone can pass if they like, and everyone should only share what they are comfortable with.
Facilitator Tips:
It will be important for people to achieve closure in their remarks before moving to the next person.
One way to hold a comfortable boundary on the time each person takes is to arrange for a watch to be passed around, travelling behind the person who is speaking. Let’s say you are the speaker: the person next to you holds a watch, and when five minutes have passed, quietly slips you the watch as a non-verbal cue that you should wrap up your sharing. You close your thoughts, and then start timing for the next person.
Another possibility is to pass a “talking stick,” which symbolizes who has the floor and makes people aware of the timing of their remarks.
If it seems someone isn’t sure how to wind down, you might ask, “Is there anything else you would like to share with us?” If it seems appropriate, you might thank individual people for sharing once they are done. In many cases, it takes courage to share our struggles.
If a participant becomes very emotional and is not able to continue with the group, ask if someone would be able to leave the group with him or her until they feel ready to rejoin. Remember that the range of emotions is okay, and that your role as facilitator is to stay relaxed and accepting.
Explain:
Please take about five minutes to tell us why you joined this Resilience Circle, and tell us one specific thing you want others in the group to know about you.
Remember that this is not a time for us to try and solve each others’ problems or offer advice. Try to listen and understand the range of experiences in our group.
Once the last participant has shared her or his story, thank the group.
Closing thoughts to read or summarize: At the beginning of each session, we will have a similar go-round to check in with each other. It will be much shorter, but as a group we can always decide to shift focus and address things that may come up. This is our way of getting to know each other, building trust, and creating a support network.
At the next session we will talk more about living in “Borrowed Times,” and see how our stories are part of large national trends. We will begin to talk about a new kind of economy that is better for everyone.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone on the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Watch “The Story of Stuff,” a 20 minute video available at http://storyofstuff.com.
Note: Try to make sure everyone has Internet access. If not, you might make arrangements to show the video 20 minutes before the start of the next meeting, which can be done on a laptop computer if no other method is available. You can download the video for free at the site listed above.
B. Consider doing a Potluck and Recipe Swap at the next meeting. If your group wants to go this route, bring a simple affordable dish to share along with copies of the recipe.
3. Suggested Closing Reading – “Connections” by Marge Piercy (ATTACHMENT 2-2)
ATTACHMENT 2-1
Session 2
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Getting to Know Each Other (70)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 3
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Watch “The Story of Stuff,” a 20 minute video available at http://storyofstuff.com.
B. Consider doing a Potluck and Recipe Swap at the next meeting. If your group wants to go this route, bring a simple affordable dish to share along with copies of the recipe.
ATTACHMENT 2-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “The Ancient Redwood Trees of Northern California” (Anonymous)
The ancient redwood trees of Northern California,
Huge as they are,
Have very shallow root systems.
Yet they cannot be blown over by the strongest wind.
The secret of their stability is
The interweaving of each tree’s roots with
Those that stand by it.
Thus, a vast network of support is formed
Just beneath the surface.
In the wildest storms,
These trees hold each other up.
Suggested Closing Reading: “Connections” by Marge Piercy
Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot always tell by looking at what is happening
More than half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden
Gnaw in the dark, and use the sun to make sugar.
Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: make life that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in, a thicket and bramble
wilderness to the outside but to us it is interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always.
For every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting, after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.
Session 3
Changing the Story: A New Vision
In Session 3 we return to the theme of “Living in Borrowed Times.” Debt and over-consumption are large economic trends, and a major part of the old economic story that has formed the background of the individual stories we shared in Session 2.
In this session, we consider that our security depends not on a “recovery” to the old ways, but on imagining something different.
Objectives
• Reflect on and share the way our lives are impacted by debt and over-consumption, and learn that these are national trends – not just individual problems.
• Be able to identify the old story messages about the economy in everyday life and begin to create a new story alternative.
• Begin to envision a new world with stronger communities and community-based security.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings. Note that there are several options for the closing reading. (ATTACHMENT 3-2)
• Copy of “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Living in Borrowed Times” (ATTACHMENT 3-3)
• Cut-up copy of “Skit Ideas: Old Story to New Story” (ATTACHMENT 3-4)
• Copy of “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Toward a Vision of New Security” by Linda Schmoldt (ATTACHMENT 3-5)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 4 (ATTACHMENT 3-1)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 3
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Living in Borrowed Times (30)
Activity 2: Transforming the Story (20)
Activity 3: An Example of a New Vision (30)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 3
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading - “How the Stock Market Works” by auto mechanic Gunther Gaitlin as told to Joe Baegent (ATTACHMENT 3-2)
2. Go-Round: If you are doing a potluck and recipe swap, tell us about your recipe. If not, ask people to share a savings tip for grocery shopping or other necessities.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Second Session
In our last session we had a chance to hear form each other about why we think this Resilience Circle is important.
Focus of Today’s Session
Today we will talk about some of the national trends behind our individual stories, such as debt and over-consumption. We will explore ways we can replace our national story about the economy with a new vision of a better life together.
Activity 1: Living in Borrowed Times (30)
Ask for a volunteer to begin the read-aloud in ATTACHMENT 3-3, “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Living In Borrowed Times,” and have each participant read a paragraph before passing it on to their neighbor.
When you have finished the reading, ask the group to call to mind the video they watched for homework, “The Story of Stuff.” Explain that the reading we just shared and the video point out large economic trends. We’ll discuss how these trends relate to our lives. (Before asking the questions below, you may want to ask someone to summarize the video.)
Ask:
In the reading we heard about “Living in Borrowed Times.” How is your life affected by debt, on a personal level?
How is your life part of “The Story of Stuff”?
Ask participants to raise their hands if they would like to take further steps to reduce debt in their lives. Take note of these folks and email them the link to “Action Ideas: Beyond Debt,” found on the Resilience Circle Network website. Take note of the interest in this topic for future projects (ATTACHMENT 6-4 lists activities related to budgeting and reducing debt).
Conclude with this question:
Given that the current economy is foundering because it’s based on debt-fueled consumption, what does that mean about the prospects for a “recovery”? Can we go back to the way things were before 2008?
Activity 2: Transforming the Story (20)
Read: As we noted in Session 1, our culture has told us many old stories that affect the way we think and act. These kinds of messages insist that we should try to go back to the way things were instead of creating something new.
Post the following list of old story messages that the group brainstormed in Session 1, or ask participants to quickly brainstorm a new list. Make sure to draw out the major themes below. Ask:
What messages have we absorbed about the economy, especially from the mainstream media?
Major themes include:
• You are on your own (YO-YO).
• “Recovery” might be slow, but it’s coming.
• This economic slump is just a bump in the road, and our economic system is basically okay.
• You need to figure this out alone. Economic struggles are a reason for personal shame.
• Don’t talk about your economic reality with anyone else – it is either shamefully bad, embarrassingly better or just terribly inappropriate and uncomfortable.
• Economic winners deserve to take the best place; losers don’t deserve anything.
• Infinite growth and expansion is the sign of a healthy economy. Limits, conservation and frugality are for losers and occasional bad times.
Read: Now, we are going to practice identifying and transforming old messages like these into something new.
Ask participants to break into small groups. Distribute one of the cut up slips of paper from ATTACHMENT 3-4 to each group. Each slip contains an old story message on it, such as “If you lose your job it’s your own fault.”
Ask participants to create two minute-long skits. One will exemplify the old message, and one will transform it into something new.
After watching the skits, other participants will have to guess what the old and new messages are.
Activity 3: An Example of a New Vision (30)
Ask participants to pass-around and read-aloud inspired by “Toward a Vision of Security” by Portland facilitator Linda Schmoldt (ATTACHMENT 3-5).
After finishing the reading, ask these discussion questions:
What do you think of this vision?
How would you modify it to fit your neighborhood?
What is keeping us from living in this world now?
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you have lived through tough economic times, such as the Great Depression, think about sharing some of your survival strategies with the group next time. Or, talk to a grandparent, another elder, or someone you know who has survived tough times.
B. Visit the web page http://shareable.net/how-to-share and browse the many ideas for “sharing” things, time, skills and more. Take note of any that interest you to share with the group next time.
3. Closing Reading Options - Prayers Related to Debt (ATTACHMENT 3-2)
ATTACHMENT 3-1
Session 3
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Living in Borrowed Times (30)
Activity 2: Transforming the Story (20)
Activity 3: An Example of a New Vision (30)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 4
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you have lived through tough economic times, such as the Great Depression, think about sharing some of your survival strategies with the group next time. Or, talk to a grandparent, another elder, or someone you know who has survived tough times.
B. Visit the web page http://shareable.net/how-to-share and browse the many ideas for “sharing” things, time, skills and more. Take note of any that interest you to share with the group next time.
ATTACHMENT 3-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “How the Stock Market Works” by auto mechanic Gunther Gaitlin as told to Joe Baegeant
I'll tell ya what the stock market game is all about. Used to be that a guy would pick a stock based on the facts. After a while, it got so that people looked around to see what other people's average opinion was, and they bet on that. Nowadays you look around and try to guess what the average opinion of the average opinion is. If you can guess enough other people's guesses about other people's guesses, then you bet on that and you make money. Don't #@!#@ matter if the stock is a dog.
The stock market now runs the whole damned economy based on what fools believe other fools believe other fools believe. Run by a bunch of economists who figure that if they make enough fools believe the stock market is OK, then the economy will be OK.
What if I ran my business that way? What if all I had to do was make people believe their cars were fixed? I'd go broke.
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/03/from-wall-street.html
Closing Reading Options: Prayers Related to Debt
HUMOR: SHOPPING ADDICT PRAYER
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot afford and not try to buy them anyway; [the] courage to change my mind about something I don’t really like and just take it back or leave it in the store to begin with; and [the] wisdom to know the difference between items that are worth the expense and items that should only ever be bought out of season, on super sale or at Target.
http://www.debthacker.com/the-debt-serenity-prayer/
A PRAYER SEEKING GUIDANCE
Lord God, your will is to bring hope and a future to all your people.
Trusting in your steadfast love,
we ask your guidance as we work out a household budget.
Help us to learn to let no debt remain outstanding,
except the debt to love one another,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR WISE FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP
Lord Jesus Christ,
by taking human flesh you sanctified material things
to be a means of your grace;
grant us wisdom in our attitude to money,
and a generous heart in the use of the resources entrusted to us,
that by faithful stewardship we may glorify you. Amen.
ATTACHMENT 3-3
Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Living in Borrowed Times
We are living in borrowed times. When people hear about consumer debt, they sometimes rush to judgment. They either blame irresponsible individuals for borrowing too much, or predatory lenders for pushing easy credit and unreachable dreams. The reality is that both things are true.
Individuals are responsible for their borrowing and consumption choices. At the same time, there have been structural changes in the economy that have pushed people into debt as a survival strategy. Our entire culture has shifted in relation to debt and consumption.
For the last thirty years, real wages (after inflation) have remained flat or actually fallen for the majority of people in the U.S. So how have we survived? For many households, part of the answer has been by working longer hours and having more family members join the paid workforce (including children).
The other way people have survived is by borrowing. We’ve borrowed on credit cards. We’ve borrowed from Payday Loans and Pawn Shops. Homeowners have borrowed against the value of their homes.
Some of that borrowing has been to buy more stuff that maybe we didn’t need. Many of us have lived beyond our means, thanks to easy credit. But for many, borrowing has been an economic necessity because of medical costs, broken-down cars, long commutes to jobs, or caring for needy family members. The number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is unexpected medical costs.
Over the decade prior to the meltdown, the expanding finance industry pushed “loose money” like a drug. In 2007, credit card companies sent out 6 billion credit card solicitations. Shady finance companies acted like “debt pushers,” touting the availability of cheap credit and flexible arrangements. We were encouraged to buy more, bigger and newer.
Our cultural attitudes towards buying stuff and borrowing have shifted in the last generation. Our elders remember a time when it was unthinkable to borrow so much beyond our income. Prior to 1975, borrowing to buy a modest home and maybe a car was the norm. But it was unusual to borrow money to buy electronics, go on vacation, or play the stock market. The cultural norm was to “live within one’s means” and buy mostly durable items that would have lasting benefits.
Of course, this was not true for everyone. There are some of us who have not had access to easy credit or have chosen to be thrifty. But the national trends are powerful. Over the last generation, we stopped saving money. Our national savings rate – the percentage of our annual incomes we save after expenses -- went from 11 percent a year in 1983 to a negative 1 percent in 2007.
The good news is that after the 2008 economic meltdown, our national savings rate started to go back up again. Many people adjusted their spending to live within their means. But there is enormous pressure to return to our borrowing ways.
ATTACHMENT 3-4
Handout: Skit Ideas: Old Story to New Story
Cut these into separate strips of paper to distribute to small groups during the session.
Everyone has to have their own….(fill in the blank: car / ladder / snow-blower / computer)
If you lose your job it’s your fault.
Success is a reflection of wealth and status.
“Even Steven” -- You do something for me, I need to pay you back in kind.
The health of our economy depends on our spending and buying.
ATTACHMENT 3-5
Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Inspired by “Toward a Vision of Security” by Linda Schmoldt
You wake up in the morning and you’re not worried. There is no fear or anxiety clenching any part of your body.
Your house or apartment is appropriately warm or cool. You can turn on the heat or air conditioning because you know you can afford it - and that the earth can afford it since it is powered by a renewable source of energy. Plus your home’s super-insulation means you use a lot less energy.
You get your kids moving and get ready to go to your job, but you don’t feel rushed because you have a flexible schedule. Your extended family and neighbors produce a lot of your own necessities and care for one another, so you don’t need to work as many hours as you once did.
You pull lunches from the freezer that you made last week with your neighborhood meal-cooking group. Instead of everyone cooking in their own kitchen, one fun social gathering a week creates many of your main meals and kids’ snacks.
Your spouse is taking your youngest child who has a little cough to a drop-in clinic in your neighborhood. You’re not worried about bothering them with a little concern, because their focus is on preventative medicine and catching things early.
Okay, you have to break up a fight between your kids. They’re fighting over who gets to play with the toy truck, modeled after the one that collects all the recycling and waste. Some of the neighborhood kids want to be “resource managers” when they grow up.
You walk to take the kids to the neighborhood school that has great after-school programs, a gym and a small farm where kids all learn and pitch-in with food growing. The teachers share their love of learning with the students – and there is no great disparity in quality between your school and the school in the next community. Then you get on the convenient bus that will zip you to work.
After work, you head to the home of one of your Resilience Circle members for dinner. It’s a lovely evening and lots of kids are playing in the street that was blocked off a few years ago as a play space.
Your partner is talking to your teenage neighbor. She is graduating and is excited about her two-year “selective service assignment.” She got her top choice placement working in a research lab. She knows that when she finishes, she will be able to apply her selective service stipend toward her reasonable college tuition. Most teenagers have learned a practical trade and skills that mean they’ll contribute to society’s real needs.
You stop and talk to a group who are painting a neighbor’s house. Last year you were part of a team that kept the property from foreclosure. Now it will be a home for an expanding family.
When you arrive home, you see that one of your neighbors is replacing
your broken window. You give her some tomatoes from your garden. You’re thankful for the skills exchange in the neighborhood.
Linda Schmoldt is a Resilience Circle facilitator in Portland, OR.
Session 4
Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security
In Sessions 2 and 3, we talked about writing a new economic story. In the next two sessions we will consider the vital role our communities will play in building something new. Today we’ll consider new concepts of community wealth and security, and introduce the idea of mutual aid.
One important thing for facilitators to notice during the session is what knowledge of mutual aid already exists in the group. For instance, Mormon, African American and recent immigrant communities often already have strong mutual aid traditions, and elders may remember surviving tough times like the Great Depression. If there are elders or others with special knowledge in your group, make sure to honor their wisdom.
Objectives
• Deepen our understanding of the roots of real security and wealth.
• Recognize our capacity to enhance our common security through community activities, especially mutual aid.
• Begin thinking about what the group might do once the initial seven sessions are finished.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 4-2)
• Prepared security tree drawing on poster paper or flipchart
• Pens for Activity 1
• Copy of “Good News about Your Net Worth” by Jay Walljasper (ATTACHMENT 4-4)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 5 (ATTACHMENT 4-1)
• Real Security Tree (ATTACHMENT 4-3)
• Things We Can Do Together: 6 Ideas (ATTACHMENT 4-5)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 4
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Real Security Tree (45)
Activity 2: Mutual Aid (35)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 4
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – “We Need One Another” by George Odell (ATTACHMENT 4-2)
2. Go-Round: If you have lived through tough times before, share some of the wisdom you have from this experience. Or, if you spoke with an elder after our last session, share what you heard from them about surviving in tough times.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Third Session
• Our lives are part of the larger trends in our society toward over-consumption and debt.
• We cannot return to the old model of economic growth for both social and environmental reasons.
• We need to create new stories that do not limit and isolate us, and we practiced doing that with the role plays.
Focus of Today’s Session
Today we’re going to talk about the nature of real security and see that it is based in the real wealth. We’ll also talk about how we can strengthen our communities and mutual aid efforts.
Activity 1: Our Security Trees (45)
A. Introducing The Real Security Tree
Introduce this activity with the following talking points:
• We’ve been told that our security is material – and rooted in accumulating material wealth.
• There is no question that there is a material basis to security: food, shelter, money to live on in old age.
• But there are lots of things that make us secure beyond material forms of security. This activity will examine the whole range of things that make us secure.
• We have a lot to learn from elders and others who have lived through tough times.
Display the poster-sized drawing of a Real Security Tree that you prepared:
• This is a Real Security Tree. Each of us is like a tree, with roots that give us our stability, and branches, leaves and fruit that are the way we offer back.
• Let’s start with the roots - those things from which we draw stability and security.
Ask:
What are the most important sources of your economic security and stability?
Get a few answers and write these answers up close to the base of the tree. (For example: job, income, immediate family, pension.)
• This is the core of our security, but there is much more. Our security and stability also comes from other sources.
Read each category below, offer one example yourself, and then ask for one or two more examples. Leave it at that. People will come up with more on their own when they develop their personal security trees. With each new category write the examples on the roots, getting further out from the base of the tree. Keep the activity moving along briskly.
• Relationships (e.g. extended family, friends, neighbors, teachers, co-workers, etc.). The roots near the surface are the people that help make us secure.
• Our membership in a specific community, organization or institution (e.g. faith community, union, local community organization).
• Participation in services, programs and institutions managed by our local, state and federal government (e.g. libraries, community colleges, schools, parks, fire department, social security, health centers, transit, etc.).
• Environment/ecosystem - The security roots take sustenance from healthy soil and clean water and air, and can only survive in a relatively stable and healthy climate.
Now let’s look at the branches, leaves, seeds and fruits of the tree. These are all the things we offer back - our skills, talents, and gifts that we contribute as a family member, friend, co-worker, volunteer, community member, citizen, artist, etc. This includes everything from parental love all the way to paying your taxes!
Ask for four to six examples, and write them in the appropriate place on the Real Security Tree.
B. Individual Tree Drawing
Invite participants to take ten minutes to draw and personalize their own Real Security Tree.
The Roots: Ask them to think about their own security, considering all the categories.
Write or draw who and what gives you your security and stability.
Notice where you have lots to put down and notice where you find gaps.
The Top of the Tree:
Now add the branches, leaves and fruits - your gifts and contributions.
Again notice all the ways, large and small, that you contribute to the security of the community.
C. Paired Sharing
Invite participants to share their personal Real Security Tree with a partner.
• Where are your roots strong?
• Where do you wish your roots of security were stronger; what could you do to increase your security?
• What contributions do you make and which are you proudest of?
After five minutes, remind partners to switch in order to review the second person’s Real Security Tree.
D. Large Group Discussion
Ask:
What additional sources of security did you identify in your personal trees?
What about gifts and contributions – what additions did you come up with?
Keep it moving while trying to examples from as many people as possible. Be sure to include some of the big-picture but less visible social roots and branches, such as health care, public education, social security, and democratic systems. Remind participants to think of both the formal and informal, and the tangible and intangible aspects of your community.
Talking point: Many of the sources of our security are things we hold in common, like public education, clean air, and our democratic systems. These things are part of “The Commons.”
Ask: What else on our tree is part of the commons?
Solicit quick answers from the group, then ask for a volunteer to read the short reading in ATTACHMENT 4-4, “Good News About Your Net Worth,” by Jay Walljasper. Or, ask participants to each read a paragraph and then pass it to their neighbor.
Invite a few quick comments before moving on to the next section. Note that further study of The Commons might be an activity we pursue when done with the curriculum.
Activity 2: Mutual Aid (35)
A. Introduction
Read or summarize: Think back to our branches and leaves, or the gifts we can share. In this activity, we will think about some very concrete things we might do together to increase our security by sharing our gifts. This is called “mutual aid.”
B. Small Group Discussions
Divide participants into small groups of three to four people and distribute the handout, ATTACHMENT 4-5, “Things We Can Do Together: 6 Ideas.”
Invite the groups to look over this short list of ideas and to recall the ideas they read for homework on Shareable.net. Explain that this list and the homework can inspire them to think of their own ideas. Have each group discuss these questions:
Looking at the list, do any of these ideas interest you?
Did any ideas from Sharable.net interest you?
What other ideas do you have?
Ask someone in each small group to take notes. Explain that after talking in small groups for 10 minutes, we will reassemble to hear from each group.
C. Closing Large Group Discussion
Bring the small group discussions to a close and reassemble everyone into a single large group. Tell the participants that we would like to hear each group’s suggestions, ideas and reflections.
Assign a scribe to capture all the ideas, making careful notes and indicating where there is particular energy and interest.
One way to allow equitable sharing time is to ask each group to share no more than three ideas or comments. After hearing three ideas from each group, if there is enough time, you can go around to hear from each group again.
Thank the group for sharing their ideas. Explain that we will keep track of them, and some of the ideas are things that the circle might want to investigate and do together. Let participants know that at the seventh meeting we will discuss projects to undertake and these ideas will be among the possibilities.
Conclude this conversation with the following question:
How has this exercise changed your notion of wealth? What do you think might be implied by the term real wealth?
Talking points to read or summarize (you could also ask a volunteer to read these):
• Real wealth has intrinsic, as contrasted to exchange, value.
• Life, not money, is the measure of real-wealth value. Some of the most important forms of real wealth are beyond price and are unavailable for market purchase (e.g., beautiful environment, caring communities). Other forms of real wealth may or may not have a market price such as: food, fertile land, pure water, clean air, education, health care, etc.
• Real wealth is contrasted with phantom wealth, which relates to money created by accounting entries or the inflation of asset bubbles unrelated to the creation of anything of real value or utility.
• It is also contrasted to symbolic wealth, which is based on symbols (such as brands) that signify wealth or power rather than things of real utility or value.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. For the next session, bring in a list of Gifts (skills, time, tools, equipment, etc.) that you could make available to other group members, and Needs they would like to receive help with. At the end of Session 4, decide with your circle if you will bring in lists, or write up gifts and needs on separate notecards. During Session 5, we will share these offerings and needs with one another.
B. Optional Reading: “Crash Course in Resilience” by Sarah Van Gelder, YES! Magazine, Fall 2010. Available at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/crash-course-in-resilience.
3. Suggested Closing Reading – “The Larger Circle” by Wendell Berry (ATTACHMENT 4-2)
ATTACHMENT 4-1
Session 4
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Real Security Tree (45)
Activity 2: Mutual Aid (35)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 5
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. For the next session, bring in a list of Offerings (skills, time, equipment, etc.) that you could make available to other group members, and Needs they would like to receive help with. At the end of Session 4, decide with your circle if you will bring in lists, or write up gifts and needs on separate notecards. During Session 5, we will share these offerings and needs with one another.
B. Optional Reading: “Crash Course in Resilience” by Sarah Van Gelder, YES! Magazine, Fall 2010. Available at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/crash-course-in-resilience.
ATTACHMENT 4-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “We Need One Another” by George Odell
We need one another when we mourn and would be comforted… when we are in trouble and afraid… when we despair, in temptation, and need to be recalled to our best selves again.
We need one another when we would accomplish some great purpose, and cannot do it alone… in the hour of our successes, when we look for someone to share our triumphs [and] in the hour of our defeat when with encouragement we might endure and stand again.
We need one another when we come to die, and would have gentle hands prepare us for the journey. All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us.
Suggested Closing Reading: “The Larger Circle” by Wendell Berry
We clasp the hands of those that go before us,
And the hands of those who come after us.
We enter the little circle of each other’s arms
And the larger circle of lovers,
Whose hands are joined in a dance
And the larger circle of all creatures
Passing in and out of life
Who move also in a dance
To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it
Except in fragments.
ATTACHMENT 4-3
Handout: The Real Security Tree
ATTACHMENT 4-4
Read Aloud: “Good News About Your Net Worth” by Jay Walljasper
What you possess individually accounts for only part of your true net worth. Each of us also owns a stake in some extremely valuable assets: clean air, fresh water, national forests, the Internet, public universities, libraries, blood banks, rich cultural traditions and more.
All these things are part of what is now being called "the commons," and they are more important than ever.
The things we all share enhance our lives in countless ways - the roads we travel, parks where we gather, publicly funded medical and scientific breakthroughs we take advantage of, the accumulated human knowledge we use for free many times each day. In fact, without these commonly held resources, our modern society and market economy would never have gotten off the ground.
The commons is becoming a model for thinking differently about how we make decisions, manage resources and think about responsibilities. Some people now envision a commons-based society where shared wealth compounds our individual assets in "the pursuit of happiness."
ATTACHMENT 4-5
Handout: Things We Can Do Together: 6 Ideas
1. “Re-skilling” Community Workshops
People in your circle probably have skills you’d like to learn – sewing, canning, first aid. Hold a series of workshops to learn these skills from one another. Consider inviting the wider community.
2. Weatherization Round Robins
Five or six circle members help button-up each others’ homes for winter. Each “host” buys materials to caulk windows, seal doors, and put up plastic around leaky windows. With a team working a couple of hours on a weekend, each household saves potentially hundreds of dollars on heating costs.
3. Dinner Circles and Cooking Exchanges
A once-a-week frozen entrée or soup exchange is very easy to organize among committed neighbors or friends. A record-keeping system equalizes the financial costs and benefits.
4. Start a Bulk Buying Group
It’s cheaper to buy in bulk, but where do you store all that extra toilet paper? Before your next run to the bulk store, take orders from friends or neighbors, collect the money, and buy everyone’s supplies at the same time.
5. Basement Cleans
Like the round-robin weatherization, get together with others to support the process of cleaning out your basement and/or attic, then help them do the same. Freecycle what’s left after your co-cleaners sort through what you’re ready to say good-bye to.
6. “Get Out of Debt” Pact
Meet with others to strategize about reducing or eliminating debt. How can you rely less on credit cards and other borrowing? Make a pact to take debt-reduction steps together. Consider calling your credit card companies together to request a reduction in your rates or fees. Mention the possibility that you’ll cut up your card and they may be quicker to lower your rate!
Session 5
Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid
In this session, we will explore the proposition that ecological changes will deeply alter our economic lives – and that there is no going back to the economy of the past. Participants will be invited to assess their own reaction to the threats of “peak oil” and climate change, and consider how their communities will fare in the face of these changes.
The session also includes the exchanging of gifts and needs - a tangible experience which shows how much we can help each other. This exchange can help participants see that community wealth and mutual aid are reliable sources of security even as we face deep ecological and economic shifts.
Objectives
• Deepen our understanding of ecological crises, especially “peak oil” and climate change, and how they affect the future.
• Acknowledge that this information can be overwhelming and provide a framework for our reactions.
• Recognize mutual aid and community wealth as fundamental to our security.
• Think more about how the group might continue to engage in mutual aid after the seven sessions.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 5-2)
• One copy of each of the thirteen “Ecology and Our Security” handouts. Note that due to length, these are found in the APPENDIX at the end of this Guide.
• Optional – Pre-made chart showing the “Four Mindsets” (see ATTACHMENT 5-3 as a model)
• Optional – Two baskets for the exchanging of gifts and needs, if your club wrote them on note cards
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 6 (ATTACHMENT 5-1)
• Four Mindsets You Might Recognize (ATTACHMENT 5-3)
• Homework Readings (ATTACHMENT 5-4)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 5
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Ecology and Our Security (40)
A. Learning from Each Other
B. Checkpoint: The Quadrant Exercise
Activity 2: Offerings of Gifts and Needs (40)
A. Offering
B. Continuing Mutual Aid: Reflection and Discussion
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 5
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – Quote by Wayne B. Arnason (ATTACHMENT 5-2)
2. Go-Round – Invite participants to simply give a one to two minute update on their lives since the last meeting.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Fourth Session
In the last session, we talked about the nature of real security, “real wealth” and the importance of mutual aid.
