The Circle Way needs your gift. Please offer what you can.
In light of these times, The Circle Way reaffirms the essential practice of taking a seat on the rim and turning to one another to uphold racial, ethnic, gender, economic, and environmental justice.
Help grow a global community of diverse, inter-generational practitioners, and embed circle practice in organizational systems.
Your financial gift funds grants to support innovative circle initiatives, and to expand individual and group learning in The Circle Way.
We are a volunteer group of ‘worker bees’, and count on the majority of our funding through your contributions at this time of year.
Donate today:
1. Go to our Donate page here.
2. Choose to Give Monthly or Give Now (for an immediate gift), or
3. Donate by check payable to The Circle Way, PO Box 1480, Freeland, WA 98249.
Photo from the Decolonizing Practices Workshop
Highlights from 2018 include:
Working with eleven individuals to provide $6,600 in grants for learning The Circle Way.
Providing three new initiative grants totalling $7,200 to support a 9 month training for women’s empowerment and leadership, conscious parenting with an emphasis on preventing teen suicide, and decolonizing practices through workshops with Indigenous and non-Indigenous facilitators.
The Spanish translation of The Circle Way Pocket Guide (nearly complete!).
We completed a thoughtful process of interviews to expand and diversify The Circle Way Board, to welcome fresh ideas and practice, growing from six to twelve people (announcement coming soon).
The Circle Way learning events have been held in Europe, Australia, Canada, the United States, and online.
The Circle Way monthly newsletter continues to feature a monthly story of The Circle Way in practice with voices from around the world, as well as “The Circle Way Tips” to support the application and practice of The Circle Way.
Read more about the impact of The Circle Way through these stories from Kit Wilson, Traci Kelly, and Rich Rivera, and enjoy the two videos below.
Cultivating Conscious Parents was a recipient of a New Initiatives Grant this year. The program is designed to bring parents together in circle to deepen self awareness and provide a safe space for courageous and vulnerable conversations about helping children live original and creative lives.
“I was recently introduced to The Circle Way, but I sure am glad I was! I was encouraged to join a group of people breaking barriers and stereotypes, meeting, discussing, and simply sharing an experience. We gather because we desire more from the mundane work/school/kid’s activity relationships we have all been so accustomed. We want love, positivity, encouragement in this world for our children as their years so quickly pass. We want respect from other adults and know we work together for that in practice. We hope to grow our happiness and hearts to capacity. We want to make an impression that with the uncertainty of the culture around us, we are grounded together as individual leaders. Thank you.”
The Circle Was was proud to support Michelle Lorna Nahanee (Squamish), the designer of a life-size board game and workshop called Sínulhkay and Ladders, with a New Initiatives Grant. She is a creative director, critical communications scholar, Indigenous change maker, and founder of decolonizingpractices.org:
“Sínulhkay and Ladders is a life-size board game that promotes the Squamish practice of Chen chen stway (holding each other up) while working through neocolonial scenarios of oppression. Its purpose is to provide a framework for developing decolonizing practices.
Decolonizing practices are actions we can take, words we can say and ideas can we unlearn/learn to transform colonial impacts. The focus of the game is bettering Indigenous to non-Indigenous relations in professional settings, making sure we are holding each up – not sliding down the double-headed serpent, called Sínulhkay in the Squamish language.
Through testing we have decided that the workshop is best delivered by a two-person, Squamish/non-Squamish team, to ensure safety by incorporating the work of the Guardian into the design and addressing colonial power legacies through demonstrating partnership and chenchenstway (Squamish to uphold each other). Decolonizing Practices was supported through the New Initiatives grant to attend The Circle Way Practicum in Tofino British Columbia. We were inspired by the facilitation model and continue to fuse The Circle Way approaches with Squamish teachings in our workshops.”
The Circle Way cannot thrive without your help so please consider a generous tax-deductible contribution to The Circle Way as you make decisions about your 2018 charitable giving.
If we change the chairs,
we can change the world.
Thank you.
The Circle Way Board,
Sarah MacDougall / Tenneson Woolf
Nancy Fritsche Eagan / Katharine Weinmann
Shelly Jurmain / Amanda Fenton
The Circle Way is a registered 501c3, non-profit organization (EIN 31-1624092). Donations are tax deductible.