Programs June 3, 2024 We are practitioners committed to fostering belonging and liberation through the work of Appreciative Inquiry and related transformational processes. Our goal is to be a DEI and social justice learning laboratory focused on how we can create environments where all individuals feel valued, respected, and empowered. Central to our work is recognizing and naming the influences of power and privilege on our appreciative inquiry work and making the invisible visible. We currently do this through three pathways: Staying in Conversation: We engage in conversations around power, privilege, invisibility, and identity. We stay engaged even when topics are difficult. Actioning and Experimentation: We learn from each other and our lived experience, generate ideas, offer feed forward and thought partnership, iterate on what works, and co-create processes that model what we want to see in the world. Leveraging and Creating Learning Resources: We compile and amplify existing resources helpful to understanding this work, as well as document our own group learning, with a goal of providing practical and tangible learning to practitioners interested in bringing this work into their practice. By doing these things we are a space where practitioners can come to “charge their batteries”; access information, insight, and support; and grow and change in their practice. This group meets monthly between September and May. To join, please email the Center at appreciativeinquiry@champlain.edu with a request to join the Inclusion and Belonging Practitioner Learning Group. Check out our Events Calendar to see upcoming sessions.
