Hello ,

There comes a time in the practice of social change as we build organizations, run political campaigns, support each other in healing, and expand our consciousness when we are confronted by the question; is our work creating the impact that we desire in society? This question by default brings about the necessity for many of us to cultivate a deeper analysis of culture, institutions, politics, and the economy. 

When we think about the current state of our movements and organizations, this question makes us think about questions of strategy, about leadership, and about history. We can only be strategic in the work that we are doing if it is grounded within a historical context and analysis that can help us make sense of the world as it is to get to the world we want. Without this knowledge, we are fumbling about in the dark,without a clear pathway to illuminate our work.

For those of us who have committed to a lifetime of this type of social change work, it can feel like a daunting task to traverse this journey. But you are not alone. There are others who have committed to this calling, and are trying to figure out how to best manage the tensions and complexities that arise from dedicating one’s life to change.

Over the last 10 years, we have developed many different frameworks and trainings - from Movement Ecology to Seasons of Leadership and beyond. The Rooted Leadership Series offers an opportunity to cover some of the more compelling topics that have often come up in other trainings that we believe need to be addressed so that our movements can be grounded in a historical analysis and can help leaders on their lifelong journeys of social change. Some of these topics include: 

• A simple framework to improve political analysis
• The role of money and consumerism in organizations and individual lifestyle
• Tensions of “purity” in movement culture
• Undergoing the commitment to being part of a lifetime of social change

There will be 4 individual workshops as part of the Rooted Leadership Series: you can choose to take them all together or just any  ones you are interested in. Each of these workshops will only happen once, so be sure to sign up if there is a workshop that seems of particular interest to you or for your organization.

These questions are of vital importance for all of our movements to be able to reimagine a new world, not dominated by the logic of consumerism and capitalism but of reciprocity and community. We hope that you can join us in this journey.

If you have any further questions or inquiries, you can join a Zoom info session to get all your questions answered. Sign up for the info session this week here. There will be info sessions at the following date and times:

• Thursday, 3/16 at 1:00 PM EST
• Tuesday, 3/21 at 6:00 PM EST
• Wednesday, 3/29 at 6:00 PM EST

In reciprocity, 

The Ayni Team

P.S. We wanted to send a reminder to sign up for the Mending the Heart Cohort, which is a free two month group experience to help you and your community build emotional resilience. The deadline to apply is tomorrow, Wednesday 03/15. In the cohort we will:

1. Learn frameworks that will help us understand our anxiety, stress, loneliness, and group tensions better. 

2. Be together - sharing stories, doing rituals, trying on practices to mend our hearts. We want this experience to give you some love and healing, where you will be tenderly supported and challenged to grow.

3. Reflect and do some self-inventory to face some of what you are struggling with, get support from others, and find ways to intentionally build emotional resiliency for yourself.

4. Come up with small things we can start to do to create better results for the group work we already do.

We hope that you can join us in this much needed transformational journey and build community in an intentional way together.