Focus of Today’s Session
When we watched “The Story of Stuff” before Session 3, we got a picture of how the planet cannot sustain our economic activity. Today we will talk more about ecological threats to our security. We will introduce the idea of “peak oil” and consider the threats of climate change. These are further reasons why we need a new kind of economy. Mutual aid is a great way to start building that economy, and we’ll start doing just that when we exchange our gifts and needs.
Activity 1: Ecology and Our Security (40)
Note: The materials and concepts in this activity are adapted from the Transition movement. The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins and the Transition US website (http://transitionUS.org) are excellent resources for learning about ecological threats to our security and for finding ideas to develop community resilience.
In this activity, participants will have the chance to discuss and absorb information about our planet that greatly impacts our security.
A. Learning from Each Other
Give each participant one of the “Ecology and Our Security” handouts from the APPENDIX at the end of this Guide. There are thirteen different handouts, each of which has a front and back side. (Be sure you print the handouts back-to-back.) On the front is one or more photos, and on the back is information about them. Each participant will have a different handout with different information.
In this activity, participants will be asked to walk around the room and talk to each about the information on their handouts. This way they learn the information on all the handouts.
Read: Each of you has a different handout with information related to the planet and our security. Take a moment to look at the photos on the front and the information on the back. We’re going to walk around the room and tell each other what’s on our handouts. Make sure you talk to everyone else about your handout, and find out what is on theirs.
For now, I am going to model how this happens with [the co-facilitator or a member of the group].
At this point, you and another person explain the first two handouts to each other (“What Is Oil” and “Why Is Oil So Important”). This will model the activity to everyone, and also convey some of the most basic information.
Read: Take a moment to read over your handout. In a moment, we’ll begin walking around and sharing with each other.
When everyone seems ready, indicate that folks can start walking around and exchanging information.
Note: In total, there are thirteen different handouts. Based on the size of your group, you might need to give some participants the same handout, or skip some of the latter handouts. If you have fewer than thirteen participants, you and your co-facilitator might walk around with two other handouts after explaining “What Is Oil” and “Why Is Oil So Important.”
B. Checkpoint: The Quadrant Exercise
Bring the full group back together.
Read: We have just encountered a lot of potentially overwhelming information, and we will have a chance to discuss it as a group in just a moment. Now, consider that there are at least four mind-sets that we are inclined to adopt as we hear information about the future, especially about climate change and the end of cheap, plentiful oil.
Note: Consider posting the handout as an Optional Chart.
Distribute Four Mindsets handout (ATTACHMENT 5-3).
• Denial, or “Business As Usual” – We’ll just keep going as we always have.
• Magic Thinking – We’ll find a new technology that will replace cheap oil and address the climate crisis. Therefore, we can continue “business as usual.”
• Collapse - Things are so bad that there is little we can do. We need to find individual ways to protect ourselves.
• Transition – We need to plan, learn new skills, and deploy new technologies to build resilience, while realizing we can’t go back to business as usual. We need to prepare ourselves and our communities for fundamental changes.
Read: From time to time, we can probably identify all four of these mindsets within ourselves. Let’s take a minute to look at how this model might apply for us. Today, right now, how much of you do you feel is located in each mindset? On the back of your sheet, write down what percentage of your mindset is in each quadrant.
Note: You might prepare a sample to make it clear to people what you are asking them to do --
After everyone has filled out their quadrants, discuss the handouts and the quadrant exercise with the full group.
Ask:
The purpose of our Resilience Circle is to face reality and help one another adapt to new realities. After exchanging the information in the handouts, what quadrant is dominant for you?
What factors strengthen or weaken your dominant mindset?
Read or summarize: One of the best ways we can transition to a new world is by creating stronger communities. In our next exercise, we’ll start exploring how we can strengthen our own community through the practice of mutual aid.
Activity 2: Offerings of Gifts and Needs (40)
A. Offering
The circle’s homework for this session included making lists or cards of “gifts you have to offer” and “things you need.” Explain that we will go around and have people briefly offer up their Gifts and Needs in turn.
Open this section by noting that one of the things that can get distorted in times of scarcity and hardship is our sense of ourselves as having something to give as well as needing to receive. Sometimes we forget we have anything to offer when we have many needs. Sometimes we fear needing something from others because this makes us feel vulnerable.
This activity is about restoring balance between offering and receiving. Reciprocity is a critical ingredient in common security; it is harder than just giving or just receiving, but it is ultimately more rewarding and builds deeper connections that create needed security. Today we practice valuing ourselves and each other through reciprocity.
Have participants go around one by one and explain briefly what they’re offering and what they need. If participants brought their gifts and needs on separate cards, invite them to place their cards in appropriately-labeled baskets; if participants brought lists, record these on blank flip chart or poster paper as participants share. Divide the paper into two columns, one for Gifts, and the other for Needs.
Comment on the variety and richness of the offerings. Make connections where you see a match between gifts and needs. Encourage people to start exchanging!
B. Continuing Mutual Aid: Reflection and Discussion
Consider ways the group might systematically match gifts and needs to continue mutual aid within the circle, and note that we will return to this conversation in Session 7. For example,
• Use a spreadsheet to create a small “time bank”
• Join a larger time bank in your community
• Identify a few particular items the group can share (a lawnmower or sewing machine); consider storing these in a church or other common place
• Use email or a “Google Group” to make requests and offerings
• Integrate new gifts and offerings into future go-rounds
• Use ideas from the “6 Ideas” list we read in the previous session, or from Shareable.net to share and exchange gifts
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
Readings: 1. Selection from Agenda for a New Economy by David Korten; 2. Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor (ATTACHMENT 5-4)
3. Suggested Closing Reading – Selection from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (ATTACHMENT 5-2)
ATTACHMENT 5-1
Session 5
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Ecology and Our Security (40)
A. Learning from Each Other
B. Checkpoint: The Quadrant Exercise
Activity 2: Offerings of Gifts and Needs (40)
A. Offering
B. Continuing Mutual Aid: Reflection and Discussion
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 6
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
Readings: 1. Selection from Agenda for a New Economy by David Korten; 2. Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor (ATTACHMENT 5-4)
ATTACHMENT 5-2
Suggested Opening Reading by Wayne B. Arnason
Take courage friends.
The way is often hard, the path is never clear,
and the stakes are very high.
Take courage.
For deep down, there is another truth:
you are not alone.
Suggested Closing Reading: Selection from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
…I share with every adult I know this crazy quilt of optimism and worries, feeling locked into certain habits but keen to change them in the right direction. And the tendency to feel like a jerk for falling short of absolute conversion. I’m not sure why. If a friend had a coronary scare and finally started exercising three days a week, who would hound him about the other four days?
It’s the worst of bad manners – and self-protection, I think, in a nervously cynical society – to ridicule the small gesture. These earnest efforts might just get us past the train-wreck of the daily news, or the anguish of standing behind a child, looking with her at the road ahead, searching out redemption where we can find it: recycling or carpooling or growing a garden or saving a species or something. Small, stepwise changes in personal habits aren’t trivial. Ultimately they will, or won’t, add up to having been the thing that mattered.
ATTACHMENT 5-3 (SIDE 1)
Handout: Four Mindsets You Might Recognize
The Quadrants
How we react to economic and ecological change -- here are four mindsets that might appear in us from time to time.
Business As Usual
BUSINESS AS USUAL or DENIAL:
“The future will be like the past, just a bit different.” “Business as usual.” “They always say the world is going to end, and so far nothing has happened.”
Collapse
COLLAPSE:
“We’re doomed. It’s already too late to save humanity/the planet/the economy.” “We’re heading towards a terrible collapse.”
Magic Thinking
MAGIC THINKING or
MAGIC TECHNOLOGY BULLET:
“Even if we run out of oil and coal, technology will create a new source of energy to replace it.” “I’m sure science will find a way to stop climate change.”
Transition
PLANNING FOR TRANSITION: “Proactively working toward a future of thriving, local economies that don’t rely on constant growth is possible. We’ve lived this way before, and we can do it again.”
ATTACHMENT 5-3 (SIDE 2)
How Does Your Mind Line Up Today?
Business As Usual/
Denial
Collapse
Magic Thinking
Transition
ATTACHMENT 5-4
Homework Reading: “No More Band-Aid Solutions to the Financial Crisis: We Need to Build an Economy that Works” by David Korten
Excerpt from Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, 2nd Edition, 2010
Treat the System, Not the Symptom
As a student in business school, I learned a basic rule of effective problem solving that has shaped much of my professional life. Our professors constantly admonished us to "look at the big picture." Treat the visible problem -- a defective product or an underperforming employee -- as the symptom of a deeper system failure. "Look upstream to find the root cause. Find the systemic cause and fix the system so the problem will not recur." That is one of the most important things I learned in more than twenty-six years of formal education.
Many years after I left academia, an observation by a wise Canadian friend and colleague, Tim Brodhead, reminded me of this lesson when he explained why most efforts fail to end poverty. "They stop at treating the symptoms of poverty, such as hunger and poor health, with food programs and clinics, without ever asking the obvious question: Why do a few people enjoy effortless abundance while billions of others who work far harder experience extreme deprivation?" He summed it up with this simple statement: "If you act to correct a problem without a theory about its cause, you inevitably treat only the symptoms." It is the same lesson my business professors were drumming into my brain many years earlier.
I was trained to apply this lesson within the confines of the business enterprise. Tim's observation made me realize that I had been applying it in my work as a development professional in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For years I had been asking the question: What is the underlying cause of persistent poverty? Eventually, I came to realize that poverty is not the only significant unsolved human problem, and I enlarged the question to ask: Why is our economic system consigning billions of people to degrading poverty, destroying Earth's ecosystem, and tearing up the social fabric of civilized community? What must change if we are to have a world that works for all people and the whole of life?
Pleading with people to do the right thing is not going to get us where we need to go so long as we have a culture that celebrates the destructive behaviors we must now put behind us and as long as our institutions reward those behaviors. It is so much more sensible to direct our attention to making the right thing easy and pleasurable by working together to create a culture that celebrates positive values and to foster institutions that reward positive behavior.
Worse Than No Theory
What my wise colleague did not mention is that placing too much faith in a "bad" theory or story, one that offers incorrect explanations, may be even worse than acting with no theory at all. A bad theory can lead us to false solutions that amplify the actions that caused the problem in the first place. Indeed, a bad theory or story can lead whole societies to persist in self-destructive behavior to the point of self-extinction.
The cultural historian Jared Diamond tells of the Viking colony on the coast of Greenland that perished of hunger next to waters abundant with fish; it had a cultural theory, or story, that eating fish was not "civilized." On a much larger scale, the human future is now in question and the cause can be traced, in part, to economic theories that serve the narrow interests of a few and result in devastating consequences for all.
As we are perplexed by the behavior of the Vikings who perished because of their unwillingness to give up an obviously foolish theory, so future generations may be perplexed by our foolish embrace of some absurd theories of our own, including the theory that financial speculation and the inflation of financial bubbles create real wealth and make us richer. No need to be concerned that we are trashing Earth's life support system and destroying the social bonds of family and community, because eventually, or so the theory goes, we will have enough money to heal the environment and end poverty.
This theory led to economic policies that for decades served to create a mirage of phantom wealth that vanished before our eyes as the subprime mortgage crisis unfolded. Even with this dramatic demonstration that we were chasing a phantom, most observers have yet to acknowledge that the financial speculation was not creating wealth at all. Rather, it was merely increasing the claims of financial speculators on the shrinking pool of everyone else's real wealth.
A New Story for a New Economy
A theory, of course, is nothing more than a fancy name for a story that presumes to explain how things work. It is now commonly acknowledged that we humans are on a course to self-destruction. Climate chaos, the end of cheap oil, collapsing fisheries, dead rivers, falling water tables, terrorism, genocidal wars, financial collapse, species extinction, thirty thousand child deaths daily from poverty--and in the richest country in the world, millions squeezed out of the middle class--are all evidence of the monumental failure of our existing cultural stories and the institutions to which they give rise. We have good reason to fear for our future.
At first, each of the many disasters that confront us appears distinct. In fact, they all have a common origin that our feeble "solutions" fail to address for lack of an adequate theory. We do, in fact, have the means to create an economic system that takes life as its defining value and fulfills six criteria of true economic health. Such an economy would:
1. provide every person with the opportunity for a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life;
2. restore and maintain the vitality of the Earth’s natural systems;
3. nurture the relationships of strong, caring communities;
4. encourage economic cooperation in service to the public interest and democratically determined priorities;
5. allocate resources equitably to socially and environmentally beneficial uses; and
6. root economic power in people- and place-based communities to support the democratic ideal of one-person, one-vote citizen sovereignty.
The People-Centered Development Forum, 2010.
ATTACHMENT 5-4 (Continued)
Homework Reading: Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor
“Plenitude is about transition. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Creating a sustainable economy will take decades, and this is a strategy for prospering during that shift. The beauty of the approach is that it is available right now.”
- Juliet Schor
I. THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGES WE FACE
Juliet Schor argues in her book Plenitude that a continuation of the “business as usual” (BAU) economy—the current economic rules, practices, growth trajectory, and ecological consequences of production and consumption—is no longer a viable option during this time of economic and ecological challenge.
THE ECONOMY WILL BE LESS LUCRATIVE OVER THE NEXT DECADE: Schor predicts that the “Business As Usual” (BAU) economy will yield less income, jobs, cheap goods, return on assets and life satisfaction and be more unstable for ordinary individuals over the next decade. Why? Added to conventional economic reasons (the nation’s declining position in the world economy, long swings in economic activity, inability to create adequate numbers of jobs), we can expect mounting ecological degradation (climate change in particular) which creates scarcities and raises the costs of production.
UNEMPLOYMENT WILL NOT BE GOING AWAY: The US economy has lost 8 million jobs, and we will need about 500,000 new jobs every month for 2 years to get back to pre-recession levels. That’s simply an unrealistic number. The old way to generate jobs—growth in overall GNP—is less effective now because jobs are moving overseas and information technology is replacing labor. We need new approaches to employment, in particular small-scale, community-based jobs and livelihoods.
BUSINESS-AS-USUAL GROWTH IS DESTROYING THE PLANET: The climate and ecological crises mean we can’t just grow our way out of problems in the usual way. Higher GNP yields higher carbon emissions. We need to rapidly reduce carbon pollution by shifting to lower impact activities and pinpoint economic practices that will reverse the dangerous damage we’ve already done to the atmosphere and the planet.
II. THE PLENITUDE SOLUTION
Through a major shift to new sources of wealth, green technologies, and different ways of living, individuals and the country as a whole can be better off and more economically secure. Schor draws on recent developments in economic theory, social analysis, and ecological design to map out a path to a healthier environment and a higher quality of life.
SHIFT OUT OF THE WORK-AND-SPEND-CYCLE: Schor, who pioneered the concept of the work-and-spend-cycle, finds that households are less attracted to the high-spending lifestyles of the past, and that jobs have become more demanding, less secure, and less lucrative. She argues that the savvy response to this new situation is for households to begin a shift out of the BAU market and into undervalued sources of wealth: time, creativity (especially ecological knowledge) and social relationships.
DIVERSIFY: A key economic principle is to not rely on a single source of income, such as the labor market. Households should diversify their sources of income and ways of meeting their consumption needs, by reducing time spent in the BAU economy. New ways to provide livelihood include self-reliance (making and doing for yourself), small businesses, sharing assets, and trading services within communities. These trends are already emerging around the country.
SMALL SCALE: Innovation, dynamism, and employment are being generated by the small-scale sector. The vibrancy in our economy is now in small businesses and self-employment. Information technologies and on-line networking have eroded many of the advantages of big firms. Schor calls for a small-scale, de-centralized, ecologically-oriented sector of entrepreneurial individuals and households.
III. IDENTIFYING ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF WEALTH: PLENITUDE’S FOUR PILLARS
Humans are degrading the planet far faster than they are regenerating it. Food, energy, transport, and consumer goods are becoming increasingly scarce and over the long term will be more expensive. The economic downturn that has accompanied the ecological decline has led to another type of scarcity: incomes, jobs, and credit. We can start addressing both economic and ecological deficits by tapping into neglected assets.
TIME: For decades Americans have been devoting more and more time to the labor market. Plenitude practitioners reverse that trend, using their newfound time affluence to invest in other sources of wealth. They make, rather than buy; share, rather than spend; and build social relationships. These individual solutions also create balance in the labor market: hours of work in jobs fall, which allows companies to hire more employees. Right now, productivity is growing too rapidly and hours per job are too high to absorb all the people who need work.
HIGH-TECH SELF-PROVISIONING: We can reduce reliance on the market by meeting basic needs (income, food, housing, consumer goods, energy) through a series of creative, smart, high productivity technologies: growing food (using permaculture and vertical gardens); creating energy on a small scale (convert a Prius to a plug-in and double the gas mileage); building homes with free labor and local, natural materials, and new Fab-Lab technologies (small, smart machines that make almost anything). Schor looks at examples of people already practicing self-provisioning and converting their skills into money-making ventures.
CONSUMING DIFFERENTLY: Plenitude is a strategy for living that affords people more time, more creativity, and more social connection, while lowering their ecological footprint and avoiding consumer debt. It yields a high-satisfaction style of life, though not necessarily a high-spending lifestyle. So how does it meet our desires to shop, buy, and enjoy the fruits of a consumer society? Through a combination of accessing “new-to-you” products, sharing expensive items such as cars and appliances, and making careful purchases of long-lasting goods.
CONNECTION: As more and more labor time went into the market, time for community disappeared. Social ties frayed and neighborhoods hollowed out. But social relationships are a potent form of economic wealth, which people can turn to during financial instability or adverse climate events. People who have strong social connections, or what’s called social capital, fare much better when times get rough. Plenitude involves re-building local economic interdependence by trading services, sharing assets, and relying on each other in good as well as hard times.
Adapted for the Resilience Circle Network from: http://www.julietschor.org/the-book/synopsis/.
Also see a video of Juliet Schor’s talk, A New Understanding of True Wealth, Seattle Town Hall, May 24, 2010; http://vimeo.com/12034640/.
Session 6
Changing the Rules
In this session we will explore the proposition that large corporations exert too much influence over the “rules” that govern our society, and that they have caused “risks” to shift from the broader society onto the backs of individuals. With a vision of a new economy (Sessions 2 and 3) and strengthened community ties (Sessions 4 and 5), we are equipped to engage in social action to rewrite these rules. We’ll discuss what types of action this group is interested in.
Looking ahead, Session 7 will lead us to a discussion about whether and how we will continue to meet and work together.
Objectives
• Understand that a “risk shift” has moved economic security from government onto the backs of American families, and that this shift has been significantly influenced by large corporations.
• Identify possibilities for social action.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 6-2)
• Pre-made poster displaying “Risk Shifts” for Activity 1
• Signs reading “Completely Agree” and “Completely Disagree” for Activity 2
• Optional – Read over “Background Information for Facilitators” about the Risk Shift and Corporate Power for Activities 1 and 2 (ATTACHMENTS 6-3 and 6-4)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 7 (ATTACHMENT 6-1)
• Homework Reading: What’s Next (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 6
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Risk Shift (15)
Activity 2: The Power of Large Corporations (20)
A. Introduction
B. Small Group Discussion
C. Large Group Discussion
Activity 3: Social Action to Rewrite the Rules (45)
A. Where Do We Stand?
B. Our Experiences
C. Possibilities for Social Action
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 6
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – Selection from Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben (ATTACHMENT 6-2)
2. Go-Round: As you did last time, invite participants to simply give an update on their lives since the last meeting.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Fifth Session
In our fifth session we exchanged gifts and needs and discussed how we might continue the practice of mutual aid within our group. We also talked more about the ecological threats to our security, and how these require us to build a new kind of economy. Mutual Aid is one of the building blocks of this new economy.
Overview of Today’s Session
• Today, we’ll talk about a “risk shift” that has moved economic security from the government onto the backs of American families.
• This shift and the other problems we face as a society have been significantly influenced by large corporations.
• We will talk about how social action can change the “rules” that have been written by these powerful corporations.
Activity 1: The Risk Shift (15)
Display a pre-made easel sheet on Risk Shifts, listing the following:
RISK SHIFTS
• Income
• Job Security
• Health Care
• Retirement
• Higher Education
• Housing
Read or summarize: In the last forty years, many of the common security institutions that previous generations created have been dismantled. Large corporations used their power to weaken employee protections, cut taxes, shift costs and reduce employee benefits. These things have slowly chipped away at our economic security. Jacob Hacker calls this the Great Risk Shift, as risk has shifted more and more onto individuals.
As the facilitator, select one of the areas and give an example of how risks have been shifted and security has been lost. For talking points, see “Background Information for Facilitators: The Risk Shift” (ATTACHMENT 6-3).
Then, lead a discussion on risk shifts in some of the other areas on the easel sheet using the following questions:
What risk shifts do you see in other of these areas? Are there other areas that might be added to the list?
Do you see risk shifts in any of these areas in your own life?
What if you go back one or two generations? How do the risks you face differ from the risks in your parents’ generation?
Note: Keep this discussion moving along by drawing out short examples from a mix of participants. The experience of “risk shift” varies depending on age, race and culture. Younger workers – those under 35 – and some newer immigrants may feel that they have always been “on their own.” The idea of shared security will likely be more common to older workers who may have had an employer-sponsored pension fund or health insurance. The key here is to underscore the changes that have happened. For most people, things have not gotten more secure.
Activity 2: The Power of Large Corporations (20)
A. Introduction
Read: How would you respond to someone who said:
“Many corporations are so large and powerful today that they control
just about everything in life --- government, elected officials, the mainstream
media, food, energy, water, health care, pharmaceuticals, communications,
national security, education, and transportation. In fact, at the heart of every major problem we face in the world, there are large private corporations that have a vested interest in solving our problems by making a huge profit --- or making a huge profit by not solving our problems.”
Solicit a few responses from the group without spending too much time on this.
B. Small Group Discussion
Read or summarize: Now, we’re going to focus on a few of the industries with the most power and learn from each other about them.
Break participants into small groups and explain that they will each talk about how a specific industry relates to this statement. Randomly assign one of these industries to each group: health (health insurance and pharmaceuticals), energy, food, or Wall Street. (See ATTACHMENT 6-4 for talking points on these four industries.) Feel free to assign other industries if you prefer.
Ask each group to have a discussion about how their industry relates the statement that was read:
How does this industry profit by solving problems?
How does it profit by not solving our problems?
How does it profit by creating new problems?
C. Large Group Discussion
Bring people back together and have them report briefly on their small group discussions. Discuss how various industries have caused the risk shift, economic insecurity, and ecological crises, and protected an economic system that is fundamentally flawed. Use “Background Information for Facilitators: Corporate Power” (ATTACHMENT 6-4) if necessary.
Activity 3: Social Action to Rewrite the Rules (45)
A. Where Do We Stand?
Place signs (“Completely Agree” and “Completely Disagree”) on opposite ends of the room. Then say:
This is an activity that will open up our discussion about our experiences
and feelings about taking social action and government.
On this end of the room, I have put a sign that says “COMPLETELY AGREE,”
and on the other end of the room a sign that says “COMPLETELY DISAGREE.”
Imagine that there is a line between the two signs.
I am going to read a statement. If you “Completely Disagree,” go toward that
sign. If you strongly agree, go toward the other sign. If you are in between,
stand along the imaginary line to show where you stand in terms of your
views and feelings. Anyone can choose not to participate for any of the
statements.
Statements to Read Aloud:
• I am overwhelmed by all the possibilities for social action.
• Big money interests always block any meaningful change from happening.
• It doesn’t do any good to send emails or make phone calls to elected officials.
• Local self-help activities are more important than federal government action.
• Government has an important role in fixing the economy and helping with the transition to the future.
• We should not depend the state or federal government to get us out of this economic crisis.
• These times open up new possibilities for positive change.
• I would be interested in lobbying and pressing for change if I was part of a small group committed to acting together.
Feel free to add other statements that might draw out people’s feelings about social action, or ask participants to provide a statement.
B. Experiences with Social Action
Ask participants to break into pairs and to address these two questions.
Where and when in your life have you taken action to influence something outside of your immediate family? Don’t just think “politics”: have you tried to make changes at your child’s school? Helped organize an improvement to a public space?
What helps you believe that social change is possible?
Bring the whole group back together and ask people to share their reflections.
C. Possibilities for Social Action
During the conversation that follows, take notes on the easel or assign someone to take notes on paper. You will want to capture the ideas generated for social action to refer to in Session 7.
Explain that the homework readings from David Korten and Juliet Schor can help guide our social action together. Then ask:
What do you think of the readings we did for homework for this session? Do they give us a vision for social action?
What social issues are you working on? What issues are you passionate about? What would you work on, given no constraints?
Could a circle like this one have an impact on the issues that interest you?
Tell the group that in the next session we will have the opportunity to embark on projects together, and we will revisit the ideas we discussed today.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Take the online Resilience Quiz at YES! Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/resilientquiz. Be sure to remember your score!
Note: You may want to bring a few hard copies of the quiz for people without Internet access.
B. Reading: “What’s Next?” (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
3. Suggested Closing Reading - “To Be Of Use” by Marge Piercy (ATTACHMENT 6-2)
ATTACHMENT 6-1
Session 6
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Risk Shift (15)
Activity 2: The Power of Large Corporations (20)
Activity 3: Social Action to Rewrite the Rules (45)
A. Where Do We Stand?
B. Our Experiences
C. Possibilities for Social Action
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 7
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Take the online Resilience Quiz at YES! Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/resilientquiz. Be sure to remember your score!
B. Reading: “What’s Next?” (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
ATTACHMENT 6-2
Suggested Opening Reading: Selection from Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
From Racehorse to Workhorse
Here’s a better metaphor: the economy that has defined our Western world is like a racehorse, fleet and showy. It’s bred for speed, with narrow, tapered legs; tap it on the haunch, and it accelerates down the backstretch. But don’t put it on a track where the rain has turned things muddy; know that even a small bump in its path will break its stride and quite likely snap that thin and speedy leg. The thoroughbred, like our economy, has been optimized for one thing only: pure burning swiftness.
What we need to do, even while we’re in the saddle, is transform our racehorse into a workhorse—into something dependable, even-tempered, long-lasting, uncomplaining. Won’t go fast, will go long; won’t win the laurel, will carry the day. The high praise for a workhorse—for a Shire or a Belgian or a Percheron—is “she’s steady.” “She can pull.” We’re talking walk or trot or jog, not canter or gallop.
Suggested Closing Reading: “To Be Of Use” by Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
ATTACHMENT 6-3
Background Information for Facilitators: The Risk Shift
The political scientist Jacob S. Hacker writes that a Great Risk Shift has moved economic security “from the broad shoulders of government onto the fragile backs of American families.” In the thirty years after World War II (1947 to 1977), economic security increased for many (but not all) people. The social safety net was strengthened, even as our economy was dynamic and growing.
Income Insecurity
• With wages stagnant and falling, many households have had to involuntarily work more hours –and have more members of the family enter the paid labor force.
• More women entered the paid workforce, which is a good thing in terms of choice and options. But having multiple income earners masked how bad the economy really was.
• The meaning of a “steady job” has shifted. For many households, there have been enormous income swings from year to year, creating instability.
• Personal bankruptcy – once a rare occurrence – is now more routine.
Job Insecurity
• Most workers don’t know where they will be working in five years or three years – much less stability compared to a generation ago. Many more workers feel the sands shifting below their feet.
• Fewer workers have “long term employment” and more are working as “temp” or contract workers or other forms of part-time or contingent labor. Frequently, there are no benefits attached to these types of jobs.
• A higher percentage of workers are involuntarily underemployed, working part-time, when they need full-time jobs.
• Reported unemployment rates would be much higher if we counted discouraged workers (those who have given up looking for work) and involuntarily part-time workers.
Health Insecurity
• More and more Americans are “on their own” in terms of health insurance. The percentage of jobs with health insurance as a benefit has declined.
• Statistics: 48 million Americans lack health insurance, up from around 24 million in 1980. All of the decline in health coverage is due to a drop in the scope and generosity of employer-provided health coverage. In 1980, the majority of employers at medium-to-large companies paid 100 percent of the premium for family health coverage. Today, fewer than a quarter do.
• Over a two-year period, more than 80 million adults and kids – one out of three nonelderly Americans – spend some time without health insurance and the protection it provides against ruinous health care costs. More than 50 million are uninsured for more than six months.
• One out of six working-age adults carry medical debt, and unexpected medical costs are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
Retirement Insecurity
• More and more families are “on their own” to figure out their retirements, with the decline of employer-based pension plans and the expansion of individualized plans such as 401(k) plans and IRAs.
