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Community Living - Integration - Inclusion
Life Story Evening
This is practised at both Ängsbacka and Sieben Linden.
What is it/ How do you do it?
Each volunteer is given a space of 1-2 hours in the community programme to tell his or her life story, in whatever format they choose (Powerpoint presentation with photos, a poem, song or dance, etc.)
Pluses:
This gives the community a chance to get to know each person more intimately. When people get to hear a person’s lived experience, it usually creates more compassion, especially regarding future conflict situations, and it fosters deeper mutual connection.
For the Volunteers, this is an opportunity to reflect on their lives and to introduce themselves to the community in the way they like best.
Minuses:
For a Volunteer who may have a fear of public speaking and/or for someone with a traumatic upbringing, this approach can be challenging as it can trigger emotional turmoil.
It’s important to be sensitive to this and understand that it may not be the best way for the community to get to know every volunteer.
What is Needed:
- A designated slot in the Community programme
- Availability of the community members for 1-2 hours
- Time for the Volunteer to prepare a presentation.
A Weekly Programme
Ananda Gaorii, Ängsbacka, and Sieben Linden all have a programme of activities that take place at the same time every week.
What is it/ How do you do it?
Some of these are Collective Practices, some are Community Events and some are workshops that support learning (Language or NonViolent Communication) and personal development (Yoga or Inquiry).
Pluses:
A Weekly Programme creates a sense of consistency amongst the community and allows Volunteers to find routine and structure within their daily lives.
Minuses:
Organising this requires time and energy for those holding the weekly activities, including time given to find replacements for substitute facilitators, when regulars are unavailable.
What is Needed:
- a dedicated space
- a Coordinator
- time to organise, update, and make the schedule available.
Collective Practices
Community members at Ängsbacka and Ananda Gaorii participate in specific activities together on a daily/weekly/monthly basis that facilitate information sharing, develop positive group processes and/or share group spiritual practice.
These activities are mandatory in the above communities; every community member commits to participation when he or she signs the agreement to join the community, including Volunteers.
Examples include:
- morning meetings on working days
- a weekly sharing (link to cross ref in learning section)
- a time slot allocated daily for meditation (link to cross ref in learning section)
- a monthly forum or community circle.
These practices help to shape the essence of a community, and pave the way for the type of environment that is desired. They contribute to creating the community culture, which is a pre-existing framework within which the Volunteers insert themselves and from which they learn.
Guidelines:
- A strong culture of attendance by existing community members helps reinforce attendance by Volunteers, as well as making them part of working hours.
- If these are an extra commitment outside the normal working hours, this must be communicated clearly beforehand- at the time of recruitment.
What is Needed:
- a space for the practices
- skilled facilitators, especially in the case of forums and community circles.
Community Events/Celebrations
These are activities of a social/celebratory nature that take place on a regular basis (weekly or monthly).
Examples include:
- A café night every Saturday
- Special Meals together e.g. pizza nights
- Movie Nights
- Weekly Sauna
- ‘Open Mic’ nights
- Group Outings
- Dance Parties
- Collective Community Meals- in addition, some families host individual casual meals for the Volunteers in their houses
- Cultural events (Family Day, Christmas, Hallowe’en, Solstices, Santa Lucia)
- Attending local Markets with organisation’s produce
Pluses:
- This encourages the whole community to hang out and bond together, with activities that create a sense of togetherness, connection and celebration.
- Actively inviting the Volunteers to attend these activities supports them in connecting with those community members whom they don’t work with on a regular basis, and so enables them to feel more integrated within the wider community.
- Such interaction helps the Volunteers to recognise the broader context
For example: The Volunteers at Cloughjordan have unique access to a model for sustainable living that extends beyond the Community Farm, as the farm is set within Ireland’s only Ecovillage: this setting allows them to place what they are doing on the farm, i.e. growing sustainably, within the human, ecological and environmental context- and within the global context of transition to lower carbon living and combating climate change. This makes for a richer, more layered learning experience. - Attending community cultural and social events allows the Volunteers to connect with the culture of the country they are temporarily living in (for example: the Midsummer Festival in Sweden).
Minuses:
- Some aspects of some celebrations in the local culture may conflict with the values and beliefs of a Volunteer and cultural interpretation/bridging might be needed
- Social events may not be the best setting for introverts to actually connect with other people, as they may feel intimidated by the energy of the group.
- A possible solution is to organise smaller group or one-on-one social opportunities such as: “Speed Dating” nights where community members meet each other one-on-one at a table with preset topics or Quiz Nights, in which each Volunteer is integrated into a team.
- Preparing these events can take time and energy that distracts from work.
What is Needed:
- space within the community life
- facilitators
- communication channels for invitations
- transportation (if attending local markets)