OPTIONAL – Cultivating Courageous Connections Series: Cultivating Resilient Communities

Cultivating Courageous Connections: A Journey Through Humility, Resilience, and Allyship In this dynamic 3-part series, we explore essential pillars of fostering inclusion, equity, and belonging across our collective spheres of influence. Through a cultural humility framework, participants will examine their positionality, exploring the crossroads of who they are, how others perceive them, and how power shapes their place within social systems. Cultivating Resilient Communities equips participants to navigate generative conflict with a focus on strengthening relationships and centering healing. Finally, Allyship Amplified moves us toward action by disrupting harm and amplifying the voices of marginalized communities. Join us to engage in meaningful dialogue, practical strategies, and community-building for long-term social change.

• Session #2: Cultivating Resilient Communities: Embracing Generative Conflict and Prioritizing Healing In this workshop, we delve into the complexities of navigating conflict, the practice of building resilience when holding tension, and the need for deeper healing and communal care, especially amidst an increasingly polarized sociopolitical landscape. With a keen acknowledgement for the role that power dynamics play across social identities and interpersonal relationships, as well as an awareness of a Midwest Nice culture that often poses a barrier for moving through conflict, we will explore healing-centered strategies to confront the fatigue, pain, and grief resulting from these challenging times.

 

Presenter Bio:

Amanda Florence Garcia Goodenough (she/her/hers) is a dedicated educator operating from a cultural humility framework to center and elevate historically marginalized voices, promote belongingness and mattering, disrupt structural inequities, and advance intersectional social and racial justice. Leaning on 20 years of professional experience in justice, equity, decolonization, and interconnectedness (JEDI) efforts, Amanda engages in systems-change work and strives to speak truth to power as an act of love and liberation.