• Statistics: In 1980, more than 80 percent of large and medium-sized corporations offered traditional “defined-benefit” pensions that provide a predetermined monthly benefit for the remainder of a worker’s life. Today, less than a third do. Instead, companies that provide plans now offer “defined-contribution” plans, such as the 401(k), in which returns are neither predictable nor assured.
ATTACHMENT 6-4
Background Information for Facilitators: Corporate Power
General
• Eighty-five percent of Americans agree that corporations have too much power.
• The vast majority of Americans want good jobs, safe products, health care, responsible government, and clean air and water. By pressuring the government in various ways, powerful corporations have blocked these things.
• Public corporations are bound by law to maximize profits for their shareholders. They cannot choose to pay workers a living wage, produce safe products, or use sustainable practices if it affects their bottom line negatively.
• Ever since the “Citizens United” decision by the Supreme Court in January of 2010, corporations can spend as much money as they want to influence elections.
• Industries like agribusiness and oil receive huge subsidies to do business.
• Many corporations employ thousands of people in their tax departments and use special tricks and offshore loopholes to avoid paying taxes. GE, Verizon, and Bank of America are among those who didn’t pay any corporate taxes in 2009.
• Overall, general corporate tax breaks will cost U.S. taxpayers $448.5 billion over the next five years, on top of the $54.2 billion U.S. companies will be reaping in industry-specific tax breaks. The combined taxpayer outlay going to private corporations from these two revenue streams: over $100 billion a year.
Sources: “The Story of Citizens United,” http://storyofstuff.org; CEO Pay Bashing,” by Sam Pizzigati on Inequality.org, http://inequality.org/ceo-pay-bashing-tea-partystyle/.
Banking
• Many people are familiar with the $700 billion bailout that Congress approved to rescue Wall Street in the fall of 2008. But the Federal Reserve and other agencies also used taxpayer money to keep Wall Street from failing. The estimated total amount of taxpayer money spent to save Wall Street is $4.74 trillion.
• In the wake of the meltdown of 2008, Americans have lost trillions in wealth, retirement savings, and home equity, and more than 13 million people are out of work.
• Executive pay and profits at big Wall Street banks are back at record levels. At the largest 25 banks, total 2010 compensation and benefits hit a record of $135 billion.
• As financial reform was being debated in Congress in 2010, Wall Street spent $4 million every day to weaken it.
Sources: Center for Media and Democracy, http://www.prwatch.org/news/2010/07/9281/ taxpayers-owed-big-bucks-under-bailout-little-help-homeowners-facing-foreclosure; “2011 Executive Compensation on Wall Street: Taking Stock,” Americans for Financial Reform, http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2011/02/2011-executive-compensation-taking-stock/.
Food
• Today’s farming practices depend upon enormous amounts of pesticides, chemicals, and fossil-fuel based fertilizer. The average American calorie is shipped 1500 miles from farm to plate.
• The U.S. pays about $20 billion per year in farm subsidies to agribusinesses. Nearly three quarters of subsidy money goes to only 10% of the recipients.
• Over 90% of farm subsidies go to staple crops of corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice, while growers of most other crops get no subsidies at all. Subsidized crops like corn and soy are the basis of most processed foods, and also feed the animals we eat, such as chicken and cattle.
Sources: “Agricultural subsidy,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy.
Health
• The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $8,160 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison based on measures like life expectancy and infant mortality. It also leaves 50.7 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.
• Thirty-one percent of Americans’ health dollars are not spent on health care. In our patchwork system of mostly for-profit insurers, this money is instead diverted to things like hospital bureaucracy, billing, and marketing departments - as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay.
• The pharmaceutical industry spends twice as much on advertising as it does on research.
• It also spent $900 million on lobbying between 1998 and 2005, more than any other industry. During the same period, it donated $89.9 million to federal candidates and political parties. The industry has 1,274 registered lobbyists in Washington D.C.
• Sixty-one percent of Medicare spending on prescription drugs is direct profit for pharmaceutical companies.
Sources: Physicians for a National Health Program, http://www.pnhp.org; “Pharmaceutical lobby,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_lobby.
Energy
• The fossil fuel lobby has blocked development of clean energy alternatives like wind or solar.
• Meanwhile, $5.8 billion in tax breaks are set to go to oil and gas corporations over the next five years. Estimates of the value of U.S. federal subsidies to the domestic oil industry alone (not coal) range from roughly $6 billion to $39 billion annually.
• A 2010 poll by Stanford University found public support for government action to increase clean energy and energy efficiency. The poll found that 84% are in favor of giving companies tax breaks to produce more electricity from water, wind and solar power; 81% want more fuel efficient cars that use less gasoline; 80% want more appliances that use less electricity; and 80% want more home and office buildings that require less energy to heat and cool.
Source: “The Price of Oil,” http://priceofoil.org/thepriceofoil/clean-energy.
ATTACHMENT 6-5
Homework Reading: What’s Next?
Ways to continue our learning, mutual aid, and social action
I. Continue Meeting Regularly
II. Embark on Projects/Activities
Some circles decide to meet twice per month following the completion of the curriculum. The first monthly meeting is discussion focused, and the second is an “activity day,” such as a workshop to learn a new skill or an activity that is part of a social action campaign. The lists below provide suggestions for both types of meetings. Visit http://localcircles.org/more-resources/ for even more ideas.
I. Options for Continued Meetings
1. Potlucks
2. Game Nights
A fun, low-cost way to provide entertainment is a “game night” with board games or cards.
3. Modules Developed by the Resilience Circle Network
Visit http://localcircles.org/facilitators-corner/additional-sessions-for-ongoing-clubs/ for updated suggestions.
A. Your Money or Your Life
Use this a very brief introduction to the well-known program “Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. It has been used widely as a tool for people to put their financial lives in the service of their true values.
B. Time Banking
In this session you’ll consider how to set up a time bank, a tool that is increasingly being used to promote local economies and stronger communities. It’s easy to set up and can be expanded gradually.
4. Book Clubs
Visit http://localcircles.org/book-list/ for book ideas. Some of our favorites are:
A. Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Weath (2nd Edition) by David Korten
Also check out the Study Guide, available at http://livingeconomiesforum.org/sites/files/images/Agenda2_Guide_2010.pdf.
B. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver chronicles a year of her family’s life eating only food produced within a 100 mile radius of their home.
C. Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor
Plenitude is the principle that we can begin to transition to a new economy now through new uses of time, new consumption habits, and more.
D. All That We Share by Jay Walljasper
E. Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
5. Film Discussions
Visit http://localcircles.org/movies/ for movie ideas. Some possibilities are:
A. Inside Job
B. Food, Inc.
C. The Economics of Happiness
D. Maxed Out
E. The Flaw
6. Small Group Guides
Here is a sample list of curricula for small groups developed by a variety of organizations. Visit http://localcircles.org/small-group-guides/ for more suggestions.
A. Personal Safety Nets - This book and workbook will help you create a web of plans, resources and people to give meaning, support, ease, safety and security to your life, no matter what the future may hold.
B. Northwest Earth Institute - The Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) is a national leader in the development of innovative programs that empower individuals and organizations to transform culture toward a sustainable and enriching future.
C. JustFaith Ministries - JustFaith Ministries offers extended programs that provide opportunities for individuals to study and be formed by the justice tradition articulated by the Scriptures, the Church's historical witness, theological inquiry and Church social teaching.
II. Projects/Activities
1. “Re-skilling” Community Workshops
Remember the Gifts & Needs exercise where you figured out that someone in your group knows how to can food? Or to sew? Or garden? Or repair leaky faucets? Hold a series of workshops to learn these skills from one another. Consider inviting the wider community. Visit http://transitionUS.org for guidance on “re-skilling.”
2. Spring: Garden Prep Round Robins
Six circle members each agree to spend one weekend at one another’s helping to ready their respective gardens for planting. Each “host” buys the needed materials and plans how to best use the crew. The team works for a couple of hours at each home, then moves on to the next. People share gardening knowledge along the way, seeds might get shared, and more work is accomplished overall.
Winter: Weatherization Round Robins
In winter or fall, circle members help button-up each others’ homes for winter. Each “host” buys materials to caulk windows, seal doors, and put up plastic around leaky windows. With a team working a couple of hours on a weekend, each household saves potentially hundreds of dollars on heating costs.
3. Community Gardens and Community Supported Agriculture
If there’s open land in your community, organize your neighbors to create a community garden. Many areas have state or local agencies that support community gardening. Another way to improve access to high-quality produce and meats is by pooling resources with local farmers through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
4. Share!
Visit http://shareable.net/how-to-share for a list of ideas to set up systems for sharing food, tools, chores, time, cars, child care, and MUCH more. For example:
Dinner Circles and Cooking Exchanges: A once-a-week frozen entrée or soup exchange is very easy to organize among committed neighbors or friends. A record-keeping system equalizes the financial costs and benefits.
Carpools and Ride-Share: Solo commuting by car is costly and frustrating. Many communities have established carpool and ride-share networking systems to help people find others who drive a similar route.
5. Keep People in Their Homes: Rent Parties and Eviction Vigils
Popular in other times of economic stress, a rent party is a fun way to say, hey, we’re all in this together. Those who can spare some cash leave what they can in the money jar for those who are having a difficult time making the rent. Eviction vigils and blockages are another way of saying we have the power to stop banks and lawyers from putting our friends or neighbors out on the street.
6. Reduce, Reuse, Re-purpose, and Recycle
Why waste money on a new computer, textbook or blender, when there’s a good chance that someone has just posted a notice for a free or nearly-free one on Craig’s List or Freecycle? Make a pact with a few circle members to acquire your next few purchases at a used store or though one of these online services.
7. Start a Bulk Buying Group
It’s cheaper to buy in bulk, but where do you store all that extra toilet paper? Before your next run to the bulk store, take orders from friends or neighbors, collect the money, and buy everyone’s supplies at the same time. This way, you keep the cost savings and eliminate the storage problem.
8. Basement Cleans
Like the round-robin garden prep, get together with others to support the process of cleaning out your basement and/or attic, then help them do the same. Freecycle what’s left after your co-cleaners sort through what you’re ready to say good-bye to. Cleaning out old clutter makes way for new ideas, and sometimes you’ll find useful things you’ve forgotten about.
9. Throw a Block Party
Many people don’t even know the names of the people living next door. Get everyone together for a potluck or barbeque.
10. Hold a Community Forum
Forums are free and public venues for conversations on the great issues shaping your neighborhood and our planet. Invite a speaker, a panel of speakers, or show a movie on a topic that’s important to you. Visit http://forumorganizing.org for tips on how to hold a Forum in your community.
11. “Get Out of Debt” Pact
Meet with others to strategize about reducing or eliminating debt. How can you rely less on credit cards and other borrowing? Make a pact to take debt-reduction steps together. Consider calling your credit card companies together to request a reduction in your rates or fees. Mention the possibility that you’ll cut up your card and they may be quicker to lower your rate!
12. Move Your Money
People everywhere are moving their bank accounts from the big Wall Street banks to community-minded institutions. Make a pact with one or two others to do the same. Then, think even bigger: where does your church have its bank account? What about your city or state? People in New Mexico convinced their state government to move all of its money to a local bank! Visit http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/ for more information.
13. Budget Makeovers
A circle member volunteers to share information about their personal financial circumstances. They prepare a budget that includes income, major expenses, and debts. They pass out their confidential budget and the group brainstorms ideas to save money. At the end of the session, the person collects the copies to protect their confidentiality.
14. Social Action Campaigns
See our website for some up-to-date possibilities. http://localcircles.org/facilitators-corner/additional-sessions-for-ongoing-clubs/club-social-action-ideas-and-campaigns/
Session 7
What’s Next?
A Message for Facilitators
Dear facilitator,
Congratulations on having made it to the final session of the curriculum! We are grateful to you for experimenting with this form of building community, and we very much want to get your feedback on the experience.
We hope you have taken advantage of the resources we provide facilitators, such as our website, facilitator listserv, and support phone calls. Even if not, we hope that at this time you will take a moment to check in with us. As your group approaches the end of the curriculum, we can tell you how other facilitators have made this transition, and even connect you with them directly.
Moreover, we are eager to hear your impressions of the curriculum, and how you found it useful (or not!) as a tool. What parts worked best for you and your group? Were there places you changed or adapted the materials to make them more appropriate for the culture of your group? If so, please let us know. We'd also be grateful to you for sending us any links or files of additional materials you used in your group--readings, videos, etc. All of this can be added to our website to help other facilitators.
We'd also like to hear your circle’s stories. This means any interesting anecdotes about the people in your group, what they were facing when they came in, and how the Resilience Circle helped them. Be assured that all such information will be kept confidential, and if we use the stories in our published materials we can significantly change the details to protect the identity of the subject.
Please email us at Info@LocalCircles.org to schedule a conversation. We look forward to hearing about your experience.
Best wishes,
The Resilience Circle Network
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 7-2)
• Optional – A few copies of the homework for reference (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda (ATTACHMENT 7-1)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 7
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Review and Visualization (20)
A. Review
B. Visualization
Activity 2: Next Steps Toward Resilience (30)
A. Common Ground
B. Community Mapping
Activity 3: What Next? (30)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 7
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – Selection from “Personal Preparation” by Chris Martenson (ATTACHMENT 7-2)
2. Go-Round: Again, invite participants to share anything they like.
3. Review
Brief Review of Sixth Session
In our last session we talked about how large corporations write the rules which govern our lives, and have created a “risk shift” for American families. We also talked about how social action can change this situation, and how mutual aid and community efforts alone will not effectively combat corporate power.
Activity 1: Review and Visualization (20)
A. Review of Our Time Together
Read: Today’s meeting is both an ending – of our planned sessions – and a beginning. We embarked on a path from “you are on your own” to “we are in it together.” We combined learning together, mutual aid and taking action. We have had some shared glimpses of things we might be able to do together.
Ask:
We have spoken a few times about building a new economy. What do you think are some of the key characteristics of that new economy?
Some to add if not mentioned:
• Locally focused
• Vibrant communities
• In harmony with the earth
• Equitable and efficient distribution of resources
• Democratic rule-making
Do you see signs of this kind of economy emerging in our community?
What other ideas have we talked about that are important to you?
Some to add if not mentioned:
• No more “Business As Usual.” We are not going back to an economy built on over-consumption driven by debt and cheap energy that ignores environment.
• We are collectively facing a “Fork in the Road.” We can contract into isolation, fear, hunkering down, and withdrawal; or move toward community resilience, engagement, connection.
• Taking responsibility. We can’t wait for someone else to figure it all out. We need to be part of the solution by engaging in mutual aid, preparing our communities, and taking social action.
• Tough times lie ahead. We should prepare for continued economic shocks and environmental degradation.
B. Visualization
Read: We are going to leap ahead into the future and see where this work on the new economy might take us. Will we decline or prosper? Will we deplete our environment or learn how to live within its limits? Will we grow more unequal or share prosperity? Where we land in 2040 will depend on what we do starting now.
Read the following “2040 Visualization,” with appropriate pauses.
It’s 2040 in the United States, and the changes over the past 30 years have been dramatic.
Things began to unravel in 2008, when the US economy took a first hard hit, followed by the economies of much of the developed world. After a bumpy ride through the next decade, it became clear that peak oil—the end of cheap and easily available fossil fuels—began in 2008, and the economy as we knew it would never be the same.
We invite you now to picture yourself in this future time, in your own neighborhood. Use your imagination to call up a vision of the future that seems real to you or the next generation.
*********
You get up in the morning and set about your day. What are your meals going to look like? Most of your neighbors now have kitchen-gardens, planting all available space around their homes with food crops. Community garden space has also expanded, as have small farms in both cities and rural areas. What are your local foods, and where are they coming from?
[Pause…]
In 2015 gas prices rose to $10/gallon. Politicians and academics alike were shocked to find how quickly Americans reduced their fuel consumption and adapted to new energy routines. People developed new transportation systems without dependence on fossil fuels. Now visualize your life. How are you getting around?
[Pause…]
Much of our existing homes and buildings of the 20th century required massive retrofitting, insulation and adaptation. They were built in the era of cheap energy. Our homes are very different now. Remember when people paid hundred of dollars a month to heat or cool their houses, depending on where they lived? Now visualize where you are living. How does your living space look different? How does your community look different?
[Pause…]
Back 30 years ago, we had huge medical complexes with hospitals and emergency wards and amazing and expensive wonder drugs and medical procedures. What was strange was, we were living longer but our health was poorer. We began to understand how our industrial food system, transportation, pollution, and intense stress were making us sick. We still have many of these technological advances, but we’re healthier and happier now. Much of what ensures our wellness happens outside those big medical centers — in our communities and daily practices. Imagine your health routines. How do you stay healthy? Imagine you are getting sick and what the new health system looks like. Who is caring for you? How does it feel? What about care for the elderly and infirmed? How does the system look now?
[Pause…]
We were very busy thirty years ago, rushing around between home and work, spending long hours commuting. A lot of our toil didn’t necessarily contribute to our happiness and daily needs or to real economic health. We spent a lot of time earning money so we could pay money for our basic needs. Now we spend more time taking care of these essentials ourselves; more time growing, processing and preparing food, taking care of elders and children. We’ve got some nifty technologies that still save us time, but we also toil a lot less. Visualize your life in 2040 with a very different daily rhythm and timing. How do you spend your days?
[Pause…]
They say we’ll never go back to the standard of living of the late 20th century, but the oldest members of our communities often assert that we’d never want to. Visualize your family and community. Who are you spending time with in 2040? Where are your family and friends? What are the activities in your community?
[Pause…]
Closing thoughts: When you’re ready, open your eyes and come back to the present moment. [Pause.] Hold on to your vision. We are now going to turn to the Resilience Assessment we did for homework, and consider our present circumstances. This is the first step in moving towards our vision for the future.
Activity 2: Next Steps Toward Resilience (30)
A. Common Ground
Explain that our next activity is a way for people to share how they did on the homework, the “Resilience Quiz” from YES! Magazine.
Ask people to stand in a circle, and to step into the circle if they took the quiz. Then, ask them to step back if their score is lower than 45. Then, ask people to step back if their score is lower than 55, then 65, etc. Do this in whatever multiples make sense until only one or two people are left. Once everyone is seated again, congratulate those with high scores, and ask if anyone would like to comment briefly.
B. Community Mapping
Read: Resilience is a community endeavor. Let’s turn this on its head and find out what it means about our community.
Use the flipchart to take notes during this activity. Write the title Community Resilience at the top of the paper.
Ask people to name the topics the quiz addresses (food, water, energy, locally based livelihoods, local businesses, local banks). Ask:
How is our community doing in these areas? What resources do we have?
Write resources people mention near the appropriate words (i.e. “Farmers Market” near “food”). Ask:
Which topics do people want to discuss further? How can we take action in a couple of these areas to increase our community’s resilience?
Note: You might try to encourage interest in food, as this is a good place for many communities to start building resilience.
Break people into small groups to talk about two or three of the items – you might have one group talking about food, and one about energy, for example. Groups should address resources that exist and steps that can be taken to fill gaps.
After about 10 minutes, have groups report back. Ask them what resources and possible projects they talked about.
Closing talking point: We are now going to have a conversation about next steps for our group. The Resilience Quiz can help us think about this. What can we do so that if we re-take the Resilience Quiz in six months, our average score would improve?
Activity 3: What’s Next? (30)
This is your opportunity to facilitate a conversation about what the group will do now that they have finished the curriculum.
Before this meeting, you should talk to people one-on-one to get a sense of what they’d like to do to continue. When appropriate, encourage people to take leadership in organizing projects or leading future sessions.
In many cases, the group will continue in some form. See the “What’s Next” homework assignment (ATTACHMENT 6-5) for ideas on how your circle might continue, and visit our website for even more ideas: http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
Today’s session may not provide enough time to establish clear next steps. Be sure to keep lists of ideas that are considered and if need be, schedule a meeting to discuss what’s next more fully with those who plan to continue.
Remember the three purposes of a circle: learning, mutual aid, and social action. You might find it helpful to organize the conversation around these two questions:
Will we continue to meet regularly?
A likely answer is that at least some people will want to keep meeting. See a list of ideas for such meetings on the homework everyone read for today. A practical way forward is to set a date, find a facilitator(s), and talk about some content for the meeting. (Will it be a book discussion? Will you use one of the modules from the Resilience Circle network? Or, a curriculum from another organization? Maybe you’ll just have a potluck and go-round, or a “game night”?) You might want to set up a few future meetings to ensure some continuity.
Will we engage in “projects”?
If so, what are they? Who’s taking the lead for now? Who wants to be involved? See project ideas on the homework as well.
Remember project ideas that have been generated throughout the sessions:
• Sessions 4 and 5: How will the group continue to engage in mutual aid? At monthly meetings? A small time bank? Which participants are likely to take a lead in setting up or maintaining a system?
• Session 6: What kinds of social action was the group attracted to? Who is likely to lead social action projects?
• Session 7: What kinds of projects emerged from the discussion of the Resilience Quiz? Again, which participants are likely to lead group involvement?
Close this conversation with as clear a picture of the group’s next steps as possible. Remember that the best plan may be to schedule another meeting to discuss all of this more fully.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Suggested Closing Reading – “Go In Peace” by Mark Belletini (ATTACHMENT 7-2)
ATTACHMENT 7-1
Session 7
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Review and Visualization (20)
A. Review
B. Visualization
Activity 2: Next Steps Toward Resilience (30)
A. Common Ground
B. Community Mapping
Activity 3: What Next? (30)
Closing (10)
ATTACHMENT 7-2
Suggested Opening Reading: Selection from “Personal Preparation” by Chris Martenson
One of my core values is this: I have no interest in living in fear, and my plan is to live through whatever comes next with a positive attitude and with as much satisfaction and fun as I can possibly muster. So it has always been important to me to be in community with others who share this outlook. And even now that I’ve experienced the pleasures (and joys and frustrations) of working in a group setting on matters of preparation, I would still immediately join or start another one if I happened to move away.
I am only as secure as my neighbor is, and we are only as secure as our town, and our town is only as secure as the next town over. But it all begins at the center, like a fractal pattern, with resilient households determining how the future unfolds.
Suggested Closing Reading: “Go In Peace” by Mark L. Belletini
Go in peace. Live simply, gently, at home in yourselves.
Act justly.
Speak justly.
Remember the depth of your own compassion.
Forget not your power in the days of your powerlessness.
Do not desire to be wealthier than your peers
And stint not your hand of charity.
Practice forbearance.
Speak the truth, or speak not.
Take care of yourselves as bodies,
For you are a good gift.
Crave peace for all people in the world,
Beginning with yourselves
And go as you go with the dream
Of that peace alive in your heart.
APPENDIX
ECOLOGY AND OUR SECURITY
Session 5, Activity 1
What is Oil?
What is Oil?
The oil that we use today formed millions of years ago when plants and animals died and were buried.
It is the result of millions of years of decay, intense pressure, and heat. The picture shows one of the phases in this process. The “organic matter” layer will become oil.
Organisms trap sunlight to create energy, turning it into carbon (among other things). As the organisms decay and turn into oil, the carbon remains and becomes highly condensed and extremely flammable. This is why oil provides so much energy.
Coal and natural gas are also “fossil” fuels which are the result of this type of process.
Why Is Oil So Important?
How many people does it take to push a car?
Why Is Oil So Important?
The phenomenal energy in oil
One tank of gas is equivalent to 8,000 human hours work! That’s 3 years of work, if you worked 8 hours/day, every day for a full year.
Most of us take for granted the amount of energy we have at our disposal instantly, every day. No human society has ever had anything near the amount of energy before the discovery of fossil fuels.
What Do We Use Oil For?
What Do We Use Oil For?
Transportation and home heating are only the beginning of our oil use.
Many products are derived from, or use oil or gas as their raw material. Plastics, synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester, drugs, laminates, paints, ink, and many more things use oil.
Modern agriculture depends on oil. Fertilizers and pesticides are made from oil and natural gas, tractors and machinery use it, and irrigation requires huge amounts of energy.
The average American calorie travels 1500 miles from farm to plate, using oil. Processing, storing, cooking, packaging and retailing food also require energy.
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
Peak oil is the point at which roughly half of the world’s oil has been extracted - it is not when the oil runs out.
As we reach the peak in oil production, oil prices will become very unstable, but will rise overall. This is because demand will rise as supplies fall.
There is a difference between discovering oil and getting it out of the ground (i.e., “producing” it). There is usually 25 – 40 years between a peak in discovery and a peak in production.
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
There is a difference between discovering oil and getting it out of the ground (i.e., “producing” it).
As represented in this figure, global oil discovery peaked in the late 1960s. Every year since then, we have discovered less oil.
Many analysts think that we reached the global peak in oil production around 2010.
Reaching the global peak in oil production (when we have produced about half of the earth’s oil) means we will see erratic but increasing oil prices.
Former Shell president John Hofmeister predicts that gasoline prices could hit $5/gallon in 2012.
GRAPH SOURCE: Post Carbon Institute, http://www.energybulletin.net/primer. Data is from Exxon-Mobil.
The Floating Plastic Island
The Floating Plastic Island
The Pacific ocean contains an island of floating plastic garbage the size of Texas.
SOURCE: http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm
Six Earths
Six Earths
Scientists estimate that it would take six Earths to provide the resources for everyone on the planet to live like middle-class Americans.
SOURCE: http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/how-much-human-life-can-planet-earth-sustain/
Climate Change and
Peak Oil
Climate Change and Peak Oil
There isn’t much “downside” to reducing carbon emissions and using less oil.
Climate Change and
Peak Oil: Food
Climate Change and
Peak Oil: Food
As the climate changes, some species will not be able to adapt. We could lose the crops we eat and the animals that pollinate them, such as the bees shown here.
Already, one third of commercial bee-colonies did not survive the winter of 2010.
As oil prices rise due to peak oil, so do food prices.
Modern agriculture depends on oil. Fertilizers and pesticides are made from oil and natural gas, tractors and machinery use it, and irrigation requires huge amounts of energy. The average American calorie travels 1500 miles from farm to plate, using oil. Processing, storing, cooking, packaging and retailing food also require energy.
Climate Change
Climate Change
Scientists agree that because we’ve emitted so much carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, the earth will warm by 3 – 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.
If we burn fewer fossil fuels like oil and gas to reduce carbon emissions, we’ll warm the planet less.
Background: Climate changes has been confirmed by scientists, including the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), a worldwide group of scientists who have reviewed all available scientific research. Their report published in 2007, which won the Nobel Peace Prize, states that “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” and, “Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely (confidence level >90%) due to the observed increase in human greenhouse gas concentrations.”
This study was the most comprehensive study of peer reviewed climate research ever undertaken, and one of the most comprehensive studies of any scientific question ever. Its conclusions are that there is no more debate, the science is clear. The only question is how fast can we act to create real reductions in atmospheric CO2.
Climate Change:
CO2 Levels
Climate Change: CO2 Levels
This graph shows carbon levels over the past 60,000 years based on ice core data.
Our carbon level is currently 391 parts per million.
Carbon we have already emitted has not yet made its full impact on the climate.
“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar the that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, CO2 will need to be reduced from its current levels to at most 350 ppm.”
- James Hansen, NASA Climatologist
Additional points: Once global temperatures rise to certain levels, “positive feedback loops” will cause further releases of greenhouse gases, leading to runaway climate change. For example if the arctic tundra melts it will emit so much methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that it will dwarf human CO2 emissions.
Climate Change:
Extreme Weather Events
Climate Change:
Extreme Weather Events
As the climate changes, severe “one in a hundred year” weather events – such as the flood and drought shown – will become more common.
In addition to being devastating for persons involved, extreme weather events place huge strains on public resources. An entire town’s budget can be wiped out by the costs of cleaning up after a tornado or other event.
Background: This handout shows a picture of the Australian Murray River system, which has faced an extreme multi year drought. The government has had to allocate water to the cities rather than allow farmers to irrigate their crops. This has led to a decrease in the Australian wheat harvest of 35%, driving up prices worldwide. Australia is one of the bread baskets of the world.
Climate Change:
Spread of Disease
Climate Change: Spread of Disease
In general, warmer temperatures and greater moisture favor organisms that carry diseases, such as mosquitoes, other insects, rodents, and snails. This leads to an expansion of areas affected by diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever.
