Movements of Belonging

The Gathering has taken place. Please continue watching this space for future projects related to Movements of Belonging.


Friends, Family, Community and Collaborators!

The gathering will brought together 15 people from the Greater Vancouver Area including frontline activists, movement organizers and anyone committed to doing social change work in a way that builds communities of care for everyone. The 6 day (January 21 to 26, 2025) in-person event offered an experience of community building, healing, skill-building and living into the world we envision . Watch our video below and/or read the descriptions to discover more details.

Necessary Trouble Collective will be at the Vantage Point BC Non Profit Conference on June 6 2025 to present on Movements of Belonging.



Origins & Purpose

Movements of Belonging grew out of a May 2023 gathering that took place in upstate New York, US, called Because We Need Each Other (BWNEO). BWNEO brought together 25 movement leaders from across the United States to engage in a deeply vulnerable discussion about the toxic culture of many progressive activist movement spaces, and to strategize about how we can turn the tide.

We acknowledge that over the past 10-15 years, more and more of our movements have struggled with an inability to build trust, resolve conflicts in healthy and generative ways and create communities of belonging. This has led to severed relationships, burnout and even the dissolution of many key movement organizations. 

We believe that we need spaces where each of us can be seen in our wholeness–and where we can see each other. We need spaces for laughter, tears, growth, healing and the vulnerability that leads to unbreakable bonds. We need spaces for learning new skills and unlearning habits that impede or disrupt connection.

Our goal is to turn the tide and build a truly resilient and sustainable movement in the Greater Vancouver Area, where frontline activists and movement organizers center relationships and build cultures where people can genuinely feel a deep sense of belonging – and where we have a shared vision of the world we are longing for. 

This event is sponsored by Building Belonging in partnership with the Necessary Trouble Collective.

What to Expect

  • A wholehearted welcome of all of who you are

  • A lived experience of being in interdependent, beloved community

  • Laughter, joy, tears, grief, play, creative expression, poetry, singing, improv, movement, art

  • Time in nature to reflect, ground and rejuvenate

  • Delicious and nutritious vegetarian and vegan food to nourish your body

  • Time for self-reflection and deepening self-connection

  • Developing deep and supportive relationships with your peers in BC's racial, social and climate justice movements

  • Learning skills and practices that support our personal and collective liberation

This Gathering is for you if ...

This gathering is for anyone who lives in the Greater Vancouver Area and is engaged in frontline racial, social or climate justice work. We welcome anyone who has or is grappling with questions like…

  • What does it take to build resilient, authentic communities of belonging?

  • What does it take to create a community of care that will support me and my colleagues to stay connected through challenges?

  • What is alive for me in my relationship to social change?

  • What do I do about the harms I see occurring within our movement spaces?

  • Do I belong in social movement spaces? 

  • How do I counter cancel culture and other unhealthy ways we sometimes treat each other?

  • How do we build a movement that honours the dignity of all people?

  • How do my own personal traumas/wounds/triggers impact my ability to engage in social change work?

  • How do our collective traumas/wounds/triggers impact our ability to engage in social change work?

  • What does it mean to organize at the speed of relationship?

  • How do I support myself and others showing up in our full humanity?

  • How do I move from transactional to deeply connected relationships?

If you have ever grappled with these questions, you are not alone! What are the questions you are grappling with? Bring them to Movements of Belonging!!!

What will we be doing?

Our approach is largely influenced by the legacy of Jams, a project of the organization YES!. Jams are gatherings of changemakers that have been happening all over the world for 30+ years. Modeled after a musicians’ jam, they operate with the understanding that each circle and each gathering is totally unique, and they create space for conversations to emerge that can only happen with the people who are there.

Similar to YES’s famous Jams, we do not have a pre-planned agenda. Rather, our organizers and facilitators will draw from all of your applications and from what’s alive in them, put all of it in a big pot, stir them around and come up with a draft flow of facilitated and experiential activities and see what comes out! None of us come with all of the answers. Our facilitators are also participants. Together, we will co-create the space — using circles, conversations, mindfulness practices, artistic expression, silence, and play — to explore our questions, bring more of our whole selves, and live into our answers and new questions, using the depth and power of the experiences and knowledge in the room and beyond.

This is not a workshop, a conference, or a training. Using a variety of facilitated processes, we are simply creating space for us to speak, listen and connect deeply - something we rarely get to do in the midst of the hustle and bustle of our day-to-day life. Neither is it a retreat, since we are not retreating from the world. Rather, we are creating space to deepen into it.

The exercises we will engage in at this gathering are designed to build deep community, so that we can take off our masks and be real with each other. To share deep truths that we usually keep hidden, and to trust that this kind of witnessing of each other’s wholeness will help to nurture a powerful movement.

I'm Interested, what's next?

Please use the link below to fill in our application form and be added to our waitlist. Please take your time with this. We use this information to create the initial plan for our time together.

DATES, LOCATION & TIMING

Movements of Belonging will take place at the Xenia Retreat Centre on Nexwlélexwm (Bowen Island), BC, which is the unceded and ancestral territory of the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group and the Skwxwú7mesh-ulh (Squamish) Nation. The work we will do at this gathering is intended to contribute to the disruption and dismantling of colonial systems of dominance and oppression. We do this by unlearning habits of power over and of treating relationships as transactional, and by learning habits of connection, interdependence and power with.

The gathering begins at Noon Pacific Time on Tuesday, January 21st, 2025 and will end with clean-up around 12PM on Sunday, January 26th. Each day will be a mix of facilitated sessions and open time for participant-led sessions, spontaneous offerings, rest, and reflection. We invite each applicant to block off the entire time, and not schedule any calls or work during our time together (even remote/Zoom things!). The more present we each can be for ourselves and one another, the deeper our work together can be. We also recommend, if you can, to give yourself some time after the gathering is over to support integration.

