Finding Your Way
Finding your way around NCBI Lancashire.
For some people this might mean coming on a one day workshop; others of you might come along to an event or to a “drop in” where you can chat to NCBI volunteers and other people from the district who share an interest in diversity issues.
The one day Welcoming Diversity and Violence Prevention workshops are the main introduction to NCBI skills and thinking. On the Welcoming Diversity workshop we work in pairs and in small groups as well as in the large group looking at stereotypes and how they become internalised and affect how we react to others and limit our own growth and expression. We are encouraged to take pride in who we are and to respect others. The basis of challenging prejudice and reducing conflict is in listening, in telling our own stories and listening to and learning from others. Finally we are introduced to skills for dealing with prejudicial comments and slurs, building on the activities that have gone before. On the Violence Prevention workshop we look at the various forms violence can take. We consider the roles of victim and perpetrator and look at the power of the witness to reduce and transform conflict situations. We explore how men and women experience violence differently. We look at how violence escalates and consider when is best to interveene. Finally we listen to people’s stories and are introduced to skills for intervening. NCBI’s work is based on a belief that we can all listen well if we are listened to ourselves. We all take leadership in our lives and in our communities, we all have the skills and resources.
At this point you may decide NCBI is not for you – hopefully you will still be taking something from the day. If you do want to find out more, this can happen in a number of ways. If you work for an organisation or have come representing a community group we can work out with you what your organisation or community might need and tailor training to suit you – we can come to you. Alternatively you may want to become more involved with NCBI in which case you can talk with us about what might suit you. Every workshop is different, the issues that come up depend to a great extent on who the participants are. We also put on single issue workshops such as Pride not Prejudice, challenging homophobia, or Body Image. You may want to come along to further workshops as part of the team, first of all helping with practicalities, then as you become more familiar with how we taking a more central support role as you will have seen volunteers doing on the workshops. You may want to pitch in in the office getting to know people through helping out with mailings for instance. You may have skills we badly need, that no one else has! As your skills develop you can help out with events such as Holocaust Memorial Day, or there may be projects and pieces of activism you want to start yourself or with a team of volunteers supporting you.
An integral part of your training with NCBI will be to come on the 3 day leadership training. This is not just for people who want to lead workshops. It is a chance to get to know each other better, to develop your skills and to find out more about the thinking behind NCBI’s activities and ways of working. The first day is a longer version of the Welcoming Diversity workshop, including more discussion and theory. On the second day the emphasis is on 2 of NCBI’s most central processes, speak outs and interventions. We work in small groups practicing these – this is not just a chance to practice skills, it’s also an opportunity to explore issues more deeply, to find out how different groups are affected by prejudice and to tell your own stories. It is deeply moving and fun! On the last day you will be introduced to NCBI’s process for working with conflict, “Controversial Issues” and see how it uses the skills from the workshops. And finally you will see the processes exploring how we can learn to be better allies to other groups and welcome our own allies, something which is fundamental to the work.
This is the formal side of NCBI – what really matters is how we use the skills in the world, something we hope you will do whether you only ever attend one workshop or if you end up leading your own team. We are increasingly looking at how we can use the activities more flexibly, such as in anti-bullying work in schools or in Dialogues with different groups. At the very least you may find yourself listening to people better, intervening when you hear prejudicial comments, speaking up for yourself. You may find that your feelings and behaviour towards certain groups of people changes as you learn to understand them better.
All of this is supported by local team meetings and socials and national and international retreats for people who share an identity, at present for women, men, LGBT, Asian, African Jewish and Latino/Latina heritage peoples. Martin Luther King said “we want to build a movement where people look over and see us having fun and want to join” – this is what we want people to say about NCBI. You are welcome to join us.