Sources: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/early-warning-signs-of-global-9.html
http://www.scienceline.org/2009/05/05/bio-rettner-malaria-climate-change/
AND Common Security Club
Facilitator’s Guide
Resilience Circle Network
Spring 2011
http://localcircles.org
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………..3
What is a Resilience Circle/Common Security Club?.................................4
The Resilience Circle Network…………………………………………….......6
Organizing a Resilience Circle…………………………………………………7
Facilitating a Circle and Using this Curriculum…………………………………9
Facilitator Support……………………………………………………………..10
Overview of Sessions…………………………………………………………11
Notes on Preparing for Sessions…………………………………………….14
Notes on Openings…………………………………………………………….14
Notes on Closings…………………………………………………………......15
Introductory Session - Real Security in Hard Times…………………………16
Session 1 – Security and Insecurity………………………………………………31
Session 2 – Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation…………………………..45
Session 3 – Changing the Story: A New Vision………………………………...52
Session 4 – Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security………...65
Session 5 – Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid…………………………..77
Session 6 – Changing the Rules…………………………………………………..94
Session 7 – What’s Next?...............................................................................113
APPENDIX: Handouts for Session 5, Activity 1……………………………….123
Thanks to Linda and Ralph Schmoldt for their excellent work revising the Guide. Additional thanks to On the Commons and the Institute for Policy Studies - Program on Inequality and the Common Good, and Alexa Bradley, Dakota Butterfield, Sarah Byrnes, Chuck Collins, Loie Hayes, Orion Kriegman, and Andree Zaleska.
Contact the Resilience Circle Network: Info@LocalCircles.org; 617.477.8630 x307; http://localcircles.org.
Resilience Circle Facilitator's Guide by Resilience Circle Network is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Introduction
Welcome to the Resilience Circle Network!
Before you begin reading this guide, we want to remind you of one important truth: You already know how to do this.
You don’t need The Guide to bring people together and talk about how the economic crisis is touching their lives. You don’t need a handbook to begin to break down the isolation and shame that many people feel when speaking about their personal economic circumstances. And within any group, there is wisdom as to how to move ahead and help one another.
The value of The Guide is that it draws from the experience of other circles. But it has its limitations – and it’s no substitute for your own common sense. So we encourage you to use what is most useful to you.
This is the fourth edition of the Resilience Circle Facilitator’s Guide. Every several months we update this resource based on lessons from circles that we are interviewing across the country. Updated materials also live at our website, http://localcircles.org.
Documents are available in Microsoft Word, in addition to PDF documents. This is so you can more easily revise them to meet the specific needs of your circle. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.
Why Start a Circle?
Many of us have faced the turmoil of the Great Recession without a community of support. Forming a circle has been a lifeline for many participants, a way to personally prepare ourselves to live in a new and changing economy. Some of the reasons why people are starting circles include:
To Break Down Isolation and Shame. In this digital age, coming together for a face-to-face discussion is one of the most important things we can do.
To Face Changing Times Together. The news coverage about the economic crisis includes positive signs that the economy is rebounding. This is encouraging, but there are many other indicators that unemployment will remain high and home values will not recover. And there are signs that the speculators on Wall Street have no intention of changing their gambling ways. Other signs point to the possibility that our economy is undergoing deep structural changes and that we may be moving into uncharted territory. Many people find it is good to have a group to prepare with.
There is Much We Can Do Together. Circle participants have been inspired by things they can do together to boost their economic security. After two generations of “you are on your own” economics, it is really hard for people to ask for and receive help from their neighbors. We encourage groups to start small. Our mutual aid muscles need to be stretched and slowly warmed up.
We Need to Become Better Informed and Trust Our Own Thinking. The economic crisis has raised an interesting question: Who can we trust? The “brightest” financial minds on Wall Street were blindsided by the 2008 financial crisis. The experts told us not to worry. But it’s clear that unemployment is not going down soon, and that food and fuel costs will continue to rise. It’s time once again to be suspicious of the reassurances of learned experts. We must listen first to our own common sense.
Once There is Trust, There Are Few Limits. For circles that have been together for several months, there are wonderful benefits. People are able to share challenges at a deeper and useful level. The group develops a shared understanding of the changing economy that informs social action.
What is a Resilience Circle (or Common Security Club)?
These are uncertain times. The Great Recession has reminded us of our vulnerabilities. Debt. Foreclosure. Unemployment and anxious employment. Evaporating savings. Rising costs. Job insecurity. Environmental uncertainties.
In response, Resilience Circles (also called Common Security Clubs) are forming around the country, using and adapting free tools provided by the Resilience Circle Network.
What is a Resilience Circle?
A Resilience Circle is a small group (10 – 20 people) that comes together to increase personal security by:
• Courageously facing our economic and ecological challenges, learning together about root causes.
• Building relationships that strengthen our security and undertaking concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
• Rediscovering the abundance of what we have and recognizing the possibility of a better future.
• Seeing ourselves as part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.
In the process, a Resilience Circle allows neighbors (co-workers, etc) to get to know one another, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.
Structure of a Resilience Circle
This Curriculum provides a guide for facilitators to lead groups through seven initial sessions. Participants help prepare for and lead these meetings.
After seven sessions have been completed, a circle can decide whether it wants to continue meeting – with volunteers taking over facilitation responsibilities. Some circles may form self-organizing sub-groups to pursue specific activities and interests.
Three Components of a Circle
LEARNING TOGETHER: Through popular education tools, videos and shared readings, participants increase their understanding of the larger economic forces on our lives. Why is the economy in distress? How did these changes happen? What are the ecological factors contributing to the changes? What is our vision for a healthy, sustainable economy? How can I reduce my economic vulnerability? How can I get out of debt?
MUTUAL AID: Through stories, examples, web-based resources, a workbook and mutual support, participants reflect on what makes them secure. How can I help myself and my neighbor facing foreclosure, unemployment, or economic insecurity? What can we do together to increase our economic security at the local level?
SOCIAL ACTION: Many of our challenges won’t be solved through personal or local mutual aid efforts. They require us to work together to press for larger state, national and even global changes. Coming together, how can we become engaged to reclaim our country from the casino capitalists? What state and federal policies will increase our personal security? What program will truly address the economic and ecological realities of our time?
Putting It All Together
Often times, these three activities, while valuable in and of themselves, are not combined or coordinated. People might convene educational forums and study groups, but don’t engage in action. Others might leap immediately to social and political action, and not value the practical, day-to-day benefits of local mutual aid.
The intent of a Resilience Circle is to combine all three functions – education, mutual aid, and social action – together. We think that “doing all three” will make the circles more effective during economically uncertain times.
Some of you are part of active community organizations with campaigns and policy advocacy programs. We encourage you to think of a Resilience Circle as a complement to your organizing that can enable you to deepen your education and personal relationship-building priorities.
The Resilience Circle Network
The Resilience Circle Network (also called the Common Security Circle Network) is a pilot project of the Institute for Policy Studies Program on Inequality and the Common Good (http://inequality.org). On the Commons (http://onthecommons.org) has also provided resources to develop the curriculum.
We view our role as primarily helping organizers and facilitators who wish to start and sustain circles. We are not trying to build a new organization or sell anything. Learn more about how we can support your circle on our website and below.
Our Assumptions
There are a number of assumptions in our approach to Resilience Circles:
Tough Times Still Lie Ahead. While the economy may appear to be on the road to recovery, we know that the Great Recession will cast a long shadow – and deeply upend the economic security of millions of Americans. Millions of jobs are not coming back. We know that these changes will touch almost everyone. Those most deeply affected will be younger workers, older workers who are not financially able to retire, and communities of color that will face long-term unemployment and continuing home foreclosures.
We’re Not Going Back to Old Models of Economic Growth. The “Great Recession” was not the result of a short-term economic bump in the road. Because of the depth of our economic and ecological challenges, we don’t believe it is possible to return to a familiar model of economic growth and recovery. We will not return to unrivaled global economic supremacy, or to a model of economic growth based on cheap energy and unlimited fossil fuels. Nor do we want to return to an economy built on huge amounts of consumer debt – or an economy that transfers huge amounts of wealth to a few and puts everyone else’s economic security at risk.
Preparation Together is the Key. No one wants be caught unprepared. Our assumption is that we need to break out of our isolation and prepare ourselves and our communities to be more resilient and strong. A Resilience Circle is one place where we can do this preparation work to prepare our families, neighbors, congregations and communities. Our key objective is to have participants feel a sense of power and agency to shape the future.
We Need a New Story About the Economy. The old stories about the economy are inadequate or dishonest. The old economic story kept us paralyzed and isolated, and blocked us from seeing any other possibilities. Without an alternative to the present reality, people could easily gravitate to scapegoating, division, fear, fortress mentality, resignation or self-destructive behavior. Through these initial sessions, we hope participants gain glimpses of another path – of community, shared abundance, and of taking back our lives and country. We hope participants will better see our shared commons or commonwealth – and work to strengthen and defend the wealth and plenty that we hold together.
Role of Government and Local Action. We believe that there is an appropriate role for different levels of government involvement to strengthen the economy, bring greater oversight of the financial sector, and ease our transition to a new economy. At the same time, we recognize that our federal government has been captured by powerful corporate interests aimed at blocking change. In the face of this potential political paralysis, it is critical that local communities and individuals move ahead with solutions that increase our economic security.
Moving Forward. The good news is there is a lot to build on. Parts of our economy are healthy and vibrant. There is tremendous untapped creativity, energy and talent in our communities. We have the tools we need to make a transition to a new economy: the knowledge, technology, and guiding examples. Once we get organized and prepared, our lives will be happier and healthier – and our economy will be fairer and more ecologically sustainable.
Organizing a Resilience Circle
Visit the Resilience Circle website (http://localcircles.org/start-a-club) for detailed tips on organizing and publicizing your Resilience Circle. Sign up to attend one of our webinars for a discussion of these tips, and contact us any time with questions.
Here is how we suggest you introduce the idea of a Resilience Circle to your community:
1. OPEN SESSION. Hold an open “introductory session” to talk about the concept of a Resilience Circle and to ask people to consider starting one. A step-by-step program for this introductory session is part of this guide.
2. INITIAL COMMITMENT. Those who decide to form a circle should be asked to commit to seven initial meetings. Ideally these would happen at least every other week to keep momentum. There is a step-by-step program for each of these sessions in this guide.
3. ONGOING MEETINGS. After the seven sessions are completed, the group will have gained a fuller picture of what is possible. The circle decides whether or not to continue and then plans and carries out its own activities. The Resilience Circle Network has dozens of tools and suggestions for ongoing sessions.
What To Call Your Group?
Throughout The Guide, we refer to “Resilience Circles.” However, we encourage you to call your group whatever seems appropriate. Many groups used the name “Common Security Clubs,” and groups around the country go by many other names, including:
• Economic Security Circles
• Economic Security Affinity Groups
• Mutual Aid Groups
• Resource Sharing Groups
• Neighbor Groups
• Unemployed and Anxiously Employed Worker Groups
Feel free to use one of these or create your own name. Please let us know if you create a new name; we are always looking for new ideas to share with others in the network.
Facilitating a Circle and Using this Curriculum
If you have experience leading small groups, you can facilitate a Resilience Circle. Your role is not to be an “expert” in the economy, the environment, or anything else.
We have tried to make this Guide as facilitator-friendly as possible. Objectives, summary agendas, preparation lists, and lists of handouts are provided at the beginning of each session. Special facilitator notes occur throughout detailed agendas, and italicized text highlights those sections meant to be spoken or read directly at group meetings. We welcome feedback about how this Guide works for you, and we especially welcome suggestions for improvement. Let us hear from you!
It is important to note that the Resilience Circle experience can provide a taste of what life might be like in a new economy with stronger community ties, functional mutual aid, and empowered social action. However, seven sessions can only provide a glimpse of this new economy. After completing the curriculum, this shared glimpse will provide the core vision for the group’s next steps.
Group meetings consciously incorporate a range of different kinds of activities:
Relationship Building: getting to know each other, reweaving social relationships and community; for example, paired or small group exercises, sharing stories, allowing space for meaningful connection
Information Sharing: offering information about what is going on with the economy and the environment; reading articles, watching videos, listening to radio shows
Reflection and Analysis: fostering discussion to enable people to make sense of what is going on; posing questions that help people digest what they are hearing, exploring implications and meaning, getting clear together
Vision and Creativity: encouraging people to see themselves as capable and active, neither victims nor passive; brainstorming, tapping imagination, considering possibilities, generating ideas and activities
Taking Action: taking steps to do something about the problem; homework, small actions, mutual aid projects, social action, etc.
Basic Facilitation Tips
If you’re less familiar with facilitating meetings, you might want to team up with someone who has more experience. These resources about facilitating small groups may also be helpful:
Group Facilitation Guide (3 pages) - www.tinyurl.com/dxenww
Facilitation: The Secret to Smooth Synchronized Meetings (PDF) (6 pages) - www.tinyurl.com/bhqxhb
Developing Participant Leadership
Because the goal of a Resilience Circle is that it will self-facilitate after seven sessions, it is important to foster leadership among the participants. Here are some suggestions for how to do this:
• Ask participants if they would like to facilitate portions of the sessions.
• Invite participants to suggest closing readings.
• Invite someone other than you (or your co-facilitator) to facilitate the Evaluation at the end of each session.
• After the curriculum is finished, consider yourself a “consultant” to new facilitators and leaders. Be present to help and guide, but let others take leadership.
• And of course, be on the lookout for participants who have interests and skills which would make them good project leaders or facilitators.
Breaking Bread Together: Including Food
Consider sharing a meal together at your sessions. A lot of warmth and congeniality can come out of a simple potluck. Your community meal can be organized around a relevant theme, such as low-cost, healthful recipes. If a meal seems infeasible, consider assigning a member to bring snacks each time, and brew a pot of coffee or tea if you can. One or two people could take the job of organizing potlucks – and participants could alternate bringing food to share.
Facilitator Support
The Resilience Circle Network is eager to help you and hear about your Resilience Circle experience. Here are some of the ways we can offer support:
• In-person facilitator trainings – Contact us to discuss holding one in your area
• Free “webinars” with tips for organizing a circle in your community
• One-on-one conversations about organizing or facilitating
• Connections with others in your area who might be interested
• Publicity about your circle through our website and e-newsletter
• Connections with other facilitators through a listserv and support calls
Our website contains links you might find useful as you facilitate a circle during the initial seven sessions and beyond, including resources other facilitators have suggested, opening and closing readings, full-session modules, other curricula, videos and more. Visit the Facilitator’s Corner on our website, at http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
Please contact us at any time during this process:
• Info@LocalCircles.org
• 617.477.8630 x307
Overview of Sessions
The Introductory Session is designed to take ninety minutes. After that, the seven regular sessions are designed to take two hours.
Note that the following visual and written overviews are also presented in ATTACHMENT Intro-3.
Resilience Circles: Progression of Sessions
(Strong Cultural (Weak Cultural
Messages) Messages)
Overview of Sessions
Session 1 – Security and Insecurity
In this session, participants have a chance to reflect on the sources of their own security and insecurity, and the role the larger economy plays in our lives.
Session 2 - Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation
The old story about the economy tells us that we shouldn’t talk about our economic situation: it is either shamefully bad or embarrassingly good. This session creates a space for people to begin to break the habit of silence.
Session 3 - Changing the Story: A New Vision
Debt and over-consumption are large economic trends, and a major part of the old economic story that has formed the background of the individual stories we shared in Session 2. In this session, we consider that our security depends not on a “recovery” to the old ways, but on imagining something different.
Session 4 - Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security
In Sessions 4 and 5 we will consider the vital role our communities will play in building the new economy we visualized in Session 3. In Session 4 we’ll consider new concepts of community wealth and security, and introduce the idea of mutual aid.
Session 5 - Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid
In this session, we will explore the proposition that ecological changes will deeply alter our economic lives – and that there is no going back to the economy of the past. This session also includes the exchanging of gifts and needs - a tangible experience which shows how much we can help each other.
Session 6 - Changing the Rules
In this session, we will explore the proposition that large corporations exert too much influence over the “rules” that govern our society. With a vision of a new economy (Sessions 2 and 3) and strengthened community ties (Sessions 4 and 5), we are equipped to engage in social action to rewrite these rules. We’ll discuss what types of action this group is interested in.
Session 7 - What’s Next
Session 7 reviews what we have learned together and our vision for a new economy. We explore how we can build “resilience” together and what our next steps as a group will be.
Notes on Preparing for Sessions
Here is how we suggest preparing for sessions.
• Read over the Facilitator’s Guide and suggested resource materials for the session. This will give you a grounding in the process and topics and a sense of your role.
• Consider making some reminder calls to participants.
• Decide about food and drink, make copies of handouts, draw up charts, etc.
• Think about an opening and closing activity, song, reading, or ceremony that makes sense given the people you are bringing together. Are there other culturally-appropriate elements to include (symbols, readings, song, prayer, poetry, decoration, etc)? What will make people feel most welcome?
• Create a contact list and a blank sign-in sheet for earlier sessions.
• Make sure you have a calendar so that you can plan future sessions.
• Make sure you have enough seating. A casual, comfortable set-up in a circle or semicircle is more conducive to community building and trust than a classroom set up with chairs in rows.
• Put up flipcharts, place the sign-in sheet and handouts out.
• Welcome people as they arrive.
Notes on Openings
The “Opening” section of each session follows the same format (except for Session 1). We allot thirty minutes for the opening. Be sure to distribute the Participant Agenda during the opening (this is always the first ATTACHMENT after each session’s detailed agenda).
1. Opening Reading
2. Go-Round
3. Review and Overview
We suggest possible opening readings for each session, though you are encouraged and invited to think of your own, or to ask participants for suggestions. All the opening readings suggested in the Guide, as well as others, are available on our website at http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
During the go-round, you will go around the circle and ask everyone to say a few words. During the first few sessions, we suggest a question or topic they could address. In later sessions, this becomes an informal way of checking in with each other, and participants are invited to say whatever feels most important to them. If possible, spend 20 on the go-round. If your group has a potluck, consider doing the go-round over food.
We provide notes to guide the review and overview section in each session.
Notes on Closings
1. Evaluation
2. Next Meeting and Homework Assignment
3. Closing Reading
Similarly, the “Closing” section of each session follows the same format. We allot 10 minutes for it.
The first part is an evaluation. We encourage you to ask a participant to lead the evaluation, especially in the later sessions. This develops group ownership of the sessions, and also frees the facilitator to focus more clearly on the feedback.
During the evaluation, the leader asks the group: what worked well today, and what suggestions do you have for the way we structure future sessions? This isn’t a time to revisit the content of the session, but rather a time to think about how to ensure that future activities work well for the group. When wrapping up, try to solicit positive feedback about the meeting to leave things on a positive note.
Consider letting the Resilience Circle Network know the feedback you hear about the session so we can improve the curriculum.
When you talk about the next meeting, see if any participants would like to facilitate any of the sections or take on other leadership. Also, identify volunteers to coordinate food, if that is part of your meetings, and/or make reminder phone calls.
The homework is described on the Participant Agenda handouts, and is available on the Resilience Circle website: http://localcircles.org/homework. You will probably want to bring a few hard copies of readings for people who do not have computer access. It is highly recommended that you or someone else email the group a link to the homework assignment shortly after the meeting.
Finally, each meeting may close with a closing reading appropriate to your circumstances. We suggest a reading for each meeting, and other options are available on our website, http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
Introductory Session
Real Security In Hard Times
Thank you for making this presentation about Resilience Circles. This introductory session is a way to bring people together and gauge interest in starting a group. We have designed it to give people a flavor of the benefits of being together. Please note that this introductory session is designed to be ninety minutes, whereas Sessions 1 – 7 are two hours each.
Objectives
• Introduce the concept of a Resilience Circle and given an overview of how one works.
• Give people an opportunity to connect with one another around the ways the economic crisis is touching them.
• Establish the theme of a “fork in the path,” that we have choices in how we respond to the stress of the “Great Recession,” and that we can increase our personal security by joining a circle.
• Identify those who want to form a circle and plan the next meeting.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Name tags
• Blank participant sign-in sheets with space for name, contact information, and day availability
• Copy of the opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT Intro-1)
• Optional - Copy of the Pass-Around Read-Aloud, “Facing Economic Change” (ATTACHMENT Intro-4)
Handouts
• What is a Resilience Circle? (Attachment Intro-2)
• Progression of Sessions (Attachment Intro-3)
SUMMARY AGENDA – Introductory Session
Opening (20 minutes)
Activity 1: Brainstorm: What Economic “Signs of the Times” Do We See? (5)
Activity 2: Why a Resilience Circle? (20)
Activity 3: Our Economic Security (25)
A. Circle Ground Rules
B. Pairs Discussion
C. Sharing Back
Activity 4: Next Steps/Q&A (15)
Closing (5)
DETAILED AGENDA – Introductory Session
Opening (20)
Welcome everyone individually and ask them to sign in.
Read the Suggested Opening Reading - “Turning to One Another” by Meg Wheatley (ATTACHMENT Intro-1).
Welcome everyone formally, thank the host, and introduce yourself. Have participants briefly introduce themselves with their name and where they live.
Distribute “What is a Resilience Circle?” (ATTACHMENT Intro-2) and “Progression of Sessions” (ATTACHMENT Intro-3).
Offer a brief description of a Resilience Circle:
A Resilience Circle is a place to come together to increase our personal security in a rapidly changing world.
Learning Together: A way to learn about the root causes of our economic and ecological challenges.
Mutual Aid: A chance to build relationships that strengthen our security, and take concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
Social Action: An opportunity to be part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.
In the process, we get to know each other, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.
Activity 1: Brainstorm: What “Signs of the Times” Do We See? (5)
Post or flip to some blank poster paper to take notes during this activity. At the top of the paper, write the title Signs of the Times.
Pose this question to the whole group:
What are the signs of economic insecurity that you see in these times?
Write responses on the poster paper as participants say them.
Note: Brainstorm exercises are designed to elicit brief responses to a question, to create a list of ideas without a lot of conversation. Be sure to add something about your personal insecurity to the list, and some examples of local and national and international insecurity, e.g. bounced checks, library hours cut back, college loans drying up, unemployment, and so forth.
Activity 2: Mini-Presentation: Why a Resilience Circle? (20)
A. Facing Economic Change
Begin with a short talk on the theme of Facing Economic Change.
Note: There are a number of ways to approach this section: you could offer your own personal story about why the idea of a Resilience Circle feels important to you, making sure to touch on some of the themes listed below. Or you could put together a short talk that is less personal, but covers most of the ideas below in your own words. If neither of those approaches work for you, this material can be presented to the group through what we call a Pass-Around Read-Aloud, where a series of individuals take turns reading a paragraph or two from a sheet of paper passed around the group. You’ll find the talking points below written up as a handout for that purpose (see ATTACHMENT Intro-4, “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Facing Economic Change”).
Read or summarize: Tough times may still lie ahead. While we may see some positive economic changes, millions of jobs are not coming back. Many of us are facing continued economic insecurity in terms of jobs, precarious housing situations, and lack of adequate income. (If possible, refer directly here to the examples that participants came up with in the Signs of the Times brainstorm.)
The economy is going through a fundamental transition. We know that the economy will be very different in ten or twenty years than it is today. Two of the reasons are:
No more debt-fueled economic growth. Our economy has depended on huge levels of debt-fueled consumption. Over the last several decades, we lived through “borrowed times” and ran up against our credit limits as a society. Individuals, companies, banks, and even nations have borrowed more than they can ever pay back. Our financial assets were over-valued which is still leading to foreclosures, bankruptcies, lay-offs, and service cut-backs.
Our economic model is not ecologically sustainable. Humanity has borrowed from the past (energy stored as fossil fuels for eons), and we have borrowed from the future (fouling the atmosphere with carbon that won’t dissipate for a century). Our future economic security requires us to live within the earth’s capacity and adapt to changes.
Our circle is a place to prepare. We need to think now about how we can we prepare ourselves for change – both personally and as a community. There are practical things we can do together that will increase our economic security and community resilience.
Our democratic system is broken. Part of the breakdown is that our political system has been captured by huge corporations that are focused on very short-term gains. The oil industry wants to block changes in energy systems. Wall Street blocked much of the needed financial reform after the economy meltdown. The financial reform that passed in July 2010 does not end the risky behavior that caused the meltdown. We need to be engaged as citizens to hold government accountable and to be on our side preparing for the future.
B. Cultural Messages about the Economy
Prepare some blank poster paper to take notes during this activity.
At the top of the paper, write the title Cultural Messages.
Pose an open question to the group:
What messages have we absorbed about the idea of economic success or failure?
If participants are slow to offer ideas, help them get started by offering a few examples from the list below, so they understand how you’re asking them to think about the question. Allow no more than ten minutes for this activity. At the end, check to see if anything that seems important to you below has been omitted; if so, add it.
• You are on your own (YO-YO).
• “Recovery” might be slow, but it’s coming.
• This economic slump is just a bump in the road, and our economic system is basically okay.
• You need to figure this out alone. Economic struggles are a reason for personal shame.
• Don’t talk about your economic reality with anyone else – it is either shamefully bad, embarrassingly better or just terribly inappropriate and uncomfortable.
• Economic winners deserve to take the best place; losers don’t deserve anything.
• Infinite growth and expansion is the sign of a healthy economy. Limits, conservation and frugality are for losers and occasional bad times.
Closing comment: One of the things we can do in a Resilience Circle is choose a different set of messages about what it means to be economically successful, and how we relate to other people about our financial lives. For example: “There is enough if we share and protect our common assets.” Or, “We all do better when we all do better.”
C. Personal Responses: Fork in the Road
Begin this key section by drawing a quick picture of two diverging paths on a blank piece of poster paper:
Explain that the concept of A Fork in the Road, illustrating the difficult choices that face us.
Talking points could include:
When faced with adversity, our instincts offer two choices: fight or flight. In these uncertain times, we can see these choices reflected in the choice between fear and hope, isolation and social action, self-protection and common security.
One Path: Self-protection -- Retreating into fear, isolation, self-blame, scapegoating, individual action, or a “hunkering down” fortress mentality.
The Other Path: Banding together -- Working together, we can accomplish things that no one person or family can accomplish – as with barn-raisings a century ago. This is a “new story,” a story that shows how inventive, creative and cooperative we can be, even during hard times.
D. Forming a Circle: What Have We Got?
Once you have introduced the idea of A Fork in the Road, explain how forming a Resilience Circle could help us follow a path toward working together to solve our economic problems.
Talking points could include:
An economy organized around winners-and-losers leaves us feeling insecure, isolated, exhausted and anxious.
We feel more secure, resourceful, and empowered when we participate in some group activity, and experience a connection to our community.
We can learn to live differently in changing times.
What we can’t do on our own, we can start to do together – we have the potential to create common security.
We have more than we think we do, when we pool our energy and resources.
Activity 3: Our Economic Security (25)
A. Ground Rules
In the next section of this introductory session, participants will be asked to speak about how the economic crisis is affecting them personally. First, though, it’s important to establish ground rules. Read aloud these Ground Rules, check to see if there are any questions, and then explicitly ask for everyone to actively assent to these agreements.
• Sharing is voluntary. You don’t have to share or personally disclose anything you don’t wish to share.
• Respect one another. We are creating a space of respect and personal safety.
• Confidentiality within the group is required. You should not share any information about anyone else outside the group.
• Give others a chance to speak. Talkative people may want to hold back a little. People who tend to hold back --- please feel invited to open up more.
• Honor our differences. We assume that people are experiencing insecurity differently depending on their class, culture, race, gender and other differences. Let us honor and celebrate our differences. Our intent is not to persuade others of our viewpoints. Regardless of our differences, we all can benefit from strengthening our common security. The main thing is that we listen to and understand each other as our primary objective.
B. Pairs Discussion: Personal Sharing about the Economic Crisis
Ask participants to pair off and introduce themselves to the person next to them. In turn, each person should take four to five minutes to respond to the question:
What are one or two ways the economic crisis is touching you or someone you love?
Remind participants of the Ground Rules.
After five minutes have passed, remind the pairs to trade roles, so that the speaker becomes the listener and vice-versa.
C. Sharing Back: How the Economic Crisis Is Touching Us
After ten minutes have passed, gently interrupt the conversations to ask participants to come back together in the large group. Ask for a short silence while people think about their conversations. Ask for a couple of volunteers to share with the large group how the economic crisis is touching them personally. Ask the volunteers to limit their comments to a minute or two. Remind the group that no one is obliged to share.
Note: Remind the volunteers, if necessary, that we want to hear what they shared about themselves, not what they learned about their partner.
Activity 4: Question and Answer Session (15)
Answer participants’ questions about Resilience Circles. Take opportunities to establish firm next steps: when and where a group might meet, who might co-facilitate, who might coordinate food. Make sure participants sign the sign-in sheet so that you (or someone else) can follow up as needed.
If a group decides to meet, suggest they read through the “Economic Meltdown Funnies” before Session 1. Download at http://tinyurl.com/meltdownfunnies, or contact the Resilience Circle Network for paper copies at Info@LocalCircles.org
Closing (5)
Closing Reading - Thank everyone for coming and bring the meeting to a close with a cultural activity appropriate to your group: a song, prayer, secular inspirational reading, etc. Locate your own or consider the one provided in ATTACHMENT Intro-1: “A Great Time To Be Alive” by Martin Luther King.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-1
Suggested Opening Reading: “Turing to One Another” by Meg Wheatley
There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares about.
