Building BridgesCreating Healthy Collaborations
for Climate Justice |
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This online series was co-hosted by the Transition US Social Justice Working Group, to support healthy collaborations and regenerative culture in our work around climate justice.
We will be launching another series to build on what we have learned, stay tuned!
We will be launching another series to build on what we have learned, stay tuned!
About the Series
During this series, our intention is to deepen our understanding of ourselves and others as we cultivate relationships across cultural differences. We also aspire to strengthen the justice culture that we need for this time of climate emergency. One of the core beliefs underlying this series is that we all hold an essential piece of the collective wisdom that is needed by the whole. With the intention of weaving together a more diverse, inclusive and influential movement for social change, we will explore successful models for building resilience in disadvantaged and marginalized communities.
By exploring the issues, stories and histories within around climate justice, we gain tools and practices that will assist us in reaching outside our familiar circles. In this way, we can work together in solidarity with frontline communities who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, widening economic inequality, and systemic oppression. To do this does require healing, reconciliation, and evolving our cultural understandings. We are committed to this.
Our series seeks to shine a light on the significant connection between climate change and social justice. Our intention is to open our hearts together to explore the ways our own lives are embedded in the issues, and to learn to bear witness to how others are affected in ways beyond that with which we are already familiar.
One of the attitudes we hold during our discussions is the importance of creating space for the “messiness” of human emotions when we awaken our shared histories and traumas, our questions and reflections will evolve towards the direction of a clearer lens, but sometimes it will feel like we aren't sure where we are going--that is one of the signs of evolution!
We believe that a safe and respectful space to explore these sensitive topics together will help catalyze the connection and mutual understanding we need to truly co-create a world of social and ecological justice. We are doing the change-making necessary for a more positive future.
By exploring the issues, stories and histories within around climate justice, we gain tools and practices that will assist us in reaching outside our familiar circles. In this way, we can work together in solidarity with frontline communities who are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, widening economic inequality, and systemic oppression. To do this does require healing, reconciliation, and evolving our cultural understandings. We are committed to this.
Our series seeks to shine a light on the significant connection between climate change and social justice. Our intention is to open our hearts together to explore the ways our own lives are embedded in the issues, and to learn to bear witness to how others are affected in ways beyond that with which we are already familiar.
One of the attitudes we hold during our discussions is the importance of creating space for the “messiness” of human emotions when we awaken our shared histories and traumas, our questions and reflections will evolve towards the direction of a clearer lens, but sometimes it will feel like we aren't sure where we are going--that is one of the signs of evolution!
We believe that a safe and respectful space to explore these sensitive topics together will help catalyze the connection and mutual understanding we need to truly co-create a world of social and ecological justice. We are doing the change-making necessary for a more positive future.
The Building Bridges Team
Jul Bystrova is the co-founder of the Inner Resilience Network and Director of the Era of Care project, which works with frontline communities. She has a 25 year history of community activism and a private practice in trauma-informed mind-body healing work. She is an Interfaith Minister and holds a graduate degree in Interdisciplinary research and a focus on how to bridge perspectives in Science and Spirituality. She is a poet, and writes and teaches about cultural healing, social justice and psycho-spiritual topics. She also serves on the Transition US Collaborative Design Council and is a member of the Social Justice Working Group. She is dedicated to bringing awareness and actions towards greater social justice and wellness in the Transition community.
Galen Meyers is a passionate social change practitioner focused on the holistic approach of regenerative culture growth. Galen has a background in math, physics, and biology and he is an avid lifelong learner in many fields of study, including permaculture, complexity science, and the emerging field of cultural evolution. He is trained as a group facilitator through both of the organizations “Institute of Cultural Affairs” and “Prosocial”. He is also a certified yoga and meditation instructor. Galen is co-founder of Common Ground Networks, and he serves on the Inner Resilience Network and the Collaborative Design Council for Transition US.
Ayako Nagano serves on the Board of Transition Berkeley, and on the steering committees for the Green Leadership Trust, a coalition of green non-profit board members of color promoting equity and inclusion within the environmental movement. Ayako serves on the Social Justice Working Group for Transition US, and was recently appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Council.
Marissa Moemmarts (info in process)
Inner Resilience Network: We connect in order to catalyze local, national and international efforts centered on building skills, resources and support systems that promote personal-relational resilience in the face of today’s multifaceted challenges and foster personal-relational growth to bring forth the human qualities needed in a life-affirming culture.
Transition US Social Justice Working Group: Our mission is to grow justice, equity and inclusion in the world, and to create the conditions for diversity to flourish in the Transition Movement. We do this by educating ourselves on social justice issues and sharing resources with the broader Transition movement, connecting and collaborating with the broader social justice movement, and implementing practical projects that incorporate justice and equity as integral aspects of building community resilience.