Tools for Changemakers 2020

REPORT 2020 FOLLOW US Programme

Shaping the Future together through Dialogue

17-19 July 2020

 

Tools for Changemakers – Shaping the future together through dialogue was a three-day online event that aimed at bringing together people of all backgrounds, who want to make a difference in their communities and explore how dialogue can help to build a more cohesive and inclusive society.

The conference took participants on a journey of discovery of the power of dialogue through three interactive online sessions. These offered opportunities to listen to experts, to experience dialogue in groups, and to reflect and share personal experiences.

 

T4C 2020 numbers correct version

 

Thank you!

We would like to thanks our partners, KAICIID and Creators of Peace, as well as all the generous donors who support our efforts to promote dialogue for a more peaceful and inclusive world.

 

Participants’ feedback

Sincere thanks to the amazing team for a superb series of meetings. What particularly comes to my mind is how well-organized the sessions have been. You anticipated our every need before we even realized them. It felt like a very safe space and, for me, allowed very deep sharing. Hoping that next year we'll be back in Caux.

 

A wonderful and wonder-filled event! Thank you.

 

This is the gold standard for how to do a meaningful forum on line.

 

Thank you to everyone for a fantastic three days. I am inspired, challenged and feel connected to a wider narrative of peace and dialogue.

 

I was inspired by the stories. I am encouraged to overcome my fears, eager to carry out dialogue in my family, community and at work. Thank you to the organizers for bringing Caux to us.

 

T4C 2020 grateful bubble

 

Watch the replays

17 July: Let’s talk! – Exploring dialogue principles and learning from experienced practitioners

With:

  • Simon Keyes, Professor of Reconciliation and Peacebuilding at the University of Winchester, United Kingdom
  • Dr. Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska, Researcher, trainer, dialogue facilitator, Ukraine
  • Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Professor at the American University School of International Service in International Peace and Conflict Resolution, Washington, DC, USA

 

18 July: Let’s listen! – Experiencing a dialogue

With:

  • • Ebony Walden, Trainer, Facilitator, Urban planner, Community facilitator, Ebony Walden Consulting, USA
  • • Matthew Freeman, Trainer, Facilitator, Dialectix Consulting, USA
  • • Rob Corcoran, Training Consultant, Initiatives of Change International, USA

 

 

19 July: Let’s reflect! – Taking inspiration from stories of impact, sense making and looking ahead

With:

  • Angela Starovoytova, Dialogue facilitator, Trainer in effective communication | Network of dialogue facilitators, Ukraine
  • Janine Farah, Masters student in Peace and Conflict Studies, Australia

 

 

We trust our participants found the Tools for Changemakers experience inspiring and will strengthen their confidence in dialogue as a tool for addressing the challenges faced by their communities.

 