Ask: “What’s possible?” not “What’s wrong?” Keep asking.
Notice what you care about.
Assume that many others share your dreams.
Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.
Talk to people you know.
Talk to people you don’t know.
Talk to people you never talk to.
Be intrigued by the differences you hear. Expect to be surprised.
Treasure curiosity more than certainty.
Invite in everybody who cares to work on what’s possible.
Acknowledge that everyone is an expert about something.
Know that creative solutions come from new connections.
Remember, you don’t fear people whose story you know.
Real listening always brings people closer together.
Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world.
Rely on human goodness.
Stay together.
Suggested Closing Reading: “A Great Time to Be Alive” by Martin Luther King
…I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom. In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away, and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. Doors of opportunity are gradually being opened to those at the bottom of society. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are developing a new sense of “some-bodiness” and carving a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of despair. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light." Here and there an individual or group dares to love, and rises to the majestic heights of moral maturity. So in a real sense this is a great time to be alive.
Therefore, I am not yet discouraged about the future. Granted that the easygoing optimism of yesterday is impossible. Granted that those who pioneer in the struggle for peace and freedom will still face uncomfortable jail terms, painful threats of death; they will still be battered by the storms of persecution, leading them to the nagging feeling that they can no longer bear such a heavy burden, and the temptation of wanting to retreat to a more quiet and serene life. Granted that we face a world crisis which leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life’s restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In a dark confused world the kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of all.
Excerpt from Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-2
What is a Resilience Circle (or Common Security Club)?
These are uncertain times. The Great Recession has reminded us of our vulnerabilities. Debt. Foreclosure. Unemployment and anxious employment. Evaporating savings. Rising costs. Job insecurity. Environmental uncertainties. We can face these changes alone – or come together.
What is a Resilience Circle?
Resilience Circles are forming around the country, using and adapting free tools provided by the Resilience Circle Network. A circle is a place to come together to increase our personal security in a rapidly changing world by:
• Courageously facing our economic and ecological challenges, learning together about root causes.
• Building relationships that strengthen our security and undertaking concrete steps for mutual aid and shared action.
• Rediscovering the abundance of what we have and recognizing the possibility of a better future.
• Seeing ourselves as part of a larger effort to create a fair and healthy economy that works for everyone.
In the process, a Resilience Circle allows neighbors (co-workers, etc) to get to know one another, find inspiration, have fun, and strengthen community.
Three Components of a Circle
LEARNING TOGETHER: Through popular education tools, videos and shared readings, participants increase their understanding of the larger economic forces on our lives. Why is the economy in distress? How did these changes happen? What are the ecological factors contributing to the changes? What is our vision for a healthy, sustainable economy? How can I reduce my economic vulnerability? How can I get out of debt?
MUTUAL AID: Through stories, examples, web-based resources, a workbook and mutual support, participants reflect on what makes them secure. How can I help myself and my neighbor facing foreclosure, unemployment, or economic insecurity? What can we do together to increase our economic security at the local level?
SOCIAL ACTION: Many of our challenges won’t be solved through personal or local mutual aid efforts. They require us to work together to press for larger state, national and even global changes. Coming together, how can we become engaged to reclaim our country from the casino capitalists? What state and federal policies will increase our personal security? What program will truly address the economic and ecological realities of our time?
Structure of a Resilience Circle
One of the primary goals of Resilience Circles and Common Security Clubs is to convene a public process for participants to challenge their feelings of isolation and helplessness. Circles are self-managing; the participants themselves take on responsibilities to help coordinate, schedule and host meetings.
Participants will also help the facilitator to prepare for and lead the initial series of seven meetings. After that series has been completed, a circle can decide whether it wants to continue meeting – with volunteers taking over facilitation responsibilities. Some circles may form self-organizing sub-groups to pursue specific activities and interests.
What’s in a Name?
Many circles use the names Resilience Circle or Common Security Club. However, we encourage you to call your group whatever seems appropriate for your circumstances. Groups around the country go by many other names, including:
• Economic Security Circles
• Economic Security Affinity Groups
• Mutual Aid Groups
• Resource Sharing Groups
• Neighbor Groups
• Unemployed and Anxiously Employed Worker Groups
The Resilience Circle Network
The Resilience circle Network is a pilot project of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at the Institute for Policy Studies. Learn more at http://localcircles.org.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-3 (SIDE 1)
Resilience Circles: Progression of Sessions
(Strong Cultural (Weak Cultural
Messages) Messages)
ATTACHMENT Intro-3 (SIDE 2)
Session 1 – Security and Insecurity
In this session, participants have a chance to reflect on the sources of their own security and insecurity, and the role the larger economy plays in our lives.
Session 2 - Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation
The old story about the economy tells us that we shouldn’t talk about our economic situation: it is either shamefully bad or embarrassingly good. This session creates a space for people to begin to break the habit of silence.
Session 3 - Changing the Story: A New Vision
Debt and over-consumption are large economic trends, and a major part of the old economic story that has formed the background of the individual stories we shared in Session 2. In this session, we consider that our security depends not on a “recovery” to the old ways, but on imagining something different.
Session 4 - Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security
In Sessions 4 and 5 we will consider the vital role our communities will play in building the new economy we visualized in Session 3. In Session 4 we’ll consider new concepts of community wealth and security, and introduce the idea of mutual aid.
Session 5 - Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid
In this session, we will explore the proposition that ecological changes will deeply alter our economic lives – and that there is no going back to the economy of the past. This session also includes the exchanging of gifts and needs - a tangible experience which shows how much we can help each other.
Session 6 - Changing the Rules
In this session, we will explore the proposition that large corporations exert too much influence over the “rules” that govern our society. With a vision of a new economy (Sessions 2 and 3) and strengthened community ties (Sessions 4 and 5), we are equipped to engage in social action to rewrite these rules. We’ll discuss what types of action this group is interested in.
Session 7 - What’s Next
Session 7 reviews what we have learned together and our vision for a new economy. We explore how we can build “resilience” together and what our next steps as a group will be.
ATTACHMENT INTRO-4
Optional Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Facing Economic Change
Why is this a good time for Resilience Circles?
• Tough times may still lie ahead. While we may see some positive economic changes, millions of jobs are not coming back. Many of us are facing continued economic insecurity in terms of jobs, precarious housing situations, and lack of adequate income.
• The economy is going through a fundamental transition. We know that the economy will be very different in ten or twenty years than it is today. Two of the reasons are:
1. No more debt-fueled economic growth. Our economy has depended on huge levels of debt-fueled consumption. Over the last several decades, we lived through “borrowed times” and ran up against our credit limits as a society. Individuals, companies, banks, and even nations have borrowed more than they can ever pay back. Our financial assets were over-valued which is still leading to foreclosures, bankruptcies, lay-offs, and service cut-backs.
2. Our economic model is not ecologically sustainable. Humanity has borrowed from the past (energy stored as fossil fuels for eons), and we have borrowed from the future (fouling the atmosphere with carbon that won’t dissipate for a century). Our future economic security requires us to live within the earth’s capacity and adapt to changes.
• Our circle is a place to prepare. We need to think now about how we can we prepare ourselves for change – both personally and as a community. There are practical things we can do together that will increase our economic security and community resilience.
• Our democratic system is broken. Part of the breakdown is that our political system has been captured by huge corporations that are focused on very short-term gains. The oil industry wants to block changes in energy systems. Wall Street blocked much of the needed financial reform after the economy meltdown. The financial reform that passed in July 2010 does not end the risky behavior that caused the meltdown. We need to be engaged as citizens to hold government accountable and to be on our side preparing for the future.
Session 1
Security and Insecurity
Welcome to Session 1! We hope you’re excited to get started.
Our hope is that in this session, participants have a chance to reflect on the sources of their own security and insecurity. And, that they leave the session inspired to learn more and get to know each other better.
Objectives
• Reflect on and share what we are experiencing in our own lives.
• Reflect on the sources of security and insecurity in our lives, and especially on the economy as a source of insecurity.
• Help participants identify and transform the cultural messages which lead to isolation and insecurity.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Nametags
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 1-2)
• Optional – Read over “Background Information for Facilitators: Observations on the Economic Crisis” for Activity 2 (ATTACHMENT 1-3)
• Pens for Activity 3
• Pre-made poster showing flow of sessions, or hand out a few copies of ATTACHMENT-Intro 3
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 2 (ATTACHMENT 1-1)
• Transforming Cultural Messages (ATTACHMENT 1-4)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 1
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Security and Insecurity (40)
A. Overview
B. Ground Rules
C. Group Brainstorm: Signs of the Times
D. What Makes Us Insecure?
E. The Economy as a Source of Our Insecurity
Activity 3: Old and New Stories about the Economy (25)
A. Cultural Messages about the Economy
B. Transforming Cultural Messages
Upcoming Sessions (5)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – SESSION 1
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Opening Reading – “Working Together to Create Common Security” by Chuck Collins (ATTACHMENT 1-2)
2. Go-Round – Please tell us your name, where you live and why you joined this circle.
Note: Normally at this point in the opening, you would review the previous session and give an overview of the upcoming session. In Session 1, we suggest giving an overview of the session after the Common Ground exercise.
Activity 1: Getting to Know Each Other -- Common Ground Exercise (10)
Invite people to stand in a circle.
Read: In order to learn more about one another, I’m going to read some statements. If it’s true for you, move into the center of the circle. If you prefer to not respond to any of the statements, just don’t move forward.
• You were born in this state/region.
• Grew up in this state/region.
• Were born outside of state/region (ask where).
• Were born outside the U.S. (ask where).
• You are a parent.
• Have kids at home or kids that are still dependent on you.
• Have a pet at home.
• Have any young people in your life for whom you have a special connection or concern.
• Have any older people in your life for whom you have a special connection or concern.
• Slept less than seven hours last night.
• Watch news on television.
• Are a grandparent.
• Have lived in this neighborhood for more than 10 years.
• Have a vegetable garden.
• Have a practical hobby (ask to mention some).
• Have an impractical hobby (mention some).
• I need people to talk to about the uncertainty I feel about our economic future.
• You like potlucks.
• You want to be part of shaping a more hopeful vision for our nation.
Add others if you wish.
Activity 2: Security and Insecurity (40)
A. Overview of Today’s Session
Read or summarize: Tonight we will be talking about what it means to feel and be secure and some of the causes of our insecurities. Then we’ll look at insecurity in relationship to the current economic downturn. We’ll close the session by reviewing our options for responding to our insecurities.
Obviously we will only skim the surface. Some of the activities will be group discussions, some “popcorn” style where ideas are quickly tossed out, others will involve talking in pairs.
B. Ground Rules
Before beginning the activity, remind participants of the guidelines for interaction.
• Sharing is voluntary. You don’t have to share or personally disclose anything you don’t wish to share.
• Respect one another. We are creating a space of respect and personal safety.
• Confidentiality within the group is required. You should not share any information about anyone else outside the group.
• Give others a chance to speak. Talkative people may want to hold back a little. People who tend to hold back --- please feel invited to open up more.
• Honor our differences. We assume that people are experiencing insecurity differently depending on their class, culture, race, gender and other differences. Let us honor and celebrate our differences. Our intent is not to persuade others of our viewpoints. Regardless of our differences, we all can benefit from strengthening our common security. The main thing is that we listen to and understand each other as our primary objective.
C. Group Brainstorm: Signs of the Times
Use a flipchart or blank poster board to take notes during this activity. Write down the responses to both questions. Note: Brainstorm exercises are designed to elicit brief responses to a question to create a list of ideas without a lot of conversation.
Ask: What things give you a sense of security?
Here are some ideas to add in if they aren’t mentioned or if input lags:
• Feeling safe
• Having enough money
• Having people you can rely on
• Having skills
• Having sources of healthy food and clean water
• Being warm in winter
Ask: What are the signs of economic insecurity that you see in these times?
Be sure to add something about your personal insecurity, and some examples of local and national insecurity, e.g.:
• Unemployment
• Budget cuts
• Foreclosure
• Rising costs
D. What Makes Us Insecure?
Ask people to raise their hands if they feel less secure than they did 10 years ago. Ask if anyone would like to briefly comment. Then, ask participants to pair off with someone. Ask each person, in turn, to take a few minutes to respond to the questions:
How is the economic downturn touching you or someone you love? Or, how do you fear it could touch you?
What things make you feel insecure today?
Ask for a couple of volunteers to share a reflection. Remind the group that no one is obliged to comment.
E. The Economy as a Source of Our Insecurity
Read or summarize: In the preceding activities we noticed that our feelings of insecurity have a lot to do with money and the economy. Obviously this is a huge concern for many if not most people. Let’s focus a bit on what you perceive to be the main causes of the economic crisis. Understanding causes is a step in the direction of proposing solutions.
Ask people to stand and pick a partner. Then ask them to take turns responding to this question (each taking about 2 minutes): “If you were on an elevator and had only a minute or two and someone asked you how our nation got into the economic mess we’re in, how would you respond?”
After five minutes, ask participants to come back together to the large group. Acknowledge the difficulty of trying to answer a complex question with an “elevator speech” (but often this is how it is in life).
Ask participants to mention things that came up for them as major causes of the economic crisis.
Note: Refer to the list of statements made by various critics and analysts of the economic crisis in ATTACHMENT 1-3 to supplement what people offer.
To close this activity, read the following story and comment:
“A man was standing beside a stream when he saw a baby struggling in the water. Without a single thought he jumped in and saved it. No sooner had he placed it gently on the shore than he saw another and jumped in to save it, then another and another. Totally focused on saving babies, he never thought to look upstream to answer the obvious question: Where were the babies coming from, and how did they get in the water?” --- Anonymous
Read or summarize: Most of the solutions being proposed today to fix our economic problems do not address root causes. In order to “look upstream” for the real causes of our economic crisis, we have to think about real system and structural changes for our economy, not just making minor adjustments to or tinkering with a failed system. We’ll think more about structural changes in a later session.
Activity 3: Old and New Stories about the Economy (25)
A. Cultural Messages about the Economy
Prepare some blank poster paper to take notes during this activity. At the top of the paper, write the title Cultural Messages. Pose an open question to the group:
What messages have we absorbed about the current economy and our own economic success or failure?
If participants are slow to offer ideas, help them get started by offering a few examples from the list below, so they understand how you’re asking them to think about the question. Allow no more than ten minutes for this activity. At the end, check to see if any of the major points below has been omitted; if so, add it.
• You are on your own (YO-YO).
• “Recovery” might be slow, but it’s coming.
• This economic slump is just a bump in the road. Our economic system is basically okay.
• You need to figure this out alone. Economic struggles are a reason for personal shame.
• Don’t talk about your economic reality with anyone else – it is either shamefully bad, embarrassingly better or just terribly inappropriate and uncomfortable.
• Infinite growth and expansion is the sign of a healthy economy. Limits, conservation and frugality are for losers and occasional bad times.
Note: We will reuse this list in Session 3. If possible, keep it to re-post then.
Read or summarize: We can bundle these messages together and call them the “old story” about the economy. They contribute to keeping us isolated and alone.
B. Transforming Cultural Messages
Read or summarize: How do we respond to the insecurities we face? We can follow either of two paths. One is “going it alone” by following the old story. The other is “banding together” to form community.
Hand out ATTACHMENT 1-4, “Transforming Cultural Messages,” and ask participants to take some time to fill in the right-hand column.
Possible responses:
GOING IT ALONE BANDING TOGETHER (FORMING COMMUNITY)
Fear…………………………………………Hope
Isolation……………………………………Social Connection
Self-protection…………………………… Common Security
Flight (running away; hiding, denial)……Fight (face challenges; hold your ground)
Accept winner-loser economic model… New Economic Reality
Insecure………………………………… Feeling supported, loved, cared for
Exhausted…………………………………Energized
Self-blame…………………………………Collective responsibility
Anxious……………………………………Encouraged
Scapegoating…………………………… Accepting collective responsibility
Individual Action…………………………Collective Action
Hunkering Down………………………… Rising up together
Fortress mentality…………………………Open door attitude
Shame in having needs…………………Recognition that we are interdependent
Limited…………………………………… Resourceful
Powerless…………………………………Empowered
Go through the list and ask people to call out ideas for the left column.
Read or summarize: We are concerned that many people will face economic challenges in isolation. Even those connected to extended families, religious congregations, unions and civic groups may be embarrassed or ashamed to reach out for assistance. A Duke University study about social isolation found that in 2004, one in four Americans said they had no one to confide in about personal troubles. Another one in four had only one person to talk to, usually a spouse. This is twice the number of people who, 20 years earlier, had no one to turn to for this crucial support.
Banding together is one of the best ways to increase our personal and collective security. By working together we can accomplish things that no one person or family can accomplish – like a barn-raising a century ago. This is a new story, a story about real security, that shows how inventive, creative and cooperative we can be, even during hard times.
In our future Resilience Circle sessions we will talk about how we can join with others to make changes in our lives and increase our security. A Resilience Circle is about learning together, providing mutual aid, and joining together in social action. In the process, we get to know neighbors and friends better, find inspiration, have fun and strengthen community.
Upcoming Sessions (5)
Post the prepared chart showing the overview of upcoming sessions. See ATTACHMENT Intro-3 (SIDE 1) for a model. Alternatively, you could pass out a few copies of ATTACHMENT Intro-3 for people to look over. Summarize the flow of upcoming sessions in your own words, and invite any questions.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you haven’t already, read through the “Economic Meltdown Funnies.” Download at http://tinyurl.com/meltdownfunnies, or contact the Resilience Circle Network for paper copies at Info@LocalCircles.org.
B. Before the next session, consider getting together at someone’s home to watch “Inside Job,” an Academy Award winning documentary about the economic meltdown. You can rent the DVD or stream it online through Amazon.com.
3. Suggested Closing Reading – Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor (ATTACHMENT 1-2)
ATTACHMENT 1-1
Session 1
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Our Security and Insecurity (40)
Activity 3: Old and New Stories about the Economy (25)
Upcoming Sessions (5)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 2
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you haven’t already, read through the “Economic Meltdown Funnies.” Download at http://tinyurl.com/meltdownfunnies, or contact the Resilience Circle Network for paper copies at Info@LocalCircles.org.
B. Before the next session, consider getting together at someone’s home to watch “Inside Job,” an Academy Award winning documentary about the economic meltdown. You can rent the DVD or stream it online through Amazon.com.
ATTACHMENT 1-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “Working Together to Create Common Security” by Chuck Collins
I recently had coffee with a single friend who rents an apartment in my neighborhood. She was worried her job would be cut. I said, offhandedly, “You can come live with us.” “I can?” she said, and started to cry. “Of course. You will always have a place to live.” She began to sob. Then a thought crossed my mind, “as long as we have our house.” How quickly we go to our most vulnerable place.
In the coming year, I believe that personal economic security will further erode for millions of us. This economic crisis is not “out there.” It is real and present in our daily lives. Many people will face these challenges in isolation. Even those connected to religious congregations, unions, or civic groups may be embarrassed or ashamed to reach out for help.
My friend told me later that she burst into tears that day because she “felt held”—not physically, but emotionally, by her friends. In our most anxious moments we must hold one another, remind one another of what we have together.
We need to find those who are being left behind and hold them. We must build a solidarity economy that leaves no one behind. We should banish the myth of the autonomous individual and embrace the full reality of our covenantal existence: We are not alone. And we are nothing without each other.
Let us hold one another and move from autonomy and isolation to community and covenantal existence, from anxiety to divine abundance, from an economy of greed to one of neighborly generosity.
UU World, Spring 2009.
Suggested Closing Reading: Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor
There is a way forward, and I call it plenitude. The word calls attention to the inherent bounty of nature that we need to recover. It directs us to the chance to be rich in the things that matter to us most, and the wealth that is available in our relations with one another.
Plentitude… involves a way of life that will yield more well-being than sticking to business as usual, which has led both the natural and economic environments into decline…
Plentitude is also about transition. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Creating a sustainable economy will take decades, and this is a strategy for prospering during that shift. The beauty of the approach is that it is available right now.
Anyone can get started, and many are. It was the right way to go before the economic collapse, in part because it predicted a worsening landscape. It makes even more sense in a period of slow growth or stagnation.
As individuals take up the principles of plenitude, they are not merely adopting a private response to what is… a collective problem. Rather they are pioneers of the micro (individual-level) activity that is necessary to create the macro (system-wide) equilibrium, to correct an economy that is badly out of balance.
Penguin, 2010.
ATTACHMENT 1-3
Background Information for Facilitators: Observations on the Economic Crisis
In the fall of 2008, the financial system came close to a total collapse. Economic stability was brought about through massive bailouts, a stimulus bill to create jobs and government guarantees. But while the economy was temporarily rescued from free fall, it hasn’t been fundamentally fixed.
Here are some of the reasons that people give for the economic crisis.
• Home prices were allowed to soar for a decade, outstripping their real value, despite warning signs of collapse. When the debt bubble eventually burst, $8 trillion of artificially inflated value vanished overnight.
• For decades, government failed to provide effective oversight to Wall Street investment bank. A large “shadow banking” system emerged –including complex financial investment schemes such as hedge funds, derivatives, credit default swaps, etc. These were complicated investment schemes for the very wealthy, who used their lobbying power to keep government from watching out for the public interest.
• A shady sub-prime mortgage scandal was fueled by unethical and illegal practices on the part of companies that issue mortgages, many of which were not banks (like Countrywide Financial). They sold their loans to the “shadow finance” sector – which then sold them to all kinds of investors, including retirement investment funds, school boards, religious organizations and individual investors. No one was responsible for ensuring they were reasonable loans.
• A lot of us got in over our heads – by borrowing too much and living beyond our means. Individuals are responsible for this.
• Credit card vendors and mortgage brokers pushed easy credit and encouraged people to buy more things than they could afford. Our whole culture encouraged excessive borrowing and spending rather than saving.
• Over the last 20 years, huge amounts of wealth have become concentrated in the hands of a small number of people. These wealthy investors wanted to make lots of money fast, so moved large sums into unregulated and unethical investment schemes. When the bottom fell out on these, it triggered the meltdown.
Our economy is going through a fundamental transition. We had economic growth based on borrowing. That is over. Over the last couple decades, the fastest growing part of the economy was “finance” (banks, lending, investments). According to experts, fantastic amounts of wealth were created. But how much of this was real wealth – based on creation of real goods and services that serve our lives and make our communities healthy? And how much was paper wealth – an illusion – like the inflated value of land and houses?
The author David Korten makes a distinction between REAL WEALTH and PHANTOM WEALTH. REAL WEALTH includes the things we can see and touch in our local economies: food, medicine, and useful goods. It includes services like electricians, bus drivers, and mental health workers.
PHANTOM WEALTH includes betting, financial speculation, gambling on the movements of money. It is disconnected from the productive economy with its tangible goods and services. The phantom wealth economy squeezes value out of the productive real economy by charging fees, interest, ATM charges, and extracting money as it moves through the economy.
ATTACHMENT 1-4
Handout: Transforming Cultural Messages
GOING IT ALONE BANDING TOGETHER (FORMING COMMUNITY)
Fear…………………………………………
Isolation……………………………………
Self-protection……………………………
Flight (running away; hiding, denial)……
Accept winner-loser economic model…
Insecure…………………………………
Exhausted…………………………………
Self-blame…………………………………
Anxious……………………………………
Scapegoating……………………………
Individual Action…………………………
Hunkering Down…………………………
Fortress mentality…………………………
Shame in having needs…………………
Limited……………………………………
Powerless…………………………………
Session 2
Changing the Story: Breaking Isolation
The old story about the economy tells us that we shouldn’t talk about our economic situation: it is either shamefully bad or embarrassingly good. This session creates a space for people to begin to break the habit of silence.
As a facilitator, you should prepare to hear about people’s economic struggles. If people open up, thank them for their bravery. Remember, your role as facilitator is not to solve their problems. The key is to hold a relaxed, accepting space for people to share.
Objectives
• Hear each others’ stories, and share our reasons for joining this Resilience Circle.
• Begin to think about what it means to live in “Borrowed Times.”
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Copy of the opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 2-2)
• Optional - Wristwatch or “talking stick” for Activity 2
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 3 (ATTACHMENT 2-1)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 2
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Getting to Know Each Other (70)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 2
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – “The Ancient Redwood Trees of Northern California” (Anonymous) (ATTACHMENT 2-2)
2. Go-Round – Please share something that brought you hope or joy since our last meeting.
3. Review and Overview
Brief Review of First Session
In our first session, we talked about:
• The things we need to feel secure, and the insecurities we face.
• We confirmed that many of our insecurities stem from financial struggles and the larger economic downturn.
• The old story tells us that we are on our own to figure out how to cope.
Focus of Today’s Session
Today we are going to focus on getting to know each other by finding out more about why each of us joined this Resilience Circle. We’ll also touch briefly on the theme of “Living in Borrowed Times.”
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Tell participants that we are going to do a common ground similar to the first session. Invite participants to stand up in a circle to see where we have common ground.
Remind participants that you are going to ask a question.
Read or summarize: If it’s true for you, take a step or two into the middle. For instance, if you have a pet at home, step forward. Some of these questions are more personal. If you’d prefer to keep your privacy about any of them, that’s fine, just don’t step forward. You can also call out your own questions; just be sure to ask questions that are true for you. The theme of this common ground is “Living in Borrowed Times.”
Begin with several questions until others volunteer their own. A list of suggested questions is included below. Keep the energy up by injecting questions if others don’t have any. End with several questions on the “lighter side.”
Step into the circle if you…
• Have debt.
• I feel like I’m “up to my eyeballs” in debt.
• Have more than two credit cards.
• I have no credit cards.
• Owe more than I own.
• I have a car loan.
• I have gotten a “pay day loan” or advance on a paycheck.
• My bank has charged me overdraft fees.
• For homeowners: The bank owns my house (humor).
• Homeowner: I have a mortgage on my house.
• Homeowner: I might owe more than my house is worth.
• Homeowner: I’ve borrowed against the value of my house – a second mortgage.
• Some months I don’t pay off the balance of my credit card.
• I’ve renegotiated the fees on my credit cards.
• I know people who’ve gone to “Debtors Anonymous.”
• I know people in foreclosure or eviction.
• I buy stuff I don’t need.
• I shop when I’m sad or lonely.
• My family expects expensive gifts as a sign of love.
• My kids want expensive things.
• I don't have money put away for my future or my kids’ future.
Activity 2: Getting to Know Each Other (70)
This activity is designed to give participants an open space to talk about why they joined the Resilience Circle.
A. Pair Sharing
Ask participants to pair up with someone near them. Tell them that in this activity, we will be sharing why we joined this circle. When listening to others, our role is to be respectful and accepting, without giving advice or trying to solve people’s problems.
Ask people to address the following questions with their partner:
Why did you join this Resilience Circle? What is one specific thing you want others in the group to know about you?
B. Full Group Sharing
After about ten minutes, bring everyone’s attention back to the full group. Explain that we will be doing an extended “go-round,” the practice we used at the beginning of this and the first session. In this go-round, participants will have about five minutes each to share with the group their thoughts on the above questions. Anyone can pass if they like, and everyone should only share what they are comfortable with.
Facilitator Tips:
It will be important for people to achieve closure in their remarks before moving to the next person.
One way to hold a comfortable boundary on the time each person takes is to arrange for a watch to be passed around, travelling behind the person who is speaking. Let’s say you are the speaker: the person next to you holds a watch, and when five minutes have passed, quietly slips you the watch as a non-verbal cue that you should wrap up your sharing. You close your thoughts, and then start timing for the next person.
Another possibility is to pass a “talking stick,” which symbolizes who has the floor and makes people aware of the timing of their remarks.
If it seems someone isn’t sure how to wind down, you might ask, “Is there anything else you would like to share with us?” If it seems appropriate, you might thank individual people for sharing once they are done. In many cases, it takes courage to share our struggles.
If a participant becomes very emotional and is not able to continue with the group, ask if someone would be able to leave the group with him or her until they feel ready to rejoin. Remember that the range of emotions is okay, and that your role as facilitator is to stay relaxed and accepting.
Explain:
Please take about five minutes to tell us why you joined this Resilience Circle, and tell us one specific thing you want others in the group to know about you.
Remember that this is not a time for us to try and solve each others’ problems or offer advice. Try to listen and understand the range of experiences in our group.
Once the last participant has shared her or his story, thank the group.
Closing thoughts to read or summarize: At the beginning of each session, we will have a similar go-round to check in with each other. It will be much shorter, but as a group we can always decide to shift focus and address things that may come up. This is our way of getting to know each other, building trust, and creating a support network.
