Calla Munda, Hankins, Sullivan County NY, June 14/16th 2018
Hosted by Caroline Baillie (USD), Eric Feinblatt (Waste for Life) with Jerry McCann (Build Up)

We propose to host a two-day conversation around practicing trust. Those of us who work with vulnerable communities know that trust is critical in co-creating programs that are equitable, participatory, and durable. It is, however, risky for communities to trust us, hard for us to determine the extent of trust we should reach out with, and difficult for us to know how to gain a necessary level of trust – indeed whether we should even aim for it at all. Following the recent Engineering, Social Justice and Peace conference (ESJP13) held in San Diego in January, 2018, participants requested the opportunity to take part in richer, extended conversations that were not circumscribed by a conference timetable or attendees. To this end, we aim to broaden the conversation and include educators, community developers, community members and peacemakers, not only those working at the interface of engineering and community. The conversation will be held in a retreat format – with no more than 15 participants – for deep reflection that can intentionally guide critical outcomes. Participants will spend two days and one night at the Standing People Together retreat, Calla Munda, (home on the hill) in Hankins, New York. We will apply forest school pedagogy and activities, and conversations will be in an outdoor studio setting. We hope to bring together a group with a wide variety of experience and interest in this topic to take our understanding to new levels.

There will be no fee for the Critical conversation retreat and we have managed to arrange accommodation at a set fee of $75 per person. The conversation will start at lunchtime on 14th and end at lunchtime on 16th.

As places are limited, we are asking for expressions of interest at this time. Please email 200 words by March 30th about your experiences related to trust in community work (cbaillie@sandiego.edu). Please accept our apologies in advance for not being able to accept all those who wish to attend.

Note: Hankins, NY is 2.5 hours NW of NYC. Transport options include flights / car rental from JFK/Newark, Scranton and Stewart International airports, also bus from Port Authority NY.