Tuesday, October 11, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

What It Takes to "Be the Change": Spiritual Resources for Building Trust

Location: All Souls Unitarian Church, 1500 Harvard Street, NW (dining room in basement)

Building trust is a foundation of peace and justice activism. But to build trust, whether across divides of race or religion or within our own communities, we need to "be the change we wish to see in the world"--which requires more than just bumper stickers and good intentions. We have to go deep within ourselves to develop the necessary qualities of humility, courage, and openhearted strength. And we don't always know how to bring this about.

Join four extraordinary trustbuilders from diverse spiritual traditions as they explore these issues by sharing stories of trust from their work and lives. They will describe the personal challenges they have faced and the concrete ways in which their traditions have given them tools and sustenance for the journey. The result will be both a rich interfaith dialogue and a practical call to all of us: to become trustbuilders in our communities, to build trust in our own lives, and to search for the personal resources that empower us to do this work.

Panelists: Azhar Hussain is V.P. for Preventive Diplomacy at the International Center for Religion & Diplomacy. A Pakistani-American, his work engages Pakistani madrasa leaders in dialogue and equips them to use Islamic moral principles to support peace over violence. In 2006 he received the prestigious "Peacemaker in Action" award from the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.

Scott Perkins is a teacher in the Shambhala Buddhist community and former Director of the DC Shambhala Center. Since 1993 he has worked in nonprofit administration around mental health, homelessness and child welfare, including work connected to Roshi Bernard Glassman's Zen Peacemakers. A recovering alcoholic, he speaks and facilitates groups on addiction, meditation, and recovery.

Sarah Beller is Director of Education and Programs at J Street, the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans. She holds an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University and co-founded SongRise, a DC-based women's a cappella group that inspires action for social justice.

Rev. Sylvester "Tee" Turner is Director of Reconciliation Programs at Hope in the Cities in Richmond, VA. As a facilitator, teacher, activist and community presence, he has worked for racial healing and bridge-building in Richmond and nationwide for over 25 years.

Download the event flyer

For more information on All Souls Church

 

Wednesday, October 12, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Trustbuilding Across Generations: Discovering Tools to Build Bridges

Location: American University SIS Building, Founders Room, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

What shapes us? What are our assumptions? What do we need from the other?

With several generations engaged in the work force, living side-by-side, making up active faith communities, and voting in elections, we can find tremendous opportunity to benefit from diverse perspectives and knowledge, but it is easy to see how misunderstanding and judgment can arise as well. Are the generational divides a reality or a myth?

Participants in this intergenerational dialogue will:

• Discover tools for trustbuilding
• Move beyond stereotypes and identify some intrinsic strengths of each age group
• Discover ways to work across generational divides that bring creativity to our civic engagement and collective problem solving

This dialogue introduces the Trust Factor as a force for creating new solutions to old problems in politics, economics, religion, and race relations.

This event is convened by the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network and the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Program at American University.

Participants are encouraged to bring a friend, co-worker, or acquaintance from a different generation to this event!

Download the event flyer

 

Thursday, October 13, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm

Redefining our Relationship with Money: A Vision for a New Economy

Location: Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road, NW

The recent recession has shed light on many of the problems plaguing the financial sector. Broadly speaking, the incentives revolve around short term, quarter to quarter earnings requirements. These practices have produced a broken economy built on perpetual distrust and resentment. We need a new paradigm that empowers individuals and institutions to pursue their financial goals in a sustainable and socially responsible manner.

Change is never easy but developing and maintaining a fabric of trust and solidarity in our local communities is one of the most effective responses we have in addressing these challenges.

What if we could use our assets, whether we are wealthy or not so wealthy, to effectively plan for the future and simultaneously build a new economy on the principles of environmental sustainability and social equity? What if our relationship with money was just an extension of our values?

It’s already unfolding. Major investors are beginning to incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into their management practices.

This session on Impact Investing will explore one specific instance of the “new economy” - Community Investing, an ecosystem where individuals and institutions invest in financial instruments that produce blended value - financial, social, and environmental returns.

Panelists: 
Anne Geggie, Director of Portfolio & Asset Management for NCB Capital Impact, has worked in the community development industry for 10 years. Currently, Anne supervises a team which manages over 200 customers and more than $800 million in loans, primarily to community health centers and charter schools.  