Speakers

Mohammed Abu-Nimer
Mohammed Abu-Nimer
Professor, School Of International Service, American University & Senior Adviser, KAICIID, Austria
Austria
Read More Hide More
Before taking up his present roles, Professor Mohammed Abu-Nimer served as Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute (1999-2013) at the International Peace and Conflict Resolution programme of the American University. He has conducted interreligious conflict resolution training and interfaith dialogue workshops in conflict areas around the world, including Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Chad, Niger, Iraq (Kurdistan), Philippines (Mindanao) and Sri Lanka. He also founded the Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, an organization that focuses on capacity building, civic education, and intrafaith and interfaith dialogue. In addition to his numerous articles and books, he is the co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development.  
Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska
Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska
Researcher, Trainer, Dialogue facilitator
Freelance
Ukraine
Read More Hide More
Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska has been involved in conflict and peace studies as a researcher, trainer, dialogue facilitator and author of manuals since 2000, with a focus on identity-based conflicts. Since 2015 she has been an expert/facilitator on a number of dialogue initiatives organized in Ukraine by the Policy Coordination Unit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (PCU OSCE). These dialogues have addressed conflict or poor communication between the authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and local communities and activists; conflicts involving journalists and the media, such as the one between media organizations and the Ministry of Defense; and conflicts between the Ministry of Education and minorities in Transcarpathia, Odesa and Chernivtsy regions around the medium of education. Iryna also has eight years of experience in dialogue on memory issues. She is part of the Ukrainian Network of Dialogue Facilitators (in cooperation with Foundations for Freedom) and with them has designed dialogue elaboration and training programmes for community and civil activists, police, journalists, human rights activists, local authorities, ethnic and religious leaders and other groups. Since 2008 she has been a member of the Working Group on Peace Education of GPPAC (the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict). This has taken her to Moldova-Transnistria, Kyrgyzstan and Tadjikistan.
Rob Corcoran
Rob Corcoran
Training Consultant
Initiatives of Change International
USA
Read More Hide More
Rob Corcoran is a trainer, facilitator, writer and racial healing practitioner. He has led trustbuilding workshops among diverse and polarized groups across North America, Europe, South Africa, Brazil, India and Australia. Originally from Scotland, he served as the National Director for Initiatives of Change USA and founded its internationally recognized programme, Hope in the Cities, in Richmond, Virginia. He is also a co-founder of the Caux Scholars Program. He collaborated on a dialogue guide for President Clinton’s Initiative on Race. He served as consultant to the WK Kellogg Foundation in launching a national Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation project. He is a member of a UNESCO Slave Route Project Taskforce on Healing the Wounds of Slavery, and of the advisory committee for the National Episcopal Church’s Becoming Beloved Community project. He is currently the training design consultant for IofC International’s Trustbuilding Program. His book Trustbuilding: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation, and Responsibility has been described as a ‘visionary, compelling account of healing and change’.
Janine Farah
Janine Farah
Student in Peace and Conflict Studies
Australia
Read More Hide More
  Janine Farah, 23, lives in Sydney, Australia, and comes from a Lebanese background. She completed her undergraduate degree in Economics and International Relations at the University of Sydney. She is currently writing the dissertation for her Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies. Janine has undertaken fieldwork in India and Lesotho focused on inequality and development. Alongside her studies, she works for Oaktree, an NGO which aims to motivate young people to engage in political and social impact work. She also teaches English as a second language to migrants and refugees with Navitas, and is a Creators of Peace Circle facilitator. Her main areas of interest are post-conflict peacekeeping, dialogue and reconciliation, and the economics of peace.  
Matthew Freeman
Matthew Freeman
Trainer, Facilitator
Dialectix Consulting
USA
Read More Hide More
Matthew Freeman’s passion for racial equity and social justice has led him across the United States and overseas, helping people connect across difference and begin to address the challenges that divide them. Matthew has worked with Members of Congress and the Federal Reserve System, as well as with organizations of all sizes, from Fortune 500’s to small non-profits. With degrees in the sciences and the humanities, Matthew brings his diverse educational background to bear on topics like unconscious bias – exploring what we know about how the brain functions and how that impacts our human interactions. He is the author Overcoming Bias: Building Authentic Relationships Across Differences. He heads the faculty of the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship, the leadership formation programme of Initiatives of Change USA. 
Simon Keyes
Simon Keyes
Professor of Reconciliation and Peacebuilding
University of Winchester
United Kingdom
Read More Hide More
Since reading Zoology at Oxford, Simon Keyes' career has mostly been in NGOs involved with homelessness, mental health and crime prevention. He was Director of Shelter’s Housing Aid Services and set up the Revolving Doors Agency which pioneered new approaches to helping people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system. After a spell as Director of Lambeth Crime Prevention Trust, he moved to the World Community for Christian Meditation, where he organized The Way of Peace 2000 interfaith initiative with the Dalai Lama in Northern Ireland. He was Director of St Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace between 2004 and 2014. Since 2015, he has been Professor of Reconciliation and Peacebuilding at the University of Winchester and now teaches an online distance learning Masters programme in Reconciliation to students around the world. His current areas of interest are the notion of successful disagreement, the nature of dialogue and appreciative approaches to community reconciliation. He is an experienced trainer and facilitator who has worked with a wide range of groups in the UK and abroad. 
Angela Staravoytova
Angela Starovoytova
Dialogue Facilitator, Trainer in effective communication
Network of Dialogue Facilitators
Ukraine
Read More Hide More
Angela Starovoytova is passionate about building connections between people and communities. Her expertise is in using non-formal education and participatory facilitation methods to create a safe and trusting environment where individuals and groups can find personal transformation and changed  relationships. Angela has 20 years of international experience organizing and running workshops/conferences/long-term programmes on such themes as ethical leadership, conflict-resolution, trust- and peacebuilding and critical thinking. She is one of the founders of Foundations for Freedom/Initiatives of Change (Ukraine), and has worked in Ukraine, UK, Switzerland, Germany and Uganda. Currently her main involvement is with the Network of Dialogue Facilitators, using a non-violent approach to run dialogues, training programmes, forums and other events for UNDP, IOM, GIZ, IREX, OSCE and other organizations, both in Ukraine and abroad.
Ebony Walden
Ebony Walden
Trainer, Facilitator, Urban planner, Community facilitator
Ebony Walden Consulting
USA
Read More Hide More
Ebony Walden is an urban planner, consultant and facilitator with over a decade of experience working to transform communities. She is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Ebony Walden Consulting (EWC), an urban strategy firm based in Richmond, Virginia. At EWC, she works with organizations in the housing and community development arena to design and facilitate workshops, training programmes, strategic plans and community engagement processes that explore race, equity and the creation of just and inclusive communities. In addition to her work at EWC, Ebony is an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University where she teaches a class on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the City. Ebony is member of the faculty for the Community Trustbuilding Fellowship. 
#CauxForum