Accessibility

Please note that the venue is not wheelchair accessible. We mourn that we did not check this before booking the venue. Most participants will need to share a room with 1 or 2 other people. If this is a concern for you, please note it in your application. There are a few options for private rooms or rooms with only one other person. We will prioritize folks with needs around safety, health and ability. Vegetarian and vegan meals will be provided throughout the retreat. Please include any dietary restrictions in your application.

Childcare

If having childcare would make this space more accessible to you, please reach out to us as soon as possible and we will do our best to accommodate you and your child(ren)! We want to offer it, but can't promise we will be able to make it work. It will depend on your needs and the availability of space at Xenia to accommodate you.

COVID

We are aware that our communities continue to be impacted by Covid. We will monitor the situation, and let you know before our gathering what our protocols will be. In the meantime, if you have specific needs around this, please let us know in your application form.

Substance Use

While we know that relationships to substances can be complex, we have made a decision that Movements of Belonging be a space without alcohol, cannabis or drugs unless they are prescribed or over-the-counter. We made this decision to nurture presence, connection and deep self-reflection. In deciding this, we hold no judgment about the use or non-use of these substances, and honour your personal needs and choices outside of this space. If this is a non-starter for you, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns. We’re happy to be in dialogue.

COSTS

Below are some guidelines to support your discernment, and we do not want money to prevent you from joining us! We recognize the vast inequities that exist in our communities due to complex histories of war, imperialism, patriarchy, and neoliberalism. Our intention is to redistribute resources, and we consider our gathering to be a community resource that we wish to make available regardless of someone's access to money.

Tuition, room and all food for the gathering is offered on a sliding scale of $400-$2,500 with scholarships available for those who can’t afford the low end of this scale. Travel costs are the responsibility of the participant. For transparency, the cost per-person is roughly $1,900. Broken down, roughly $1,250 of that covers food, lodging and supplies, $400 covers honorariums for the facilitators, and $250 covers operational and administrative expenses. 

At Cost $1,900: Consider paying this amount if doing so would be an investment, but not create hardship for you. You might choose this rate if you are regularly able to meet your basic needs*, have some expendable income, you can travel every few years without burden, and you have some debt but are able to pay it regularly.

A Bit More $1,900-$2,500+: Consider paying this amount if you are comfortably able to meet your basic needs*, own the home you live in or rent a higher end property, have access to financial savings and/or investments, have paid or pay for private education, have reliable work or do not need to work to meet your needs, have inherited wealth, and/or can afford to travel every year. This is a pay-it-forward rate. The extra money goes toward allowing us to work with more folks who need a lower rate. 

A Bit Less $750-$1,900: Consider paying in this range if it is sometimes a stretch to meet your basic needs*, if you have little savings, if your expendable income is tight, if you have experienced housing insecurity in the past but are currently in stable housing, and if investing in personal development and/or leisure travel is an occasional treat. 

Equity Rate $400-$750: Consider paying in this range if you come from generational poverty, you or your ancestors have faced marginalization and you still struggle meeting some basic needs*. For instance, if you have little to no savings, significant debt, and if you have little to no financial safety net or housing stability from family. Our experience shows us that every participant contributing something ultimately contributes to your investment in this co-created experience. In that spirit, we ask you to consider what you can contribute toward the food and lodging of the gathering. 

*Basic needs are defined here as food, housing, transportation, and childcare.

We invite each person to give what you can, and to give generously.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to write to us at kazu@buildingbelonging.us.

We can’t wait to be with you!

Leonie, Kazu, Minna, Jeff and catherine, along with the Necessary Trouble Collective and Building Belonging


Leonie Smith (she/her)

I am a first-generation Canadian of Jamaican heritage. My vocation is to support people from traditionally and historically marginalised populations to show up in the places where they live, work, and play in their full humanity.  I work as an organisational consultant, restorative and transformative justice mediator, coach, and trainer sharing principles of non-violence and Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

Kazu Haga (he/him)

Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of Building Belonging, the Ahimsa Collective and the Fierce Vulnerability Network, is a Jam facilitator and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm. He works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country. 

He has over 20 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work, and has been an active trainer since 2000. He is a resident of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA.

효영 HyoYoung Minna, (she/her)

효영 HyoYoung Minna is a former public school educator of eleven years, currently based on Duwasmish aboriginal territory, also known as Seattle, Washington. She is a social emotional literacy curriculum developer and a facilitator supporting groups in centering healthy-healing relationships and shared leadership through the science of our nervous systems and in the context of our social systems. She is a student of humaning and of the natural world with the intention of connection and belonging for co-liberation.

Jeff Carolin (he/him)

Driven by a prison abolition framework, Jeff Carolin (he/him) spent a decade working as a criminal defence lawyer for some of the most marginalized people in our society. He has now moved full-time to supporting mediation and restorative/transformative justice processes in workplaces and communities, processes which prove that healing and hope can emerge from even the darkest of moments. Jeff has also been connected to social movements in Toronto (Treaty 13 lands) for almost 20 years, gently sharing mind-sets and skill-sets that can help us work together in a kinder way, and allow us to feel, even if briefly, the world we are trying to build.  

catherine strickland (she/her)

catherine is a white settler living on the unceded territory of the  xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish),and Səlí" lwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations known colonially as North Vancouver, British Columbia.  she is an activist, climate change consultant,  community builder and Nonviolent Communication trainer. In 2021, she co-founded the Necessary Trouble Collective with Leonie Smith, which supports people and organizations working for social change to integrate the skills and practices of nonviolence into how they function.


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