At the next session we will talk more about living in “Borrowed Times,” and see how our stories are part of large national trends. We will begin to talk about a new kind of economy that is better for everyone.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone on the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Watch “The Story of Stuff,” a 20 minute video available at http://storyofstuff.com.
Note: Try to make sure everyone has Internet access. If not, you might make arrangements to show the video 20 minutes before the start of the next meeting, which can be done on a laptop computer if no other method is available. You can download the video for free at the site listed above.
B. Consider doing a Potluck and Recipe Swap at the next meeting. If your group wants to go this route, bring a simple affordable dish to share along with copies of the recipe.
3. Suggested Closing Reading – “Connections” by Marge Piercy (ATTACHMENT 2-2)
ATTACHMENT 2-1
Session 2
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Common Ground (10)
Activity 2: Getting to Know Each Other (70)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 3
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Watch “The Story of Stuff,” a 20 minute video available at http://storyofstuff.com.
B. Consider doing a Potluck and Recipe Swap at the next meeting. If your group wants to go this route, bring a simple affordable dish to share along with copies of the recipe.
ATTACHMENT 2-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “The Ancient Redwood Trees of Northern California” (Anonymous)
The ancient redwood trees of Northern California,
Huge as they are,
Have very shallow root systems.
Yet they cannot be blown over by the strongest wind.
The secret of their stability is
The interweaving of each tree’s roots with
Those that stand by it.
Thus, a vast network of support is formed
Just beneath the surface.
In the wildest storms,
These trees hold each other up.
Suggested Closing Reading: “Connections” by Marge Piercy
Connections are made slowly, sometimes they grow underground.
You cannot always tell by looking at what is happening
More than half a tree is spread out in the soil under your feet.
Penetrate quietly as the earthworm that blows no trumpet.
Fight persistently as the creeper that brings down the tree.
Spread like the squash plant that overruns the garden
Gnaw in the dark, and use the sun to make sugar.
Weave real connections, create real nodes, build real houses.
Live a life you can endure: make life that is loving.
Keep tangling and interweaving and taking more in, a thicket and bramble
wilderness to the outside but to us it is interconnected with rabbit runs and burrows and lairs.
This is how we are going to live for a long time: not always.
For every gardener knows that after the digging, after the planting, after the long season of tending and growth, the harvest comes.
Session 3
Changing the Story: A New Vision
In Session 3 we return to the theme of “Living in Borrowed Times.” Debt and over-consumption are large economic trends, and a major part of the old economic story that has formed the background of the individual stories we shared in Session 2.
In this session, we consider that our security depends not on a “recovery” to the old ways, but on imagining something different.
Objectives
• Reflect on and share the way our lives are impacted by debt and over-consumption, and learn that these are national trends – not just individual problems.
• Be able to identify the old story messages about the economy in everyday life and begin to create a new story alternative.
• Begin to envision a new world with stronger communities and community-based security.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings. Note that there are several options for the closing reading. (ATTACHMENT 3-2)
• Copy of “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Living in Borrowed Times” (ATTACHMENT 3-3)
• Cut-up copy of “Skit Ideas: Old Story to New Story” (ATTACHMENT 3-4)
• Copy of “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Toward a Vision of New Security” by Linda Schmoldt (ATTACHMENT 3-5)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 4 (ATTACHMENT 3-1)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 3
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Living in Borrowed Times (30)
Activity 2: Transforming the Story (20)
Activity 3: An Example of a New Vision (30)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 3
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading - “How the Stock Market Works” by auto mechanic Gunther Gaitlin as told to Joe Baegent (ATTACHMENT 3-2)
2. Go-Round: If you are doing a potluck and recipe swap, tell us about your recipe. If not, ask people to share a savings tip for grocery shopping or other necessities.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Second Session
In our last session we had a chance to hear form each other about why we think this Resilience Circle is important.
Focus of Today’s Session
Today we will talk about some of the national trends behind our individual stories, such as debt and over-consumption. We will explore ways we can replace our national story about the economy with a new vision of a better life together.
Activity 1: Living in Borrowed Times (30)
Ask for a volunteer to begin the read-aloud in ATTACHMENT 3-3, “Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Living In Borrowed Times,” and have each participant read a paragraph before passing it on to their neighbor.
When you have finished the reading, ask the group to call to mind the video they watched for homework, “The Story of Stuff.” Explain that the reading we just shared and the video point out large economic trends. We’ll discuss how these trends relate to our lives. (Before asking the questions below, you may want to ask someone to summarize the video.)
Ask:
In the reading we heard about “Living in Borrowed Times.” How is your life affected by debt, on a personal level?
How is your life part of “The Story of Stuff”?
Ask participants to raise their hands if they would like to take further steps to reduce debt in their lives. Take note of these folks and email them the link to “Action Ideas: Beyond Debt,” found on the Resilience Circle Network website. Take note of the interest in this topic for future projects (ATTACHMENT 6-4 lists activities related to budgeting and reducing debt).
Conclude with this question:
Given that the current economy is foundering because it’s based on debt-fueled consumption, what does that mean about the prospects for a “recovery”? Can we go back to the way things were before 2008?
Activity 2: Transforming the Story (20)
Read: As we noted in Session 1, our culture has told us many old stories that affect the way we think and act. These kinds of messages insist that we should try to go back to the way things were instead of creating something new.
Post the following list of old story messages that the group brainstormed in Session 1, or ask participants to quickly brainstorm a new list. Make sure to draw out the major themes below. Ask:
What messages have we absorbed about the economy, especially from the mainstream media?
Major themes include:
• You are on your own (YO-YO).
• “Recovery” might be slow, but it’s coming.
• This economic slump is just a bump in the road, and our economic system is basically okay.
• You need to figure this out alone. Economic struggles are a reason for personal shame.
• Don’t talk about your economic reality with anyone else – it is either shamefully bad, embarrassingly better or just terribly inappropriate and uncomfortable.
• Economic winners deserve to take the best place; losers don’t deserve anything.
• Infinite growth and expansion is the sign of a healthy economy. Limits, conservation and frugality are for losers and occasional bad times.
Read: Now, we are going to practice identifying and transforming old messages like these into something new.
Ask participants to break into small groups. Distribute one of the cut up slips of paper from ATTACHMENT 3-4 to each group. Each slip contains an old story message on it, such as “If you lose your job it’s your own fault.”
Ask participants to create two minute-long skits. One will exemplify the old message, and one will transform it into something new.
After watching the skits, other participants will have to guess what the old and new messages are.
Activity 3: An Example of a New Vision (30)
Ask participants to pass-around and read-aloud inspired by “Toward a Vision of Security” by Portland facilitator Linda Schmoldt (ATTACHMENT 3-5).
After finishing the reading, ask these discussion questions:
What do you think of this vision?
How would you modify it to fit your neighborhood?
What is keeping us from living in this world now?
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you have lived through tough economic times, such as the Great Depression, think about sharing some of your survival strategies with the group next time. Or, talk to a grandparent, another elder, or someone you know who has survived tough times.
B. Visit the web page http://shareable.net/how-to-share and browse the many ideas for “sharing” things, time, skills and more. Take note of any that interest you to share with the group next time.
3. Closing Reading Options - Prayers Related to Debt (ATTACHMENT 3-2)
ATTACHMENT 3-1
Session 3
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Living in Borrowed Times (30)
Activity 2: Transforming the Story (20)
Activity 3: An Example of a New Vision (30)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 4
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. If you have lived through tough economic times, such as the Great Depression, think about sharing some of your survival strategies with the group next time. Or, talk to a grandparent, another elder, or someone you know who has survived tough times.
B. Visit the web page http://shareable.net/how-to-share and browse the many ideas for “sharing” things, time, skills and more. Take note of any that interest you to share with the group next time.
ATTACHMENT 3-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “How the Stock Market Works” by auto mechanic Gunther Gaitlin as told to Joe Baegeant
I'll tell ya what the stock market game is all about. Used to be that a guy would pick a stock based on the facts. After a while, it got so that people looked around to see what other people's average opinion was, and they bet on that. Nowadays you look around and try to guess what the average opinion of the average opinion is. If you can guess enough other people's guesses about other people's guesses, then you bet on that and you make money. Don't #@!#@ matter if the stock is a dog.
The stock market now runs the whole damned economy based on what fools believe other fools believe other fools believe. Run by a bunch of economists who figure that if they make enough fools believe the stock market is OK, then the economy will be OK.
What if I ran my business that way? What if all I had to do was make people believe their cars were fixed? I'd go broke.
http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/03/from-wall-street.html
Closing Reading Options: Prayers Related to Debt
HUMOR: SHOPPING ADDICT PRAYER
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot afford and not try to buy them anyway; [the] courage to change my mind about something I don’t really like and just take it back or leave it in the store to begin with; and [the] wisdom to know the difference between items that are worth the expense and items that should only ever be bought out of season, on super sale or at Target.
http://www.debthacker.com/the-debt-serenity-prayer/
A PRAYER SEEKING GUIDANCE
Lord God, your will is to bring hope and a future to all your people.
Trusting in your steadfast love,
we ask your guidance as we work out a household budget.
Help us to learn to let no debt remain outstanding,
except the debt to love one another,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A PRAYER FOR WISE FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP
Lord Jesus Christ,
by taking human flesh you sanctified material things
to be a means of your grace;
grant us wisdom in our attitude to money,
and a generous heart in the use of the resources entrusted to us,
that by faithful stewardship we may glorify you. Amen.
ATTACHMENT 3-3
Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Living in Borrowed Times
We are living in borrowed times. When people hear about consumer debt, they sometimes rush to judgment. They either blame irresponsible individuals for borrowing too much, or predatory lenders for pushing easy credit and unreachable dreams. The reality is that both things are true.
Individuals are responsible for their borrowing and consumption choices. At the same time, there have been structural changes in the economy that have pushed people into debt as a survival strategy. Our entire culture has shifted in relation to debt and consumption.
For the last thirty years, real wages (after inflation) have remained flat or actually fallen for the majority of people in the U.S. So how have we survived? For many households, part of the answer has been by working longer hours and having more family members join the paid workforce (including children).
The other way people have survived is by borrowing. We’ve borrowed on credit cards. We’ve borrowed from Payday Loans and Pawn Shops. Homeowners have borrowed against the value of their homes.
Some of that borrowing has been to buy more stuff that maybe we didn’t need. Many of us have lived beyond our means, thanks to easy credit. But for many, borrowing has been an economic necessity because of medical costs, broken-down cars, long commutes to jobs, or caring for needy family members. The number one cause of bankruptcy in the U.S. is unexpected medical costs.
Over the decade prior to the meltdown, the expanding finance industry pushed “loose money” like a drug. In 2007, credit card companies sent out 6 billion credit card solicitations. Shady finance companies acted like “debt pushers,” touting the availability of cheap credit and flexible arrangements. We were encouraged to buy more, bigger and newer.
Our cultural attitudes towards buying stuff and borrowing have shifted in the last generation. Our elders remember a time when it was unthinkable to borrow so much beyond our income. Prior to 1975, borrowing to buy a modest home and maybe a car was the norm. But it was unusual to borrow money to buy electronics, go on vacation, or play the stock market. The cultural norm was to “live within one’s means” and buy mostly durable items that would have lasting benefits.
Of course, this was not true for everyone. There are some of us who have not had access to easy credit or have chosen to be thrifty. But the national trends are powerful. Over the last generation, we stopped saving money. Our national savings rate – the percentage of our annual incomes we save after expenses -- went from 11 percent a year in 1983 to a negative 1 percent in 2007.
The good news is that after the 2008 economic meltdown, our national savings rate started to go back up again. Many people adjusted their spending to live within their means. But there is enormous pressure to return to our borrowing ways.
ATTACHMENT 3-4
Handout: Skit Ideas: Old Story to New Story
Cut these into separate strips of paper to distribute to small groups during the session.
Everyone has to have their own….(fill in the blank: car / ladder / snow-blower / computer)
If you lose your job it’s your fault.
Success is a reflection of wealth and status.
“Even Steven” -- You do something for me, I need to pay you back in kind.
The health of our economy depends on our spending and buying.
ATTACHMENT 3-5
Pass-Around Read-Aloud: Inspired by “Toward a Vision of Security” by Linda Schmoldt
You wake up in the morning and you’re not worried. There is no fear or anxiety clenching any part of your body.
Your house or apartment is appropriately warm or cool. You can turn on the heat or air conditioning because you know you can afford it - and that the earth can afford it since it is powered by a renewable source of energy. Plus your home’s super-insulation means you use a lot less energy.
You get your kids moving and get ready to go to your job, but you don’t feel rushed because you have a flexible schedule. Your extended family and neighbors produce a lot of your own necessities and care for one another, so you don’t need to work as many hours as you once did.
You pull lunches from the freezer that you made last week with your neighborhood meal-cooking group. Instead of everyone cooking in their own kitchen, one fun social gathering a week creates many of your main meals and kids’ snacks.
Your spouse is taking your youngest child who has a little cough to a drop-in clinic in your neighborhood. You’re not worried about bothering them with a little concern, because their focus is on preventative medicine and catching things early.
Okay, you have to break up a fight between your kids. They’re fighting over who gets to play with the toy truck, modeled after the one that collects all the recycling and waste. Some of the neighborhood kids want to be “resource managers” when they grow up.
You walk to take the kids to the neighborhood school that has great after-school programs, a gym and a small farm where kids all learn and pitch-in with food growing. The teachers share their love of learning with the students – and there is no great disparity in quality between your school and the school in the next community. Then you get on the convenient bus that will zip you to work.
After work, you head to the home of one of your Resilience Circle members for dinner. It’s a lovely evening and lots of kids are playing in the street that was blocked off a few years ago as a play space.
Your partner is talking to your teenage neighbor. She is graduating and is excited about her two-year “selective service assignment.” She got her top choice placement working in a research lab. She knows that when she finishes, she will be able to apply her selective service stipend toward her reasonable college tuition. Most teenagers have learned a practical trade and skills that mean they’ll contribute to society’s real needs.
You stop and talk to a group who are painting a neighbor’s house. Last year you were part of a team that kept the property from foreclosure. Now it will be a home for an expanding family.
When you arrive home, you see that one of your neighbors is replacing
your broken window. You give her some tomatoes from your garden. You’re thankful for the skills exchange in the neighborhood.
Linda Schmoldt is a Resilience Circle facilitator in Portland, OR.
Session 4
Strengthening Community: Real Wealth and Security
In Sessions 2 and 3, we talked about writing a new economic story. In the next two sessions we will consider the vital role our communities will play in building something new. Today we’ll consider new concepts of community wealth and security, and introduce the idea of mutual aid.
One important thing for facilitators to notice during the session is what knowledge of mutual aid already exists in the group. For instance, Mormon, African American and recent immigrant communities often already have strong mutual aid traditions, and elders may remember surviving tough times like the Great Depression. If there are elders or others with special knowledge in your group, make sure to honor their wisdom.
Objectives
• Deepen our understanding of the roots of real security and wealth.
• Recognize our capacity to enhance our common security through community activities, especially mutual aid.
• Begin thinking about what the group might do once the initial seven sessions are finished.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 4-2)
• Prepared security tree drawing on poster paper or flipchart
• Pens for Activity 1
• Copy of “Good News about Your Net Worth” by Jay Walljasper (ATTACHMENT 4-4)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 5 (ATTACHMENT 4-1)
• Real Security Tree (ATTACHMENT 4-3)
• Things We Can Do Together: 6 Ideas (ATTACHMENT 4-5)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 4
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Real Security Tree (45)
Activity 2: Mutual Aid (35)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 4
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – “We Need One Another” by George Odell (ATTACHMENT 4-2)
2. Go-Round: If you have lived through tough times before, share some of the wisdom you have from this experience. Or, if you spoke with an elder after our last session, share what you heard from them about surviving in tough times.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Third Session
• Our lives are part of the larger trends in our society toward over-consumption and debt.
• We cannot return to the old model of economic growth for both social and environmental reasons.
• We need to create new stories that do not limit and isolate us, and we practiced doing that with the role plays.
Focus of Today’s Session
Today we’re going to talk about the nature of real security and see that it is based in the real wealth. We’ll also talk about how we can strengthen our communities and mutual aid efforts.
Activity 1: Our Security Trees (45)
A. Introducing The Real Security Tree
Introduce this activity with the following talking points:
• We’ve been told that our security is material – and rooted in accumulating material wealth.
• There is no question that there is a material basis to security: food, shelter, money to live on in old age.
• But there are lots of things that make us secure beyond material forms of security. This activity will examine the whole range of things that make us secure.
• We have a lot to learn from elders and others who have lived through tough times.
Display the poster-sized drawing of a Real Security Tree that you prepared:
• This is a Real Security Tree. Each of us is like a tree, with roots that give us our stability, and branches, leaves and fruit that are the way we offer back.
• Let’s start with the roots - those things from which we draw stability and security.
Ask:
What are the most important sources of your economic security and stability?
Get a few answers and write these answers up close to the base of the tree. (For example: job, income, immediate family, pension.)
• This is the core of our security, but there is much more. Our security and stability also comes from other sources.
Read each category below, offer one example yourself, and then ask for one or two more examples. Leave it at that. People will come up with more on their own when they develop their personal security trees. With each new category write the examples on the roots, getting further out from the base of the tree. Keep the activity moving along briskly.
• Relationships (e.g. extended family, friends, neighbors, teachers, co-workers, etc.). The roots near the surface are the people that help make us secure.
• Our membership in a specific community, organization or institution (e.g. faith community, union, local community organization).
• Participation in services, programs and institutions managed by our local, state and federal government (e.g. libraries, community colleges, schools, parks, fire department, social security, health centers, transit, etc.).
• Environment/ecosystem - The security roots take sustenance from healthy soil and clean water and air, and can only survive in a relatively stable and healthy climate.
Now let’s look at the branches, leaves, seeds and fruits of the tree. These are all the things we offer back - our skills, talents, and gifts that we contribute as a family member, friend, co-worker, volunteer, community member, citizen, artist, etc. This includes everything from parental love all the way to paying your taxes!
Ask for four to six examples, and write them in the appropriate place on the Real Security Tree.
B. Individual Tree Drawing
Invite participants to take ten minutes to draw and personalize their own Real Security Tree.
The Roots: Ask them to think about their own security, considering all the categories.
Write or draw who and what gives you your security and stability.
Notice where you have lots to put down and notice where you find gaps.
The Top of the Tree:
Now add the branches, leaves and fruits - your gifts and contributions.
Again notice all the ways, large and small, that you contribute to the security of the community.
C. Paired Sharing
Invite participants to share their personal Real Security Tree with a partner.
• Where are your roots strong?
• Where do you wish your roots of security were stronger; what could you do to increase your security?
• What contributions do you make and which are you proudest of?
After five minutes, remind partners to switch in order to review the second person’s Real Security Tree.
D. Large Group Discussion
Ask:
What additional sources of security did you identify in your personal trees?
What about gifts and contributions – what additions did you come up with?
Keep it moving while trying to examples from as many people as possible. Be sure to include some of the big-picture but less visible social roots and branches, such as health care, public education, social security, and democratic systems. Remind participants to think of both the formal and informal, and the tangible and intangible aspects of your community.
Talking point: Many of the sources of our security are things we hold in common, like public education, clean air, and our democratic systems. These things are part of “The Commons.”
Ask: What else on our tree is part of the commons?
Solicit quick answers from the group, then ask for a volunteer to read the short reading in ATTACHMENT 4-4, “Good News About Your Net Worth,” by Jay Walljasper. Or, ask participants to each read a paragraph and then pass it to their neighbor.
Invite a few quick comments before moving on to the next section. Note that further study of The Commons might be an activity we pursue when done with the curriculum.
Activity 2: Mutual Aid (35)
A. Introduction
Read or summarize: Think back to our branches and leaves, or the gifts we can share. In this activity, we will think about some very concrete things we might do together to increase our security by sharing our gifts. This is called “mutual aid.”
B. Small Group Discussions
Divide participants into small groups of three to four people and distribute the handout, ATTACHMENT 4-5, “Things We Can Do Together: 6 Ideas.”
Invite the groups to look over this short list of ideas and to recall the ideas they read for homework on Shareable.net. Explain that this list and the homework can inspire them to think of their own ideas. Have each group discuss these questions:
Looking at the list, do any of these ideas interest you?
Did any ideas from Sharable.net interest you?
What other ideas do you have?
Ask someone in each small group to take notes. Explain that after talking in small groups for 10 minutes, we will reassemble to hear from each group.
C. Closing Large Group Discussion
Bring the small group discussions to a close and reassemble everyone into a single large group. Tell the participants that we would like to hear each group’s suggestions, ideas and reflections.
Assign a scribe to capture all the ideas, making careful notes and indicating where there is particular energy and interest.
One way to allow equitable sharing time is to ask each group to share no more than three ideas or comments. After hearing three ideas from each group, if there is enough time, you can go around to hear from each group again.
Thank the group for sharing their ideas. Explain that we will keep track of them, and some of the ideas are things that the circle might want to investigate and do together. Let participants know that at the seventh meeting we will discuss projects to undertake and these ideas will be among the possibilities.
Conclude this conversation with the following question:
How has this exercise changed your notion of wealth? What do you think might be implied by the term real wealth?
Talking points to read or summarize (you could also ask a volunteer to read these):
• Real wealth has intrinsic, as contrasted to exchange, value.
• Life, not money, is the measure of real-wealth value. Some of the most important forms of real wealth are beyond price and are unavailable for market purchase (e.g., beautiful environment, caring communities). Other forms of real wealth may or may not have a market price such as: food, fertile land, pure water, clean air, education, health care, etc.
• Real wealth is contrasted with phantom wealth, which relates to money created by accounting entries or the inflation of asset bubbles unrelated to the creation of anything of real value or utility.
• It is also contrasted to symbolic wealth, which is based on symbols (such as brands) that signify wealth or power rather than things of real utility or value.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. For the next session, bring in a list of Gifts (skills, time, tools, equipment, etc.) that you could make available to other group members, and Needs they would like to receive help with. At the end of Session 4, decide with your circle if you will bring in lists, or write up gifts and needs on separate notecards. During Session 5, we will share these offerings and needs with one another.
B. Optional Reading: “Crash Course in Resilience” by Sarah Van Gelder, YES! Magazine, Fall 2010. Available at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/crash-course-in-resilience.
3. Suggested Closing Reading – “The Larger Circle” by Wendell Berry (ATTACHMENT 4-2)
ATTACHMENT 4-1
Session 4
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Real Security Tree (45)
Activity 2: Mutual Aid (35)
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 5
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. For the next session, bring in a list of Offerings (skills, time, equipment, etc.) that you could make available to other group members, and Needs they would like to receive help with. At the end of Session 4, decide with your circle if you will bring in lists, or write up gifts and needs on separate notecards. During Session 5, we will share these offerings and needs with one another.
B. Optional Reading: “Crash Course in Resilience” by Sarah Van Gelder, YES! Magazine, Fall 2010. Available at http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/a-resilient-community/crash-course-in-resilience.
ATTACHMENT 4-2
Suggested Opening Reading: “We Need One Another” by George Odell
We need one another when we mourn and would be comforted… when we are in trouble and afraid… when we despair, in temptation, and need to be recalled to our best selves again.
We need one another when we would accomplish some great purpose, and cannot do it alone… in the hour of our successes, when we look for someone to share our triumphs [and] in the hour of our defeat when with encouragement we might endure and stand again.
We need one another when we come to die, and would have gentle hands prepare us for the journey. All our lives we are in need, and others are in need of us.
Suggested Closing Reading: “The Larger Circle” by Wendell Berry
We clasp the hands of those that go before us,
And the hands of those who come after us.
We enter the little circle of each other’s arms
And the larger circle of lovers,
Whose hands are joined in a dance
And the larger circle of all creatures
Passing in and out of life
Who move also in a dance
To a music so subtle and vast that no ear hears it
Except in fragments.
ATTACHMENT 4-3
Handout: The Real Security Tree
ATTACHMENT 4-4
Read Aloud: “Good News About Your Net Worth” by Jay Walljasper
What you possess individually accounts for only part of your true net worth. Each of us also owns a stake in some extremely valuable assets: clean air, fresh water, national forests, the Internet, public universities, libraries, blood banks, rich cultural traditions and more.
All these things are part of what is now being called "the commons," and they are more important than ever.
The things we all share enhance our lives in countless ways - the roads we travel, parks where we gather, publicly funded medical and scientific breakthroughs we take advantage of, the accumulated human knowledge we use for free many times each day. In fact, without these commonly held resources, our modern society and market economy would never have gotten off the ground.
The commons is becoming a model for thinking differently about how we make decisions, manage resources and think about responsibilities. Some people now envision a commons-based society where shared wealth compounds our individual assets in "the pursuit of happiness."
ATTACHMENT 4-5
Handout: Things We Can Do Together: 6 Ideas
1. “Re-skilling” Community Workshops
People in your circle probably have skills you’d like to learn – sewing, canning, first aid. Hold a series of workshops to learn these skills from one another. Consider inviting the wider community.
2. Weatherization Round Robins
Five or six circle members help button-up each others’ homes for winter. Each “host” buys materials to caulk windows, seal doors, and put up plastic around leaky windows. With a team working a couple of hours on a weekend, each household saves potentially hundreds of dollars on heating costs.
3. Dinner Circles and Cooking Exchanges
A once-a-week frozen entrée or soup exchange is very easy to organize among committed neighbors or friends. A record-keeping system equalizes the financial costs and benefits.
4. Start a Bulk Buying Group
It’s cheaper to buy in bulk, but where do you store all that extra toilet paper? Before your next run to the bulk store, take orders from friends or neighbors, collect the money, and buy everyone’s supplies at the same time.
5. Basement Cleans
Like the round-robin weatherization, get together with others to support the process of cleaning out your basement and/or attic, then help them do the same. Freecycle what’s left after your co-cleaners sort through what you’re ready to say good-bye to.
6. “Get Out of Debt” Pact
Meet with others to strategize about reducing or eliminating debt. How can you rely less on credit cards and other borrowing? Make a pact to take debt-reduction steps together. Consider calling your credit card companies together to request a reduction in your rates or fees. Mention the possibility that you’ll cut up your card and they may be quicker to lower your rate!
Session 5
Strengthening Community: Mutual Aid
In this session, we will explore the proposition that ecological changes will deeply alter our economic lives – and that there is no going back to the economy of the past. Participants will be invited to assess their own reaction to the threats of “peak oil” and climate change, and consider how their communities will fare in the face of these changes.
The session also includes the exchanging of gifts and needs - a tangible experience which shows how much we can help each other. This exchange can help participants see that community wealth and mutual aid are reliable sources of security even as we face deep ecological and economic shifts.
Objectives
• Deepen our understanding of ecological crises, especially “peak oil” and climate change, and how they affect the future.
• Acknowledge that this information can be overwhelming and provide a framework for our reactions.
• Recognize mutual aid and community wealth as fundamental to our security.
• Think more about how the group might continue to engage in mutual aid after the seven sessions.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 5-2)
• One copy of each of the thirteen “Ecology and Our Security” handouts. Note that due to length, these are found in the APPENDIX at the end of this Guide.
• Optional – Pre-made chart showing the “Four Mindsets” (see ATTACHMENT 5-3 as a model)
• Optional – Two baskets for the exchanging of gifts and needs, if your club wrote them on note cards
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 6 (ATTACHMENT 5-1)
• Four Mindsets You Might Recognize (ATTACHMENT 5-3)
• Homework Readings (ATTACHMENT 5-4)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 5
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Ecology and Our Security (40)
A. Learning from Each Other
B. Checkpoint: The Quadrant Exercise
Activity 2: Offerings of Gifts and Needs (40)
A. Offering
B. Continuing Mutual Aid: Reflection and Discussion
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 5
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – Quote by Wayne B. Arnason (ATTACHMENT 5-2)
2. Go-Round – Invite participants to simply give a one to two minute update on their lives since the last meeting.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Fourth Session
In the last session, we talked about the nature of real security, “real wealth” and the importance of mutual aid.
Focus of Today’s Session
When we watched “The Story of Stuff” before Session 3, we got a picture of how the planet cannot sustain our economic activity. Today we will talk more about ecological threats to our security. We will introduce the idea of “peak oil” and consider the threats of climate change. These are further reasons why we need a new kind of economy. Mutual aid is a great way to start building that economy, and we’ll start doing just that when we exchange our gifts and needs.
Activity 1: Ecology and Our Security (40)
Note: The materials and concepts in this activity are adapted from the Transition movement. The Transition Handbook by Rob Hopkins and the Transition US website (http://transitionUS.org) are excellent resources for learning about ecological threats to our security and for finding ideas to develop community resilience.
In this activity, participants will have the chance to discuss and absorb information about our planet that greatly impacts our security.