past conferences

partners

organizing team

Diana Damsa

Diana Damsa

Managing Director
Diana Topan

Diana Topan

Graphic Design
Neil Oliver

Neil Oliver

Conference Design
Jane Wuth

Jane Wuth

Conference Design
Agnes Otzelberger

Agnes Otzelberger

Trainer & Facilitator
Patrycja Pociecha

Patrycja Pociecha

YAP Content Design/Trainer
Rob Lancaster

Rob Lancaster

YAP Content Design / Trainer
Timo Pfender

Timo Pfender

YAP Follow-up Coordinator

related stories

YAP 2021 article square

Young Ambassadors Programme 2021: Learning to listen

When Indonesian law student Agustina Zahrotul Jannah discovered the Young Ambassadors Programme (YAP) on Google she felt both excited and hopeless: excited because she hoped it might give her the skil...

Young Ambassadors Programme // Trustbuilding
YAP goes online

The Young Ambassadors Programme goes online

The Young Ambassadors Programme (YAP) went online for the first time this summer, after six years of continuous growth and development and a pause in 2020 for reflection and adjustment to the new real...

Young Ambassadors Programme // Tools for Changemakers
Books for changemakers

Books for Changemakers

A bi-monthly drop-in book club to resource you and fellow change-makers. Dive or dip into important and inspiring resources and ideas, connect with kindred spirits and explore your inner wisdom. ...

Tools for Changemakers // Books for Changemakers
Geneva Peace Week T4C square teaser

The Courageous Listener: Bearing Our Own Discomfort

Listening is a powerful tool that can have powerful effects on its recipient. It is also a difficult one to master. On 5 November 2020, Initiatives of Change Switzerland led an online workshop on the ...

Geneva Peace Week
Mohammed Abu-Nimer

Mohammed Abu-Nimer: Dialogue – Weaving peace into the fabric of society

Mohammed Abu-Nimer is Professor at the American University’s School of International Service in International Peace and Conflict Resolution in Washington DC and a Senior Advisor to the International D...

Trustbuilding // Dialogue // Tools for Changemakers // Caux Forum
Sabica Pardesi

Learning to be a Peacemaker 2020

"I am really thankful to the person who introduced me to the Initiatives for Change programme "Learning to be a Peacemaker". It was life-changing in so many ways. It opened my eyes to things we know i...

Learning to be a peacemaker // Tools for Changemakers // Caux Forum
SCreenshot keywords T4C 2020

Tools for Changemakers 2020 – Shaping the future together through dialogue

Can you truly listen? What if we all had the power to make our communities more cohesive and inclusive by starting to deeply listen to each other? The Tools for Changemakers conference was a three-day...

Tools for Changemakers // Trustbuilding
YAP 2019 congratulations

Fresh air for Young Ambassadors

This year’s Young Ambassadors Programme (YAP) brought 39 young people from across Europe to Caux for four intensive days of training in how to work for change in their communities. They then took part...

Caux Forum
Armenian-Kurdish-Turkish Dialogue 2019

It takes more courage to love than to hate

The Armenian-Kurdish-Turkish Dialogue 2019 took place during the Tools for Changemakers conference, bringing together people of Armenian, Kurdish and Turkish backgrounds to explore sensitive issues th...