Jeremy Pearce, a Financial Advisor with Progressive Asset Management, specializes in socially responsible investments for individuals, nonprofit organizations, and small businesses, working with them in developing financial plans and Investment Policy Statements, and monitoring their investments and objectives.     
 
Patrick Davis, Senior Associate at Calvert Foundation, a nonprofit specializing in innovative financial products and services that channel affordable capital to underserved communities and markets. He is responsible for building and managing relationships with individual and institutional investors as well as financial professionals in order to grow the community development finance industry.  
 
Liz Sessler, the Investment Marketing Manager for Enterprise Community Loan Fund's newest product, the Community Impact Note. At Enterprise she works to promote the Note and communicate Loan Fund's vision and social impact.

Download the event flyer

 

Thursday, October 13, 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

The Commons: A Space for Reflection, Relationship Building and Rejuvenation for Racial Equity Professionals

The Commons seeks to create a healing and community space for racial justice leaders who work in the DC metro area. Too often, our day-to-day work is about transacting: policy, proposals, programs and projects. Rarely do we spend enough time interacting. Conversing instead of converting (others to our way of thinking).  Being in community versus being in competition (for resources, spotlight, leadership).

The Commons is about creating a “space” in our work to simply “be” with each other.  This includes understanding each other in deeper ways that go beyond the titles we hold and the work we do. It also includes building a “space” in which deep and meaningful relationship building and reflection gives us the energy and focus to re-engage our work in different (hopefully better) ways. The intent behind The Commons is not to add yet another project or campaign to the many that already exist, but to build something that supports all of us in the work we already do.

This event is presently full and registration is closed.

 

Friday, October 14, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm

Trustbuilding Tools for Racial Healing and Community Change

Location: Center for Community Change, 1536 U Street, NW

(Photo: Karen Elliott Greisdorf)

The workshop explores trust as social capital and trustbuilding as an essential capacity for effective leadership in working for racial reconciliation and racial equity. It provides tools to deal with conflict in communities divided by race, ethnicity, class, or religion, where there is a history of mistrust and a need for open, courageous dialogue and partnership.

Participants will examine the “DNA of a trustbuilder,”  the personal qualities needed to restore trust when it has been broken and to sustain a movement for honest conversation and constructive change.

Through case studies, discussion, and interactive learning methods, participants will increase their understanding and skills to engage people of polarized views, to acknowledge history and understand the power of story, and to build diverse teams and networks beyond traditional boundaries.

The workshop draws on two decades of sustained work in Richmond, Virginia, which has produced a national model for honest conversation on race and racial reconciliation involving all sectors.

Who should attend? Racial reconciliation and racial justice practitioners, members of faith communities, professionals working in diverse environments, and all those concerned with healing our communities.

Facilitated by Rob Corcoran, author of Trustbuilding: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation, and Responsibility, and colleagues from Hope in the Cities.

Download the event flyer

 

Saturday, October 15, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Civic Participation and Responsibility in Building Trust in Public Life

Location: Carnegie Endowment Conference Center, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

10:00 am - 12:00 pm - Deliberative Democracy: Negotiating Trust in the Public Domain

Part of the legacy of the current political polarizatioin in our country has been the citizenry abandoning the public space - that space where we as individuals and communities are given audience to air our views, engage our government leaders, and together forge ahead to make policy decisions that affect us all. In this workshop we will explore how we might try to nurture trust in the public square through the skill-sets of advocacy, public participation and sustained dialogue.

This workshop is led by Dr. Carl Stauffer, Academic Director of the Caux Scholars Program, and Asst. Professor of Development & Justice Studies, Center for Justice & Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University.

12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - Expo of DC organizations and programs (Lunch included for $10)

1:30 pm - 4:00 pm - Civic Participation and Responsibility in Building Trust in Public Life

A Dialogue Kicked off by:

Mee Moua, Vice President of Strategic Impact Initiatives, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum. She was the first Hmong American elected to state office and served in the Minnesota State Senate until 2010.

Alex Wise, Director of Advancement and Stewarship, Church Health Center, Memphis, TN, Alex has led a varied life as educator, public servant, lawyer, and social entrepreneur. He was the founding president of the American Civil War Center in richmond, VA..

Dushaw Hockett, Founder and Executive Director of SPACES (Safe Places for the Advancement of Community and Equity). For the past 12 years he has held leadership positions with the Center for Community Change. As such he helped build a network of tenant organizations in 39 states and was a senior organizer with the Fair Immigration Reform Movement.

Table Discussions

Looking Ahead to Next Steps