A. Learning from Each Other
Give each participant one of the “Ecology and Our Security” handouts from the APPENDIX at the end of this Guide. There are thirteen different handouts, each of which has a front and back side. (Be sure you print the handouts back-to-back.) On the front is one or more photos, and on the back is information about them. Each participant will have a different handout with different information.
In this activity, participants will be asked to walk around the room and talk to each about the information on their handouts. This way they learn the information on all the handouts.
Read: Each of you has a different handout with information related to the planet and our security. Take a moment to look at the photos on the front and the information on the back. We’re going to walk around the room and tell each other what’s on our handouts. Make sure you talk to everyone else about your handout, and find out what is on theirs.
For now, I am going to model how this happens with [the co-facilitator or a member of the group].
At this point, you and another person explain the first two handouts to each other (“What Is Oil” and “Why Is Oil So Important”). This will model the activity to everyone, and also convey some of the most basic information.
Read: Take a moment to read over your handout. In a moment, we’ll begin walking around and sharing with each other.
When everyone seems ready, indicate that folks can start walking around and exchanging information.
Note: In total, there are thirteen different handouts. Based on the size of your group, you might need to give some participants the same handout, or skip some of the latter handouts. If you have fewer than thirteen participants, you and your co-facilitator might walk around with two other handouts after explaining “What Is Oil” and “Why Is Oil So Important.”
B. Checkpoint: The Quadrant Exercise
Bring the full group back together.
Read: We have just encountered a lot of potentially overwhelming information, and we will have a chance to discuss it as a group in just a moment. Now, consider that there are at least four mind-sets that we are inclined to adopt as we hear information about the future, especially about climate change and the end of cheap, plentiful oil.
Note: Consider posting the handout as an Optional Chart.
Distribute Four Mindsets handout (ATTACHMENT 5-3).
• Denial, or “Business As Usual” – We’ll just keep going as we always have.
• Magic Thinking – We’ll find a new technology that will replace cheap oil and address the climate crisis. Therefore, we can continue “business as usual.”
• Collapse - Things are so bad that there is little we can do. We need to find individual ways to protect ourselves.
• Transition – We need to plan, learn new skills, and deploy new technologies to build resilience, while realizing we can’t go back to business as usual. We need to prepare ourselves and our communities for fundamental changes.
Read: From time to time, we can probably identify all four of these mindsets within ourselves. Let’s take a minute to look at how this model might apply for us. Today, right now, how much of you do you feel is located in each mindset? On the back of your sheet, write down what percentage of your mindset is in each quadrant.
Note: You might prepare a sample to make it clear to people what you are asking them to do --
After everyone has filled out their quadrants, discuss the handouts and the quadrant exercise with the full group.
Ask:
The purpose of our Resilience Circle is to face reality and help one another adapt to new realities. After exchanging the information in the handouts, what quadrant is dominant for you?
What factors strengthen or weaken your dominant mindset?
Read or summarize: One of the best ways we can transition to a new world is by creating stronger communities. In our next exercise, we’ll start exploring how we can strengthen our own community through the practice of mutual aid.
Activity 2: Offerings of Gifts and Needs (40)
A. Offering
The circle’s homework for this session included making lists or cards of “gifts you have to offer” and “things you need.” Explain that we will go around and have people briefly offer up their Gifts and Needs in turn.
Open this section by noting that one of the things that can get distorted in times of scarcity and hardship is our sense of ourselves as having something to give as well as needing to receive. Sometimes we forget we have anything to offer when we have many needs. Sometimes we fear needing something from others because this makes us feel vulnerable.
This activity is about restoring balance between offering and receiving. Reciprocity is a critical ingredient in common security; it is harder than just giving or just receiving, but it is ultimately more rewarding and builds deeper connections that create needed security. Today we practice valuing ourselves and each other through reciprocity.
Have participants go around one by one and explain briefly what they’re offering and what they need. If participants brought their gifts and needs on separate cards, invite them to place their cards in appropriately-labeled baskets; if participants brought lists, record these on blank flip chart or poster paper as participants share. Divide the paper into two columns, one for Gifts, and the other for Needs.
Comment on the variety and richness of the offerings. Make connections where you see a match between gifts and needs. Encourage people to start exchanging!
B. Continuing Mutual Aid: Reflection and Discussion
Consider ways the group might systematically match gifts and needs to continue mutual aid within the circle, and note that we will return to this conversation in Session 7. For example,
• Use a spreadsheet to create a small “time bank”
• Join a larger time bank in your community
• Identify a few particular items the group can share (a lawnmower or sewing machine); consider storing these in a church or other common place
• Use email or a “Google Group” to make requests and offerings
• Integrate new gifts and offerings into future go-rounds
• Use ideas from the “6 Ideas” list we read in the previous session, or from Shareable.net to share and exchange gifts
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
Readings: 1. Selection from Agenda for a New Economy by David Korten; 2. Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor (ATTACHMENT 5-4)
3. Suggested Closing Reading – Selection from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (ATTACHMENT 5-2)
ATTACHMENT 5-1
Session 5
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Ecology and Our Security (40)
A. Learning from Each Other
B. Checkpoint: The Quadrant Exercise
Activity 2: Offerings of Gifts and Needs (40)
A. Offering
B. Continuing Mutual Aid: Reflection and Discussion
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 6
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
Readings: 1. Selection from Agenda for a New Economy by David Korten; 2. Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor (ATTACHMENT 5-4)
ATTACHMENT 5-2
Suggested Opening Reading by Wayne B. Arnason
Take courage friends.
The way is often hard, the path is never clear,
and the stakes are very high.
Take courage.
For deep down, there is another truth:
you are not alone.
Suggested Closing Reading: Selection from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
…I share with every adult I know this crazy quilt of optimism and worries, feeling locked into certain habits but keen to change them in the right direction. And the tendency to feel like a jerk for falling short of absolute conversion. I’m not sure why. If a friend had a coronary scare and finally started exercising three days a week, who would hound him about the other four days?
It’s the worst of bad manners – and self-protection, I think, in a nervously cynical society – to ridicule the small gesture. These earnest efforts might just get us past the train-wreck of the daily news, or the anguish of standing behind a child, looking with her at the road ahead, searching out redemption where we can find it: recycling or carpooling or growing a garden or saving a species or something. Small, stepwise changes in personal habits aren’t trivial. Ultimately they will, or won’t, add up to having been the thing that mattered.
ATTACHMENT 5-3 (SIDE 1)
Handout: Four Mindsets You Might Recognize
The Quadrants
How we react to economic and ecological change -- here are four mindsets that might appear in us from time to time.
Business As Usual
BUSINESS AS USUAL or DENIAL:
“The future will be like the past, just a bit different.” “Business as usual.” “They always say the world is going to end, and so far nothing has happened.”
Collapse
COLLAPSE:
“We’re doomed. It’s already too late to save humanity/the planet/the economy.” “We’re heading towards a terrible collapse.”
Magic Thinking
MAGIC THINKING or
MAGIC TECHNOLOGY BULLET:
“Even if we run out of oil and coal, technology will create a new source of energy to replace it.” “I’m sure science will find a way to stop climate change.”
Transition
PLANNING FOR TRANSITION: “Proactively working toward a future of thriving, local economies that don’t rely on constant growth is possible. We’ve lived this way before, and we can do it again.”
ATTACHMENT 5-3 (SIDE 2)
How Does Your Mind Line Up Today?
Business As Usual/
Denial
Collapse
Magic Thinking
Transition
ATTACHMENT 5-4
Homework Reading: “No More Band-Aid Solutions to the Financial Crisis: We Need to Build an Economy that Works” by David Korten
Excerpt from Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth, 2nd Edition, 2010
Treat the System, Not the Symptom
As a student in business school, I learned a basic rule of effective problem solving that has shaped much of my professional life. Our professors constantly admonished us to "look at the big picture." Treat the visible problem -- a defective product or an underperforming employee -- as the symptom of a deeper system failure. "Look upstream to find the root cause. Find the systemic cause and fix the system so the problem will not recur." That is one of the most important things I learned in more than twenty-six years of formal education.
Many years after I left academia, an observation by a wise Canadian friend and colleague, Tim Brodhead, reminded me of this lesson when he explained why most efforts fail to end poverty. "They stop at treating the symptoms of poverty, such as hunger and poor health, with food programs and clinics, without ever asking the obvious question: Why do a few people enjoy effortless abundance while billions of others who work far harder experience extreme deprivation?" He summed it up with this simple statement: "If you act to correct a problem without a theory about its cause, you inevitably treat only the symptoms." It is the same lesson my business professors were drumming into my brain many years earlier.
I was trained to apply this lesson within the confines of the business enterprise. Tim's observation made me realize that I had been applying it in my work as a development professional in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For years I had been asking the question: What is the underlying cause of persistent poverty? Eventually, I came to realize that poverty is not the only significant unsolved human problem, and I enlarged the question to ask: Why is our economic system consigning billions of people to degrading poverty, destroying Earth's ecosystem, and tearing up the social fabric of civilized community? What must change if we are to have a world that works for all people and the whole of life?
Pleading with people to do the right thing is not going to get us where we need to go so long as we have a culture that celebrates the destructive behaviors we must now put behind us and as long as our institutions reward those behaviors. It is so much more sensible to direct our attention to making the right thing easy and pleasurable by working together to create a culture that celebrates positive values and to foster institutions that reward positive behavior.
Worse Than No Theory
What my wise colleague did not mention is that placing too much faith in a "bad" theory or story, one that offers incorrect explanations, may be even worse than acting with no theory at all. A bad theory can lead us to false solutions that amplify the actions that caused the problem in the first place. Indeed, a bad theory or story can lead whole societies to persist in self-destructive behavior to the point of self-extinction.
The cultural historian Jared Diamond tells of the Viking colony on the coast of Greenland that perished of hunger next to waters abundant with fish; it had a cultural theory, or story, that eating fish was not "civilized." On a much larger scale, the human future is now in question and the cause can be traced, in part, to economic theories that serve the narrow interests of a few and result in devastating consequences for all.
As we are perplexed by the behavior of the Vikings who perished because of their unwillingness to give up an obviously foolish theory, so future generations may be perplexed by our foolish embrace of some absurd theories of our own, including the theory that financial speculation and the inflation of financial bubbles create real wealth and make us richer. No need to be concerned that we are trashing Earth's life support system and destroying the social bonds of family and community, because eventually, or so the theory goes, we will have enough money to heal the environment and end poverty.
This theory led to economic policies that for decades served to create a mirage of phantom wealth that vanished before our eyes as the subprime mortgage crisis unfolded. Even with this dramatic demonstration that we were chasing a phantom, most observers have yet to acknowledge that the financial speculation was not creating wealth at all. Rather, it was merely increasing the claims of financial speculators on the shrinking pool of everyone else's real wealth.
A New Story for a New Economy
A theory, of course, is nothing more than a fancy name for a story that presumes to explain how things work. It is now commonly acknowledged that we humans are on a course to self-destruction. Climate chaos, the end of cheap oil, collapsing fisheries, dead rivers, falling water tables, terrorism, genocidal wars, financial collapse, species extinction, thirty thousand child deaths daily from poverty--and in the richest country in the world, millions squeezed out of the middle class--are all evidence of the monumental failure of our existing cultural stories and the institutions to which they give rise. We have good reason to fear for our future.
At first, each of the many disasters that confront us appears distinct. In fact, they all have a common origin that our feeble "solutions" fail to address for lack of an adequate theory. We do, in fact, have the means to create an economic system that takes life as its defining value and fulfills six criteria of true economic health. Such an economy would:
1. provide every person with the opportunity for a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life;
2. restore and maintain the vitality of the Earth’s natural systems;
3. nurture the relationships of strong, caring communities;
4. encourage economic cooperation in service to the public interest and democratically determined priorities;
5. allocate resources equitably to socially and environmentally beneficial uses; and
6. root economic power in people- and place-based communities to support the democratic ideal of one-person, one-vote citizen sovereignty.
The People-Centered Development Forum, 2010.
ATTACHMENT 5-4 (Continued)
Homework Reading: Selection from Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor
“Plenitude is about transition. Change doesn’t happen overnight. Creating a sustainable economy will take decades, and this is a strategy for prospering during that shift. The beauty of the approach is that it is available right now.”
- Juliet Schor
I. THE ECONOMIC CHALLENGES WE FACE
Juliet Schor argues in her book Plenitude that a continuation of the “business as usual” (BAU) economy—the current economic rules, practices, growth trajectory, and ecological consequences of production and consumption—is no longer a viable option during this time of economic and ecological challenge.
THE ECONOMY WILL BE LESS LUCRATIVE OVER THE NEXT DECADE: Schor predicts that the “Business As Usual” (BAU) economy will yield less income, jobs, cheap goods, return on assets and life satisfaction and be more unstable for ordinary individuals over the next decade. Why? Added to conventional economic reasons (the nation’s declining position in the world economy, long swings in economic activity, inability to create adequate numbers of jobs), we can expect mounting ecological degradation (climate change in particular) which creates scarcities and raises the costs of production.
UNEMPLOYMENT WILL NOT BE GOING AWAY: The US economy has lost 8 million jobs, and we will need about 500,000 new jobs every month for 2 years to get back to pre-recession levels. That’s simply an unrealistic number. The old way to generate jobs—growth in overall GNP—is less effective now because jobs are moving overseas and information technology is replacing labor. We need new approaches to employment, in particular small-scale, community-based jobs and livelihoods.
BUSINESS-AS-USUAL GROWTH IS DESTROYING THE PLANET: The climate and ecological crises mean we can’t just grow our way out of problems in the usual way. Higher GNP yields higher carbon emissions. We need to rapidly reduce carbon pollution by shifting to lower impact activities and pinpoint economic practices that will reverse the dangerous damage we’ve already done to the atmosphere and the planet.
II. THE PLENITUDE SOLUTION
Through a major shift to new sources of wealth, green technologies, and different ways of living, individuals and the country as a whole can be better off and more economically secure. Schor draws on recent developments in economic theory, social analysis, and ecological design to map out a path to a healthier environment and a higher quality of life.
SHIFT OUT OF THE WORK-AND-SPEND-CYCLE: Schor, who pioneered the concept of the work-and-spend-cycle, finds that households are less attracted to the high-spending lifestyles of the past, and that jobs have become more demanding, less secure, and less lucrative. She argues that the savvy response to this new situation is for households to begin a shift out of the BAU market and into undervalued sources of wealth: time, creativity (especially ecological knowledge) and social relationships.
DIVERSIFY: A key economic principle is to not rely on a single source of income, such as the labor market. Households should diversify their sources of income and ways of meeting their consumption needs, by reducing time spent in the BAU economy. New ways to provide livelihood include self-reliance (making and doing for yourself), small businesses, sharing assets, and trading services within communities. These trends are already emerging around the country.
SMALL SCALE: Innovation, dynamism, and employment are being generated by the small-scale sector. The vibrancy in our economy is now in small businesses and self-employment. Information technologies and on-line networking have eroded many of the advantages of big firms. Schor calls for a small-scale, de-centralized, ecologically-oriented sector of entrepreneurial individuals and households.
III. IDENTIFYING ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF WEALTH: PLENITUDE’S FOUR PILLARS
Humans are degrading the planet far faster than they are regenerating it. Food, energy, transport, and consumer goods are becoming increasingly scarce and over the long term will be more expensive. The economic downturn that has accompanied the ecological decline has led to another type of scarcity: incomes, jobs, and credit. We can start addressing both economic and ecological deficits by tapping into neglected assets.
TIME: For decades Americans have been devoting more and more time to the labor market. Plenitude practitioners reverse that trend, using their newfound time affluence to invest in other sources of wealth. They make, rather than buy; share, rather than spend; and build social relationships. These individual solutions also create balance in the labor market: hours of work in jobs fall, which allows companies to hire more employees. Right now, productivity is growing too rapidly and hours per job are too high to absorb all the people who need work.
HIGH-TECH SELF-PROVISIONING: We can reduce reliance on the market by meeting basic needs (income, food, housing, consumer goods, energy) through a series of creative, smart, high productivity technologies: growing food (using permaculture and vertical gardens); creating energy on a small scale (convert a Prius to a plug-in and double the gas mileage); building homes with free labor and local, natural materials, and new Fab-Lab technologies (small, smart machines that make almost anything). Schor looks at examples of people already practicing self-provisioning and converting their skills into money-making ventures.
CONSUMING DIFFERENTLY: Plenitude is a strategy for living that affords people more time, more creativity, and more social connection, while lowering their ecological footprint and avoiding consumer debt. It yields a high-satisfaction style of life, though not necessarily a high-spending lifestyle. So how does it meet our desires to shop, buy, and enjoy the fruits of a consumer society? Through a combination of accessing “new-to-you” products, sharing expensive items such as cars and appliances, and making careful purchases of long-lasting goods.
CONNECTION: As more and more labor time went into the market, time for community disappeared. Social ties frayed and neighborhoods hollowed out. But social relationships are a potent form of economic wealth, which people can turn to during financial instability or adverse climate events. People who have strong social connections, or what’s called social capital, fare much better when times get rough. Plenitude involves re-building local economic interdependence by trading services, sharing assets, and relying on each other in good as well as hard times.
Adapted for the Resilience Circle Network from: http://www.julietschor.org/the-book/synopsis/.
Also see a video of Juliet Schor’s talk, A New Understanding of True Wealth, Seattle Town Hall, May 24, 2010; http://vimeo.com/12034640/.
Session 6
Changing the Rules
In this session we will explore the proposition that large corporations exert too much influence over the “rules” that govern our society, and that they have caused “risks” to shift from the broader society onto the backs of individuals. With a vision of a new economy (Sessions 2 and 3) and strengthened community ties (Sessions 4 and 5), we are equipped to engage in social action to rewrite these rules. We’ll discuss what types of action this group is interested in.
Looking ahead, Session 7 will lead us to a discussion about whether and how we will continue to meet and work together.
Objectives
• Understand that a “risk shift” has moved economic security from government onto the backs of American families, and that this shift has been significantly influenced by large corporations.
• Identify possibilities for social action.
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 6-2)
• Pre-made poster displaying “Risk Shifts” for Activity 1
• Signs reading “Completely Agree” and “Completely Disagree” for Activity 2
• Optional – Read over “Background Information for Facilitators” about the Risk Shift and Corporate Power for Activities 1 and 2 (ATTACHMENTS 6-3 and 6-4)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda/Homework for Session 7 (ATTACHMENT 6-1)
• Homework Reading: What’s Next (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 6
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Risk Shift (15)
Activity 2: The Power of Large Corporations (20)
A. Introduction
B. Small Group Discussion
C. Large Group Discussion
Activity 3: Social Action to Rewrite the Rules (45)
A. Where Do We Stand?
B. Our Experiences
C. Possibilities for Social Action
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 6
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – Selection from Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben (ATTACHMENT 6-2)
2. Go-Round: As you did last time, invite participants to simply give an update on their lives since the last meeting.
3. Review of Last Session and Overview of Today’s Session
Brief Review of Fifth Session
In our fifth session we exchanged gifts and needs and discussed how we might continue the practice of mutual aid within our group. We also talked more about the ecological threats to our security, and how these require us to build a new kind of economy. Mutual Aid is one of the building blocks of this new economy.
Overview of Today’s Session
• Today, we’ll talk about a “risk shift” that has moved economic security from the government onto the backs of American families.
• This shift and the other problems we face as a society have been significantly influenced by large corporations.
• We will talk about how social action can change the “rules” that have been written by these powerful corporations.
Activity 1: The Risk Shift (15)
Display a pre-made easel sheet on Risk Shifts, listing the following:
RISK SHIFTS
• Income
• Job Security
• Health Care
• Retirement
• Higher Education
• Housing
Read or summarize: In the last forty years, many of the common security institutions that previous generations created have been dismantled. Large corporations used their power to weaken employee protections, cut taxes, shift costs and reduce employee benefits. These things have slowly chipped away at our economic security. Jacob Hacker calls this the Great Risk Shift, as risk has shifted more and more onto individuals.
As the facilitator, select one of the areas and give an example of how risks have been shifted and security has been lost. For talking points, see “Background Information for Facilitators: The Risk Shift” (ATTACHMENT 6-3).
Then, lead a discussion on risk shifts in some of the other areas on the easel sheet using the following questions:
What risk shifts do you see in other of these areas? Are there other areas that might be added to the list?
Do you see risk shifts in any of these areas in your own life?
What if you go back one or two generations? How do the risks you face differ from the risks in your parents’ generation?
Note: Keep this discussion moving along by drawing out short examples from a mix of participants. The experience of “risk shift” varies depending on age, race and culture. Younger workers – those under 35 – and some newer immigrants may feel that they have always been “on their own.” The idea of shared security will likely be more common to older workers who may have had an employer-sponsored pension fund or health insurance. The key here is to underscore the changes that have happened. For most people, things have not gotten more secure.
Activity 2: The Power of Large Corporations (20)
A. Introduction
Read: How would you respond to someone who said:
“Many corporations are so large and powerful today that they control
just about everything in life --- government, elected officials, the mainstream
media, food, energy, water, health care, pharmaceuticals, communications,
national security, education, and transportation. In fact, at the heart of every major problem we face in the world, there are large private corporations that have a vested interest in solving our problems by making a huge profit --- or making a huge profit by not solving our problems.”
Solicit a few responses from the group without spending too much time on this.
B. Small Group Discussion
Read or summarize: Now, we’re going to focus on a few of the industries with the most power and learn from each other about them.
Break participants into small groups and explain that they will each talk about how a specific industry relates to this statement. Randomly assign one of these industries to each group: health (health insurance and pharmaceuticals), energy, food, or Wall Street. (See ATTACHMENT 6-4 for talking points on these four industries.) Feel free to assign other industries if you prefer.
Ask each group to have a discussion about how their industry relates the statement that was read:
How does this industry profit by solving problems?
How does it profit by not solving our problems?
How does it profit by creating new problems?
C. Large Group Discussion
Bring people back together and have them report briefly on their small group discussions. Discuss how various industries have caused the risk shift, economic insecurity, and ecological crises, and protected an economic system that is fundamentally flawed. Use “Background Information for Facilitators: Corporate Power” (ATTACHMENT 6-4) if necessary.
Activity 3: Social Action to Rewrite the Rules (45)
A. Where Do We Stand?
Place signs (“Completely Agree” and “Completely Disagree”) on opposite ends of the room. Then say:
This is an activity that will open up our discussion about our experiences
and feelings about taking social action and government.
On this end of the room, I have put a sign that says “COMPLETELY AGREE,”
and on the other end of the room a sign that says “COMPLETELY DISAGREE.”
Imagine that there is a line between the two signs.
I am going to read a statement. If you “Completely Disagree,” go toward that
sign. If you strongly agree, go toward the other sign. If you are in between,
stand along the imaginary line to show where you stand in terms of your
views and feelings. Anyone can choose not to participate for any of the
statements.
Statements to Read Aloud:
• I am overwhelmed by all the possibilities for social action.
• Big money interests always block any meaningful change from happening.
• It doesn’t do any good to send emails or make phone calls to elected officials.
• Local self-help activities are more important than federal government action.
• Government has an important role in fixing the economy and helping with the transition to the future.
• We should not depend the state or federal government to get us out of this economic crisis.
• These times open up new possibilities for positive change.
• I would be interested in lobbying and pressing for change if I was part of a small group committed to acting together.
Feel free to add other statements that might draw out people’s feelings about social action, or ask participants to provide a statement.
B. Experiences with Social Action
Ask participants to break into pairs and to address these two questions.
Where and when in your life have you taken action to influence something outside of your immediate family? Don’t just think “politics”: have you tried to make changes at your child’s school? Helped organize an improvement to a public space?
What helps you believe that social change is possible?
Bring the whole group back together and ask people to share their reflections.
C. Possibilities for Social Action
During the conversation that follows, take notes on the easel or assign someone to take notes on paper. You will want to capture the ideas generated for social action to refer to in Session 7.
Explain that the homework readings from David Korten and Juliet Schor can help guide our social action together. Then ask:
What do you think of the readings we did for homework for this session? Do they give us a vision for social action?
What social issues are you working on? What issues are you passionate about? What would you work on, given no constraints?
Could a circle like this one have an impact on the issues that interest you?
Tell the group that in the next session we will have the opportunity to embark on projects together, and we will revisit the ideas we discussed today.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Remind everyone of the next meeting and assign the Homework:
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Take the online Resilience Quiz at YES! Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/resilientquiz. Be sure to remember your score!
Note: You may want to bring a few hard copies of the quiz for people without Internet access.
B. Reading: “What’s Next?” (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
3. Suggested Closing Reading - “To Be Of Use” by Marge Piercy (ATTACHMENT 6-2)
ATTACHMENT 6-1
Session 6
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: The Risk Shift (15)
Activity 2: The Power of Large Corporations (20)
Activity 3: Social Action to Rewrite the Rules (45)
A. Where Do We Stand?
B. Our Experiences
C. Possibilities for Social Action
Closing (10)
Homework for Session 7
All the homework is available online at http://localcircles.org/homework.
A. Take the online Resilience Quiz at YES! Magazine: http://tinyurl.com/resilientquiz. Be sure to remember your score!
B. Reading: “What’s Next?” (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
ATTACHMENT 6-2
Suggested Opening Reading: Selection from Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
From Racehorse to Workhorse
Here’s a better metaphor: the economy that has defined our Western world is like a racehorse, fleet and showy. It’s bred for speed, with narrow, tapered legs; tap it on the haunch, and it accelerates down the backstretch. But don’t put it on a track where the rain has turned things muddy; know that even a small bump in its path will break its stride and quite likely snap that thin and speedy leg. The thoroughbred, like our economy, has been optimized for one thing only: pure burning swiftness.
What we need to do, even while we’re in the saddle, is transform our racehorse into a workhorse—into something dependable, even-tempered, long-lasting, uncomplaining. Won’t go fast, will go long; won’t win the laurel, will carry the day. The high praise for a workhorse—for a Shire or a Belgian or a Percheron—is “she’s steady.” “She can pull.” We’re talking walk or trot or jog, not canter or gallop.
Suggested Closing Reading: “To Be Of Use” by Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
ATTACHMENT 6-3
Background Information for Facilitators: The Risk Shift
The political scientist Jacob S. Hacker writes that a Great Risk Shift has moved economic security “from the broad shoulders of government onto the fragile backs of American families.” In the thirty years after World War II (1947 to 1977), economic security increased for many (but not all) people. The social safety net was strengthened, even as our economy was dynamic and growing.
Income Insecurity
• With wages stagnant and falling, many households have had to involuntarily work more hours –and have more members of the family enter the paid labor force.
• More women entered the paid workforce, which is a good thing in terms of choice and options. But having multiple income earners masked how bad the economy really was.
• The meaning of a “steady job” has shifted. For many households, there have been enormous income swings from year to year, creating instability.
• Personal bankruptcy – once a rare occurrence – is now more routine.
Job Insecurity
• Most workers don’t know where they will be working in five years or three years – much less stability compared to a generation ago. Many more workers feel the sands shifting below their feet.
• Fewer workers have “long term employment” and more are working as “temp” or contract workers or other forms of part-time or contingent labor. Frequently, there are no benefits attached to these types of jobs.
• A higher percentage of workers are involuntarily underemployed, working part-time, when they need full-time jobs.
• Reported unemployment rates would be much higher if we counted discouraged workers (those who have given up looking for work) and involuntarily part-time workers.
Health Insecurity
• More and more Americans are “on their own” in terms of health insurance. The percentage of jobs with health insurance as a benefit has declined.
• Statistics: 48 million Americans lack health insurance, up from around 24 million in 1980. All of the decline in health coverage is due to a drop in the scope and generosity of employer-provided health coverage. In 1980, the majority of employers at medium-to-large companies paid 100 percent of the premium for family health coverage. Today, fewer than a quarter do.
• Over a two-year period, more than 80 million adults and kids – one out of three nonelderly Americans – spend some time without health insurance and the protection it provides against ruinous health care costs. More than 50 million are uninsured for more than six months.
• One out of six working-age adults carry medical debt, and unexpected medical costs are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.
Retirement Insecurity
• More and more families are “on their own” to figure out their retirements, with the decline of employer-based pension plans and the expansion of individualized plans such as 401(k) plans and IRAs.
• Statistics: In 1980, more than 80 percent of large and medium-sized corporations offered traditional “defined-benefit” pensions that provide a predetermined monthly benefit for the remainder of a worker’s life. Today, less than a third do. Instead, companies that provide plans now offer “defined-contribution” plans, such as the 401(k), in which returns are neither predictable nor assured.
ATTACHMENT 6-4
Background Information for Facilitators: Corporate Power
General
• Eighty-five percent of Americans agree that corporations have too much power.
• The vast majority of Americans want good jobs, safe products, health care, responsible government, and clean air and water. By pressuring the government in various ways, powerful corporations have blocked these things.