Reconciliation // Caux Forum // Tools for Changemakers
Jens Wilhelmsen

Jens Wilhelmsen: IofC values as a practical tool for change

After fighting against the German occupation of his country, Norway, Jens Wilhelmsen worked with Initiatives of Change (IofC) in Germany and Japan. In over 70 years of fulltime work for IofC on three ...

Caux Forum // Reconciliation // Tools for Changemakers
LPM 2019

Healing the alienation of young European Muslims

How can the alienation felt by so many young Muslims be healed? Imam Ajmal Masroor believes that the alienation stems largely from the inner conflict generated by feeling caught between two value-syst...

Tools for Changemakers // Caux Forum // Learning to be a peacemaker
Marc Isserles

How storytelling can foster healing and reconciliation

Marc Isserles’s poignant one-man show, We Must Save the Children, comes to life when you discover that his grandparents sought shelter at the Caux Palace in 1945 as Jewish refugees. The play took plac...

Caux Forum // Reconciliation // Tools for Changemakers
Tools for Changemakers 2019

Rebuilding Trust in Europe: An Overview

The first edition of the ‘Tools for Changemakers’ conference took place from 14-18 July 2019 at the Caux Forum. It was based on the conclusions from the conference ‘Addressing Europe’s Unfinished Busi...

Trustbuilding // Tools for Changemakers // Caux Forum // Addressing Europe's Unfinished Business

all related events

T4C 14-18 July 2019

Tools for Changemakers 2019

T4C Group Coaching for Leaders square teaser 04 February - 11 March 2021

Group Coaching for Leaders in Peacebuilding

YAP 2021 square_0 - correct dates 09 July - 29 August 2021

Young Ambassadors Programme

back

Tools for Changemakers - Programme

programme

Friday, 17 July

11:00 - 13:00 (CEST)
Let’s talk! – Exploring dialogue principles and learning from experienced practitioners

 

For the first day we have invited experts to talk about their approach to dialogue, with examples from fieldwork, and to share how these practices could help us to respond to the challenges facing the world. Small discussion groups will give participants the opportunity to share personal experiences and their own dialogue practices. Together we will look for inspiration and vision for a more cohesive world.

 

I. Word of welcome

 

II. Getting to know each other

 

III. What is dialogue? 

  • Simon Keyes, Professor of Reconciliation and Peacebuilding at the University of Winchester, United Kingdom

 

IV. Conversations with invited practitioners

  • Dr. Iryna Brunova-Kalisetska, Researcher, trainer, dialogue facilitator, Ukraine
  • Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Professor at the American University School of International Service in International Peace and Conflict Resolution, Washington, DC, USA

 

V. Discussion groups

 

VI. Wrapping up the session

 

Saturday, 18 July

10:00 - 12:00 (CEST)
Let’s listen! – Experiencing a dialogue

 

The second day will give our participants the opportunity to witness and then take part it an online facilitated dialogue. This will be followed by discussion groups, in which they can reflect on what they have learnt.

 

I. Word of welcome

 

II. The role of dialogue in the #BlackLivesMatter context

With:

• Ebony Walden, Trainer, Facilitator, Urban planner, Community facilitator, Ebony Walden Consulting, USA

• Matthew Freeman, Trainer, Facilitator, Dialectix Consulting, USA

Moderator:

• Rob Corcoran, Training Consultant, Initiatives of Change International, USA

 

III. Experiencing a dialogue

 

IV. Discussion groups - unpacking the learning and the experience

 

V. Wrapping up the session

 

Sunday, 19 July

10:00 - 12:00 (CEST)
Let’s reflect! – Taking inspiration from stories of impact and looking ahead

 

On the final day we will present two inspirational stories of the impact of dialogue and give our participants further opportunities in small groups to explore their next steps in addressing local or global issues.

 

I. Word of welcome

 

II. Stories of impact:

  • Angela Starovoytova, Dialogue facilitator, Trainer in effective communication | Network of dialogue facilitators, Ukraine
  • Janine Farah, Masters student in Peace and Conflict Studies, Australia

 

III. Small groups exercise/ application

 

IV. Wrapping up the session

 

We trust our participants will find the Tools for Changemakers experience inspiring and will strengthen their confidence in dialogue as a tool for addressing the challenges faced by their communities.

  • Please note that this programme is subject to change.
  • Download the programme here.

 

NB: Please note that for technical reasons the Caux Forum Online will be held mainly in English. No interpretation will be offered. Thank you for your understanding.