Videos about... learning communities
Change is complex...and change is needed.
The status quo means that people with disabilities are more likely:
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So we have engaged in facilitating and participating in learning community change processes that gather people TOGETHER; focus on WHAT IS IMPORTANT; figure out what we CAN DO about what is important; come back together to LEARN from what we do; and PLAN what is next.
Toronto Summer Institutes (TSI)
The Toronto Summer Institute is for people who choose to invest themselves in creating, and being, the change they want to see in the world. People working actively on the complex issues of inclusion and diversity in families, communities, workplaces and schools. TSI is for Thinkers and Doers - for people who know there are no easy answers and who are seeking new ways of thinking and acting. This is a endless creative adventure in building a learning community together. Participants from around the globe feature their amazing diversity in our ‘learning marketplace’. The hosts see themselves as a jazz ensemble who share a theme and a flair for improvisation - harmonizing with the participants. Our friends at Inclusion Press and The Marsha Forest Centre have made TSI a vital tradition for people who care about inclusion for more than 35 years.
TSI 2018 ...building a bigger weThe 34th Toronto Summer Institute -- a celebration of learning about community, diversity and inclusion. The theme for this year was "Building A Bigger WE". It was a rich exploration of our connectedness across issues, groups, nations, and geography. In a time of divisiveness, there is a need for finding what binds us together.
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TSI 2017 ...action for inclusion, truth, and reconciliationFor more than 30 years the Summer Institute has gathered people, from around the world. People who care about the creation of inclusive communities, come together in dialogue, learning, story telling, and celebration of the potential of everyone to contribute gifts that make a difference.
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TSI 2015...in San DiegoIn the summer of 2015 the Pan American games took over Toronto. So TSI went on the road to San Diego, California.
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Maryland's community of practiceTim Quinn was the dynamic leader of the Arc of Northern Chesapeake Region in Maryland. While Tim believed in the quality and good work of the people within the organization, he believed that there was shift required to move from program directed models of support to person directed models that would truly have people with disabilities in charge of their lives and support. Over a 3 year period, Neighbours International collaborated with Tim, Maryland Developmental Disabilities Administration and 29 community provider agencies, to "figure out" what it would take to shift to a person directed support system in Maryland.
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self-direction bronx styleThe Metro New York Developmental Disabilities Services Office (DDSO) in the Bronx invited 8 agencies to come together to in an innovative learning community focused on how people with developmental disabilities can direct their own lives, pursue their dreams, passions, interests, with the support of the agencies that work for them.
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the learning tree house concertThe Learning Tree is an association of neighbors in Indianapolis, that specializes in Asset Based Community Development, learning and education that improves the quality of lives of people, communities, schools and businesses. We help gather people and listen to each other. We listen and share life stories. We dare to see the abundance of gifts and talents in “irrelevant” places where there appears to be “nothing.” This evening house concert provided an opportunity for people from the neighborhood, and funding organizations, to connect their gifts through music, food, conversation, and friendship.
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the art of social change
Beth Mount and Tom Kohler (Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy) have been friends and allies for more than 40 years. In 2012 they collaborated on organizing and mobilizing The Art of Social Change, a multi-dimensional experience that combined, art, new collaborations between artists and Citizen Advocacy relationships, conversation and dialogue, and an exhibit of Beth Mount's Story Quilts From The Beloved Community at The Telfair Museum's Jepson Center in beautiful Savannah, GA. In Sept. 2012 more than 30 people gathered in Savannah to engage in The Art Of Social Change experience, being present to its beauty, sitting with the questions that arose, and deepening and expanding relationships. These videos touch upon the experience there.
radical beautyThe Art of Social Change has been a journey through relationships, discovering gifts, and the awe filled beauty they display. Chatham-Savannah Citizen Advocacy has fostered connections that allow us to see beauty in the everyday radical path to social change.
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georgia real communitiesCailtin Petrakis Childs talks about the purpose of the Real Communities Initiative... to connect people with developmental disabilities and their organizations to other citizens and their associations to act collectively on community issues while being guided by Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) principles and GCDD values.
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loop it upArtist, Molly Lieberman, guides children from the East Broad St YMCA in creating quilts that capture what it means to be a Beloved Community in Savannah, Georgia.
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