• Public corporations are bound by law to maximize profits for their shareholders. They cannot choose to pay workers a living wage, produce safe products, or use sustainable practices if it affects their bottom line negatively.
• Ever since the “Citizens United” decision by the Supreme Court in January of 2010, corporations can spend as much money as they want to influence elections.
• Industries like agribusiness and oil receive huge subsidies to do business.
• Many corporations employ thousands of people in their tax departments and use special tricks and offshore loopholes to avoid paying taxes. GE, Verizon, and Bank of America are among those who didn’t pay any corporate taxes in 2009.
• Overall, general corporate tax breaks will cost U.S. taxpayers $448.5 billion over the next five years, on top of the $54.2 billion U.S. companies will be reaping in industry-specific tax breaks. The combined taxpayer outlay going to private corporations from these two revenue streams: over $100 billion a year.
Sources: “The Story of Citizens United,” http://storyofstuff.org; CEO Pay Bashing,” by Sam Pizzigati on Inequality.org, http://inequality.org/ceo-pay-bashing-tea-partystyle/.
Banking
• Many people are familiar with the $700 billion bailout that Congress approved to rescue Wall Street in the fall of 2008. But the Federal Reserve and other agencies also used taxpayer money to keep Wall Street from failing. The estimated total amount of taxpayer money spent to save Wall Street is $4.74 trillion.
• In the wake of the meltdown of 2008, Americans have lost trillions in wealth, retirement savings, and home equity, and more than 13 million people are out of work.
• Executive pay and profits at big Wall Street banks are back at record levels. At the largest 25 banks, total 2010 compensation and benefits hit a record of $135 billion.
• As financial reform was being debated in Congress in 2010, Wall Street spent $4 million every day to weaken it.
Sources: Center for Media and Democracy, http://www.prwatch.org/news/2010/07/9281/ taxpayers-owed-big-bucks-under-bailout-little-help-homeowners-facing-foreclosure; “2011 Executive Compensation on Wall Street: Taking Stock,” Americans for Financial Reform, http://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2011/02/2011-executive-compensation-taking-stock/.
Food
• Today’s farming practices depend upon enormous amounts of pesticides, chemicals, and fossil-fuel based fertilizer. The average American calorie is shipped 1500 miles from farm to plate.
• The U.S. pays about $20 billion per year in farm subsidies to agribusinesses. Nearly three quarters of subsidy money goes to only 10% of the recipients.
• Over 90% of farm subsidies go to staple crops of corn, wheat, soybeans, and rice, while growers of most other crops get no subsidies at all. Subsidized crops like corn and soy are the basis of most processed foods, and also feed the animals we eat, such as chicken and cattle.
Sources: “Agricultural subsidy,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_subsidy.
Health
• The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $8,160 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison based on measures like life expectancy and infant mortality. It also leaves 50.7 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.
• Thirty-one percent of Americans’ health dollars are not spent on health care. In our patchwork system of mostly for-profit insurers, this money is instead diverted to things like hospital bureaucracy, billing, and marketing departments - as well as huge profits and exorbitant executive pay.
• The pharmaceutical industry spends twice as much on advertising as it does on research.
• It also spent $900 million on lobbying between 1998 and 2005, more than any other industry. During the same period, it donated $89.9 million to federal candidates and political parties. The industry has 1,274 registered lobbyists in Washington D.C.
• Sixty-one percent of Medicare spending on prescription drugs is direct profit for pharmaceutical companies.
Sources: Physicians for a National Health Program, http://www.pnhp.org; “Pharmaceutical lobby,” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmaceutical_lobby.
Energy
• The fossil fuel lobby has blocked development of clean energy alternatives like wind or solar.
• Meanwhile, $5.8 billion in tax breaks are set to go to oil and gas corporations over the next five years. Estimates of the value of U.S. federal subsidies to the domestic oil industry alone (not coal) range from roughly $6 billion to $39 billion annually.
• A 2010 poll by Stanford University found public support for government action to increase clean energy and energy efficiency. The poll found that 84% are in favor of giving companies tax breaks to produce more electricity from water, wind and solar power; 81% want more fuel efficient cars that use less gasoline; 80% want more appliances that use less electricity; and 80% want more home and office buildings that require less energy to heat and cool.
Source: “The Price of Oil,” http://priceofoil.org/thepriceofoil/clean-energy.
ATTACHMENT 6-5
Homework Reading: What’s Next?
Ways to continue our learning, mutual aid, and social action
I. Continue Meeting Regularly
II. Embark on Projects/Activities
Some circles decide to meet twice per month following the completion of the curriculum. The first monthly meeting is discussion focused, and the second is an “activity day,” such as a workshop to learn a new skill or an activity that is part of a social action campaign. The lists below provide suggestions for both types of meetings. Visit http://localcircles.org/more-resources/ for even more ideas.
I. Options for Continued Meetings
1. Potlucks
2. Game Nights
A fun, low-cost way to provide entertainment is a “game night” with board games or cards.
3. Modules Developed by the Resilience Circle Network
Visit http://localcircles.org/facilitators-corner/additional-sessions-for-ongoing-clubs/ for updated suggestions.
A. Your Money or Your Life
Use this a very brief introduction to the well-known program “Your Money or Your Life” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. It has been used widely as a tool for people to put their financial lives in the service of their true values.
B. Time Banking
In this session you’ll consider how to set up a time bank, a tool that is increasingly being used to promote local economies and stronger communities. It’s easy to set up and can be expanded gradually.
4. Book Clubs
Visit http://localcircles.org/book-list/ for book ideas. Some of our favorites are:
A. Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Weath (2nd Edition) by David Korten
Also check out the Study Guide, available at http://livingeconomiesforum.org/sites/files/images/Agenda2_Guide_2010.pdf.
B. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Kingsolver chronicles a year of her family’s life eating only food produced within a 100 mile radius of their home.
C. Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth by Juliet Schor
Plenitude is the principle that we can begin to transition to a new economy now through new uses of time, new consumption habits, and more.
D. All That We Share by Jay Walljasper
E. Eaarth: Making Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben
5. Film Discussions
Visit http://localcircles.org/movies/ for movie ideas. Some possibilities are:
A. Inside Job
B. Food, Inc.
C. The Economics of Happiness
D. Maxed Out
E. The Flaw
6. Small Group Guides
Here is a sample list of curricula for small groups developed by a variety of organizations. Visit http://localcircles.org/small-group-guides/ for more suggestions.
A. Personal Safety Nets - This book and workbook will help you create a web of plans, resources and people to give meaning, support, ease, safety and security to your life, no matter what the future may hold.
B. Northwest Earth Institute - The Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) is a national leader in the development of innovative programs that empower individuals and organizations to transform culture toward a sustainable and enriching future.
C. JustFaith Ministries - JustFaith Ministries offers extended programs that provide opportunities for individuals to study and be formed by the justice tradition articulated by the Scriptures, the Church's historical witness, theological inquiry and Church social teaching.
II. Projects/Activities
1. “Re-skilling” Community Workshops
Remember the Gifts & Needs exercise where you figured out that someone in your group knows how to can food? Or to sew? Or garden? Or repair leaky faucets? Hold a series of workshops to learn these skills from one another. Consider inviting the wider community. Visit http://transitionUS.org for guidance on “re-skilling.”
2. Spring: Garden Prep Round Robins
Six circle members each agree to spend one weekend at one another’s helping to ready their respective gardens for planting. Each “host” buys the needed materials and plans how to best use the crew. The team works for a couple of hours at each home, then moves on to the next. People share gardening knowledge along the way, seeds might get shared, and more work is accomplished overall.
Winter: Weatherization Round Robins
In winter or fall, circle members help button-up each others’ homes for winter. Each “host” buys materials to caulk windows, seal doors, and put up plastic around leaky windows. With a team working a couple of hours on a weekend, each household saves potentially hundreds of dollars on heating costs.
3. Community Gardens and Community Supported Agriculture
If there’s open land in your community, organize your neighbors to create a community garden. Many areas have state or local agencies that support community gardening. Another way to improve access to high-quality produce and meats is by pooling resources with local farmers through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program.
4. Share!
Visit http://shareable.net/how-to-share for a list of ideas to set up systems for sharing food, tools, chores, time, cars, child care, and MUCH more. For example:
Dinner Circles and Cooking Exchanges: A once-a-week frozen entrée or soup exchange is very easy to organize among committed neighbors or friends. A record-keeping system equalizes the financial costs and benefits.
Carpools and Ride-Share: Solo commuting by car is costly and frustrating. Many communities have established carpool and ride-share networking systems to help people find others who drive a similar route.
5. Keep People in Their Homes: Rent Parties and Eviction Vigils
Popular in other times of economic stress, a rent party is a fun way to say, hey, we’re all in this together. Those who can spare some cash leave what they can in the money jar for those who are having a difficult time making the rent. Eviction vigils and blockages are another way of saying we have the power to stop banks and lawyers from putting our friends or neighbors out on the street.
6. Reduce, Reuse, Re-purpose, and Recycle
Why waste money on a new computer, textbook or blender, when there’s a good chance that someone has just posted a notice for a free or nearly-free one on Craig’s List or Freecycle? Make a pact with a few circle members to acquire your next few purchases at a used store or though one of these online services.
7. Start a Bulk Buying Group
It’s cheaper to buy in bulk, but where do you store all that extra toilet paper? Before your next run to the bulk store, take orders from friends or neighbors, collect the money, and buy everyone’s supplies at the same time. This way, you keep the cost savings and eliminate the storage problem.
8. Basement Cleans
Like the round-robin garden prep, get together with others to support the process of cleaning out your basement and/or attic, then help them do the same. Freecycle what’s left after your co-cleaners sort through what you’re ready to say good-bye to. Cleaning out old clutter makes way for new ideas, and sometimes you’ll find useful things you’ve forgotten about.
9. Throw a Block Party
Many people don’t even know the names of the people living next door. Get everyone together for a potluck or barbeque.
10. Hold a Community Forum
Forums are free and public venues for conversations on the great issues shaping your neighborhood and our planet. Invite a speaker, a panel of speakers, or show a movie on a topic that’s important to you. Visit http://forumorganizing.org for tips on how to hold a Forum in your community.
11. “Get Out of Debt” Pact
Meet with others to strategize about reducing or eliminating debt. How can you rely less on credit cards and other borrowing? Make a pact to take debt-reduction steps together. Consider calling your credit card companies together to request a reduction in your rates or fees. Mention the possibility that you’ll cut up your card and they may be quicker to lower your rate!
12. Move Your Money
People everywhere are moving their bank accounts from the big Wall Street banks to community-minded institutions. Make a pact with one or two others to do the same. Then, think even bigger: where does your church have its bank account? What about your city or state? People in New Mexico convinced their state government to move all of its money to a local bank! Visit http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/ for more information.
13. Budget Makeovers
A circle member volunteers to share information about their personal financial circumstances. They prepare a budget that includes income, major expenses, and debts. They pass out their confidential budget and the group brainstorms ideas to save money. At the end of the session, the person collects the copies to protect their confidentiality.
14. Social Action Campaigns
See our website for some up-to-date possibilities. http://localcircles.org/facilitators-corner/additional-sessions-for-ongoing-clubs/club-social-action-ideas-and-campaigns/
Session 7
What’s Next?
A Message for Facilitators
Dear facilitator,
Congratulations on having made it to the final session of the curriculum! We are grateful to you for experimenting with this form of building community, and we very much want to get your feedback on the experience.
We hope you have taken advantage of the resources we provide facilitators, such as our website, facilitator listserv, and support phone calls. Even if not, we hope that at this time you will take a moment to check in with us. As your group approaches the end of the curriculum, we can tell you how other facilitators have made this transition, and even connect you with them directly.
Moreover, we are eager to hear your impressions of the curriculum, and how you found it useful (or not!) as a tool. What parts worked best for you and your group? Were there places you changed or adapted the materials to make them more appropriate for the culture of your group? If so, please let us know. We'd also be grateful to you for sending us any links or files of additional materials you used in your group--readings, videos, etc. All of this can be added to our website to help other facilitators.
We'd also like to hear your circle’s stories. This means any interesting anecdotes about the people in your group, what they were facing when they came in, and how the Resilience Circle helped them. Be assured that all such information will be kept confidential, and if we use the stories in our published materials we can significantly change the details to protect the identity of the subject.
Please email us at Info@LocalCircles.org to schedule a conversation. We look forward to hearing about your experience.
Best wishes,
The Resilience Circle Network
Things You’ll Need
See notes on preparing for sessions on page 14.
• Poster paper or blank flipchart and easel and markers
• Copy of opening and closing readings (ATTACHMENT 7-2)
• Optional – A few copies of the homework for reference (ATTACHMENT 6-5)
Handouts
• Participant Agenda (ATTACHMENT 7-1)
SUMMARY AGENDA - Session 7
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Review and Visualization (20)
A. Review
B. Visualization
Activity 2: Next Steps Toward Resilience (30)
A. Common Ground
B. Community Mapping
Activity 3: What Next? (30)
Closing (10)
DETAILED AGENDA – Session 7
Opening (30)
See notes on openings on page 14.
1. Suggested Opening Reading – Selection from “Personal Preparation” by Chris Martenson (ATTACHMENT 7-2)
2. Go-Round: Again, invite participants to share anything they like.
3. Review
Brief Review of Sixth Session
In our last session we talked about how large corporations write the rules which govern our lives, and have created a “risk shift” for American families. We also talked about how social action can change this situation, and how mutual aid and community efforts alone will not effectively combat corporate power.
Activity 1: Review and Visualization (20)
A. Review of Our Time Together
Read: Today’s meeting is both an ending – of our planned sessions – and a beginning. We embarked on a path from “you are on your own” to “we are in it together.” We combined learning together, mutual aid and taking action. We have had some shared glimpses of things we might be able to do together.
Ask:
We have spoken a few times about building a new economy. What do you think are some of the key characteristics of that new economy?
Some to add if not mentioned:
• Locally focused
• Vibrant communities
• In harmony with the earth
• Equitable and efficient distribution of resources
• Democratic rule-making
Do you see signs of this kind of economy emerging in our community?
What other ideas have we talked about that are important to you?
Some to add if not mentioned:
• No more “Business As Usual.” We are not going back to an economy built on over-consumption driven by debt and cheap energy that ignores environment.
• We are collectively facing a “Fork in the Road.” We can contract into isolation, fear, hunkering down, and withdrawal; or move toward community resilience, engagement, connection.
• Taking responsibility. We can’t wait for someone else to figure it all out. We need to be part of the solution by engaging in mutual aid, preparing our communities, and taking social action.
• Tough times lie ahead. We should prepare for continued economic shocks and environmental degradation.
B. Visualization
Read: We are going to leap ahead into the future and see where this work on the new economy might take us. Will we decline or prosper? Will we deplete our environment or learn how to live within its limits? Will we grow more unequal or share prosperity? Where we land in 2040 will depend on what we do starting now.
Read the following “2040 Visualization,” with appropriate pauses.
It’s 2040 in the United States, and the changes over the past 30 years have been dramatic.
Things began to unravel in 2008, when the US economy took a first hard hit, followed by the economies of much of the developed world. After a bumpy ride through the next decade, it became clear that peak oil—the end of cheap and easily available fossil fuels—began in 2008, and the economy as we knew it would never be the same.
We invite you now to picture yourself in this future time, in your own neighborhood. Use your imagination to call up a vision of the future that seems real to you or the next generation.
*********
You get up in the morning and set about your day. What are your meals going to look like? Most of your neighbors now have kitchen-gardens, planting all available space around their homes with food crops. Community garden space has also expanded, as have small farms in both cities and rural areas. What are your local foods, and where are they coming from?
[Pause…]
In 2015 gas prices rose to $10/gallon. Politicians and academics alike were shocked to find how quickly Americans reduced their fuel consumption and adapted to new energy routines. People developed new transportation systems without dependence on fossil fuels. Now visualize your life. How are you getting around?
[Pause…]
Much of our existing homes and buildings of the 20th century required massive retrofitting, insulation and adaptation. They were built in the era of cheap energy. Our homes are very different now. Remember when people paid hundred of dollars a month to heat or cool their houses, depending on where they lived? Now visualize where you are living. How does your living space look different? How does your community look different?
[Pause…]
Back 30 years ago, we had huge medical complexes with hospitals and emergency wards and amazing and expensive wonder drugs and medical procedures. What was strange was, we were living longer but our health was poorer. We began to understand how our industrial food system, transportation, pollution, and intense stress were making us sick. We still have many of these technological advances, but we’re healthier and happier now. Much of what ensures our wellness happens outside those big medical centers — in our communities and daily practices. Imagine your health routines. How do you stay healthy? Imagine you are getting sick and what the new health system looks like. Who is caring for you? How does it feel? What about care for the elderly and infirmed? How does the system look now?
[Pause…]
We were very busy thirty years ago, rushing around between home and work, spending long hours commuting. A lot of our toil didn’t necessarily contribute to our happiness and daily needs or to real economic health. We spent a lot of time earning money so we could pay money for our basic needs. Now we spend more time taking care of these essentials ourselves; more time growing, processing and preparing food, taking care of elders and children. We’ve got some nifty technologies that still save us time, but we also toil a lot less. Visualize your life in 2040 with a very different daily rhythm and timing. How do you spend your days?
[Pause…]
They say we’ll never go back to the standard of living of the late 20th century, but the oldest members of our communities often assert that we’d never want to. Visualize your family and community. Who are you spending time with in 2040? Where are your family and friends? What are the activities in your community?
[Pause…]
Closing thoughts: When you’re ready, open your eyes and come back to the present moment. [Pause.] Hold on to your vision. We are now going to turn to the Resilience Assessment we did for homework, and consider our present circumstances. This is the first step in moving towards our vision for the future.
Activity 2: Next Steps Toward Resilience (30)
A. Common Ground
Explain that our next activity is a way for people to share how they did on the homework, the “Resilience Quiz” from YES! Magazine.
Ask people to stand in a circle, and to step into the circle if they took the quiz. Then, ask them to step back if their score is lower than 45. Then, ask people to step back if their score is lower than 55, then 65, etc. Do this in whatever multiples make sense until only one or two people are left. Once everyone is seated again, congratulate those with high scores, and ask if anyone would like to comment briefly.
B. Community Mapping
Read: Resilience is a community endeavor. Let’s turn this on its head and find out what it means about our community.
Use the flipchart to take notes during this activity. Write the title Community Resilience at the top of the paper.
Ask people to name the topics the quiz addresses (food, water, energy, locally based livelihoods, local businesses, local banks). Ask:
How is our community doing in these areas? What resources do we have?
Write resources people mention near the appropriate words (i.e. “Farmers Market” near “food”). Ask:
Which topics do people want to discuss further? How can we take action in a couple of these areas to increase our community’s resilience?
Note: You might try to encourage interest in food, as this is a good place for many communities to start building resilience.
Break people into small groups to talk about two or three of the items – you might have one group talking about food, and one about energy, for example. Groups should address resources that exist and steps that can be taken to fill gaps.
After about 10 minutes, have groups report back. Ask them what resources and possible projects they talked about.
Closing talking point: We are now going to have a conversation about next steps for our group. The Resilience Quiz can help us think about this. What can we do so that if we re-take the Resilience Quiz in six months, our average score would improve?
Activity 3: What’s Next? (30)
This is your opportunity to facilitate a conversation about what the group will do now that they have finished the curriculum.
Before this meeting, you should talk to people one-on-one to get a sense of what they’d like to do to continue. When appropriate, encourage people to take leadership in organizing projects or leading future sessions.
In many cases, the group will continue in some form. See the “What’s Next” homework assignment (ATTACHMENT 6-5) for ideas on how your circle might continue, and visit our website for even more ideas: http://localcircles.org/more-resources.
Today’s session may not provide enough time to establish clear next steps. Be sure to keep lists of ideas that are considered and if need be, schedule a meeting to discuss what’s next more fully with those who plan to continue.
Remember the three purposes of a circle: learning, mutual aid, and social action. You might find it helpful to organize the conversation around these two questions:
Will we continue to meet regularly?
A likely answer is that at least some people will want to keep meeting. See a list of ideas for such meetings on the homework everyone read for today. A practical way forward is to set a date, find a facilitator(s), and talk about some content for the meeting. (Will it be a book discussion? Will you use one of the modules from the Resilience Circle network? Or, a curriculum from another organization? Maybe you’ll just have a potluck and go-round, or a “game night”?) You might want to set up a few future meetings to ensure some continuity.
Will we engage in “projects”?
If so, what are they? Who’s taking the lead for now? Who wants to be involved? See project ideas on the homework as well.
Remember project ideas that have been generated throughout the sessions:
• Sessions 4 and 5: How will the group continue to engage in mutual aid? At monthly meetings? A small time bank? Which participants are likely to take a lead in setting up or maintaining a system?
• Session 6: What kinds of social action was the group attracted to? Who is likely to lead social action projects?
• Session 7: What kinds of projects emerged from the discussion of the Resilience Quiz? Again, which participants are likely to lead group involvement?
Close this conversation with as clear a picture of the group’s next steps as possible. Remember that the best plan may be to schedule another meeting to discuss all of this more fully.
Closing (10)
See notes on closings on page 15.
1. Evaluation
2. Suggested Closing Reading – “Go In Peace” by Mark Belletini (ATTACHMENT 7-2)
ATTACHMENT 7-1
Session 7
Agenda
Opening (30)
Activity 1: Review and Visualization (20)
A. Review
B. Visualization
Activity 2: Next Steps Toward Resilience (30)
A. Common Ground
B. Community Mapping
Activity 3: What Next? (30)
Closing (10)
ATTACHMENT 7-2
Suggested Opening Reading: Selection from “Personal Preparation” by Chris Martenson
One of my core values is this: I have no interest in living in fear, and my plan is to live through whatever comes next with a positive attitude and with as much satisfaction and fun as I can possibly muster. So it has always been important to me to be in community with others who share this outlook. And even now that I’ve experienced the pleasures (and joys and frustrations) of working in a group setting on matters of preparation, I would still immediately join or start another one if I happened to move away.
I am only as secure as my neighbor is, and we are only as secure as our town, and our town is only as secure as the next town over. But it all begins at the center, like a fractal pattern, with resilient households determining how the future unfolds.
Suggested Closing Reading: “Go In Peace” by Mark L. Belletini
Go in peace. Live simply, gently, at home in yourselves.
Act justly.
Speak justly.
Remember the depth of your own compassion.
Forget not your power in the days of your powerlessness.
Do not desire to be wealthier than your peers
And stint not your hand of charity.
Practice forbearance.
Speak the truth, or speak not.
Take care of yourselves as bodies,
For you are a good gift.
Crave peace for all people in the world,
Beginning with yourselves
And go as you go with the dream
Of that peace alive in your heart.
APPENDIX
ECOLOGY AND OUR SECURITY
Session 5, Activity 1
What is Oil?
What is Oil?
The oil that we use today formed millions of years ago when plants and animals died and were buried.
It is the result of millions of years of decay, intense pressure, and heat. The picture shows one of the phases in this process. The “organic matter” layer will become oil.
Organisms trap sunlight to create energy, turning it into carbon (among other things). As the organisms decay and turn into oil, the carbon remains and becomes highly condensed and extremely flammable. This is why oil provides so much energy.
Coal and natural gas are also “fossil” fuels which are the result of this type of process.
Why Is Oil So Important?
How many people does it take to push a car?
Why Is Oil So Important?
The phenomenal energy in oil
One tank of gas is equivalent to 8,000 human hours work! That’s 3 years of work, if you worked 8 hours/day, every day for a full year.
Most of us take for granted the amount of energy we have at our disposal instantly, every day. No human society has ever had anything near the amount of energy before the discovery of fossil fuels.
What Do We Use Oil For?
What Do We Use Oil For?
Transportation and home heating are only the beginning of our oil use.
Many products are derived from, or use oil or gas as their raw material. Plastics, synthetic fibers such as nylon and polyester, drugs, laminates, paints, ink, and many more things use oil.
Modern agriculture depends on oil. Fertilizers and pesticides are made from oil and natural gas, tractors and machinery use it, and irrigation requires huge amounts of energy.
The average American calorie travels 1500 miles from farm to plate, using oil. Processing, storing, cooking, packaging and retailing food also require energy.
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
Peak oil is the point at which roughly half of the world’s oil has been extracted - it is not when the oil runs out.
As we reach the peak in oil production, oil prices will become very unstable, but will rise overall. This is because demand will rise as supplies fall.
There is a difference between discovering oil and getting it out of the ground (i.e., “producing” it). There is usually 25 – 40 years between a peak in discovery and a peak in production.
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
Peak Oil: Rising Oil Prices
There is a difference between discovering oil and getting it out of the ground (i.e., “producing” it).
As represented in this figure, global oil discovery peaked in the late 1960s. Every year since then, we have discovered less oil.
Many analysts think that we reached the global peak in oil production around 2010.
Reaching the global peak in oil production (when we have produced about half of the earth’s oil) means we will see erratic but increasing oil prices.
Former Shell president John Hofmeister predicts that gasoline prices could hit $5/gallon in 2012.
GRAPH SOURCE: Post Carbon Institute, http://www.energybulletin.net/primer. Data is from Exxon-Mobil.
The Floating Plastic Island
The Floating Plastic Island
The Pacific ocean contains an island of floating plastic garbage the size of Texas.
SOURCE: http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Moore-Trashed-PacificNov03.htm
Six Earths
Six Earths
Scientists estimate that it would take six Earths to provide the resources for everyone on the planet to live like middle-class Americans.
SOURCE: http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/how-much-human-life-can-planet-earth-sustain/
Climate Change and
Peak Oil
Climate Change and Peak Oil
There isn’t much “downside” to reducing carbon emissions and using less oil.
Climate Change and
Peak Oil: Food
Climate Change and
Peak Oil: Food
As the climate changes, some species will not be able to adapt. We could lose the crops we eat and the animals that pollinate them, such as the bees shown here.
Already, one third of commercial bee-colonies did not survive the winter of 2010.
As oil prices rise due to peak oil, so do food prices.
Modern agriculture depends on oil. Fertilizers and pesticides are made from oil and natural gas, tractors and machinery use it, and irrigation requires huge amounts of energy. The average American calorie travels 1500 miles from farm to plate, using oil. Processing, storing, cooking, packaging and retailing food also require energy.
Climate Change
Climate Change
Scientists agree that because we’ve emitted so much carbon into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, the earth will warm by 3 – 7 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.
If we burn fewer fossil fuels like oil and gas to reduce carbon emissions, we’ll warm the planet less.
Background: Climate changes has been confirmed by scientists, including the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), a worldwide group of scientists who have reviewed all available scientific research. Their report published in 2007, which won the Nobel Peace Prize, states that “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal,” and, “Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely (confidence level >90%) due to the observed increase in human greenhouse gas concentrations.”
This study was the most comprehensive study of peer reviewed climate research ever undertaken, and one of the most comprehensive studies of any scientific question ever. Its conclusions are that there is no more debate, the science is clear. The only question is how fast can we act to create real reductions in atmospheric CO2.
Climate Change:
CO2 Levels
Climate Change: CO2 Levels
This graph shows carbon levels over the past 60,000 years based on ice core data.
Our carbon level is currently 391 parts per million.
Carbon we have already emitted has not yet made its full impact on the climate.
“If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar the that on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted, CO2 will need to be reduced from its current levels to at most 350 ppm.”
- James Hansen, NASA Climatologist
Additional points: Once global temperatures rise to certain levels, “positive feedback loops” will cause further releases of greenhouse gases, leading to runaway climate change. For example if the arctic tundra melts it will emit so much methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, that it will dwarf human CO2 emissions.
Climate Change:
Extreme Weather Events
Climate Change:
Extreme Weather Events
As the climate changes, severe “one in a hundred year” weather events – such as the flood and drought shown – will become more common.
In addition to being devastating for persons involved, extreme weather events place huge strains on public resources. An entire town’s budget can be wiped out by the costs of cleaning up after a tornado or other event.
Background: This handout shows a picture of the Australian Murray River system, which has faced an extreme multi year drought. The government has had to allocate water to the cities rather than allow farmers to irrigate their crops. This has led to a decrease in the Australian wheat harvest of 35%, driving up prices worldwide. Australia is one of the bread baskets of the world.
Climate Change:
Spread of Disease
Climate Change: Spread of Disease
In general, warmer temperatures and greater moisture favor organisms that carry diseases, such as mosquitoes, other insects, rodents, and snails. This leads to an expansion of areas affected by diseases such as malaria, dengue fever, and yellow fever.
Sources: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/impacts/early-warning-signs-of-global-9.html
http://www.scienceline.org/2009/05/05/bio-rettner-malaria-climate-change/
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