NEW SITE

Please go to www.enablecreation.com for the latest news about our
Creativity & Empowerment work in Sheffield.
Thanks.

New Sustainable Development Project

Jonathan has been invited by Dr. Colin Beard to co-run a community focussed initiative at Sheffield Business School which aims to highlight and develop more sustainable ways of thinking. The project, initially aimed at staff of community organisations, will run from January in conjunction with Sheffield Hallam University will be funded by Humber Learning Consortium. One of our main roles will be to provide a creative and artistic aspect in the programme from planning through to final delivery stages and development.

New site here www.enablecreation.com

Good News in 3's, the way we like it.

A huge welcome on behalf of myself, Katie and Mick to my good friend Dr.Colin Beard who has agreed to become third director of Enable Creation! Our formidable team is now ready and the main documents are finally in the post to incorporate the company! Colin (pictured), is an experiential learning expert and a Teaching Fellow at Sheffield Business School. He's acclamied with writing the world's first book on adventure tourism from right here in Sheffield. I found his book 'Experiential Learning' so exciting and decided to get in touch to ask some advice only a few months ago. Colin's already been pouring in to Enable specialist guidance, inspiration and lovely big ideas!

More good news from the government for co-operatives in the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review.

Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, said: “Amid all the cuts and bad news, we are pleased that George Osborne included direct references to communities running services, owning assets and for public service workers to form co-operatives. This shows that the Government is putting its Manifesto commitments to co-operatives into practice.”

The govt has pledged funding the increase in participation in education and training, benefiting 7.8 per cent of 16-18 year olds in Yorkshire and Humber that are not in Education, Employment or Training. More at the Treasury website for Yorks and Humber here.

Finally, reflecting all this good news, you'll notice some changes soon as we'll be migrating this site on to a new fully fledged Word Press platform which will blend this and the main Enable site into one seamless, all singing, dancing, bells and whistles Creative Learning Gateway!

Engaging reality co-creatively; Bohmian Dialogue

Engaging reality co-creatively. That to me is the essence of the aims of a Dialogue technique devised by quantum physicist David Bohm and it's why I've decided to start a group based on it, I’m also implementing it into creative / educational practice.

This unique method of group communicating has yielded stunning results internationally across many societies and communities, with far-reaching effects. It follows some simple ground rules relating to enhanced listening and respect for what needs to be said, in order to promote and experience a unified or shared field of thought. There is no set topic, no agenda and no obligation to speak. This kind of group dialogue, once the method and flow is perceived, can be a very powerful experience.

Bohm Dialogue (also known as Bohmian Dialogue) is a freely-flowing group conversation that makes an attempt, utilising a theoretical understanding of the way thoughts relate to universal reality, to more effectively investigate the crises that face society, and indeed the whole of human nature and consciousness.

“There is a kind of communication that does not begin by denying wholeness. If we say ‘here am I and here are you’ then we have already divided it. Perhaps we could communicate in the spirit of the whole without assuming that division. That means I’m not trying to tell you what I think and you’re not trying to tell me what you think, but rather together we are trying to discover how we’re going to think together. Do you see the difference? It depends on the attitude. Our language has been developed to emphasise the part(s) but we can still use it differently. For example poetry uses language differently. It’s always possible to use language in new ways.”

Further Explanations / Definitions
In Dialogue, a group of people can explore the individual and collective presuppositions, ideas, beliefs, and feelings that subtly control their interactions. It provides an opportunity to participate in a process that displays communication successes and failures. It can reveal the often puzzling patterns of incoherence that lead the group to avoid certain issues or, on the other hand, to insist, against all reason, on standing and defending opinions about particular issues.

Dialogue is a way of observing, collectively, how hidden values and intentions can control our behaviour, and how unnoticed cultural differences can clash without our realising what is occurring. It can therefore be seen as an arena in which collective learning takes place and out of which a sense of increased harmony, fellowship and creativity can arise.

Because the nature of Dialogue is exploratory, its meaning and its methods continue to unfold. No firm rules can be laid down for conducting a Dialogue because its essence is learning - not as the result of consuming a body of information or doctrine imparted by an authority, nor as a means of examining or criticizing a particular theory or programme, but rather as part of an unfolding process of creative participation between peers.

"If five billion people want to live at the present European-American standard of living.. they will be like a swarm of locusts descending... which means people will have to find something else in life if they want to survive." - David Bohm.

Much of this text was lifted from other information sites of which there are lots on the internet. We have a monthly dialogue group here in Sheffield, England, if you are interested in attending please get in touch.

This Crystalline Fractal Community called Man

I had one of those moments today where I saw exactly what it is I want to create and be part of: it is a team of professional people delivering a dynamic range of skills in workshops and training across our communities.

Imagine a row of bottles of fantastic herbal tinctures on the shelf of a renowned old clinic. 'Client' (individual representative of a community in need) walks in and is given a diagnosis (from the Greek discernment) based in part on their individual needs and in part on their common (community) needs. The tinctures are our specialist facilitators with their unique (creative) talent, the shop is the workshop environment. Client sits down and is cured. We, (the facilitators and apothecaries) are empowered by witnessing the results). He/she takes back to share in his/her natural environment, their new and renewed energy. Before they leave they share with us the results of our direct facilitation. By empowering them we are empowered; we refine and improve our tinctures. We are improved individually and commonly.

The act of intentional giving is playing a part in the intrinsic positive expansion of the universe. We are not separate from any community, in fact, every single act of selfless giving has an effect on the greatest community of all; mankind.

How exciting to be able to "explore the role of 'self' as a participant in change as well as to reflect on group, organisational and societal dynamics of changing communities."

(This quote is from the handout of the short 'Working with Communities' course I'm about to start at Sheffield Uni.) Pure serendipity.

It's holistic learning in reality.

Change begins with the individual. We are changing. The facilitators' positive changing has to effect the community.

Social justice, empowerment and inclusion are stated to be the main aims for supporting contemporary cultures and communities.

The aims of Enable Creation include empowering individuals and in turn, communities, by facilitating the creative process in the best way possible, using the best resources and enabling exploration of the deepest values in a given environment. For the individual (attending one of our workshops) this means giving them the right conditions (in a stable and supportive micro-community) to thoroughly and honestly explore their own creativity and purpose.

Total integration of creative exploration and psychosocial personal development methods, modelled in conjunction with the specific circumstances of the participants, provide the backbone to the final goals and outcomes.

A retreat. A 'time out'. A 'holiday' from their own usual community in a 'training ground' for conscious self-exploration, with the 'return' and application of the renewed individual's energy to their community as the final, crucial part of their task and equation. Empowered to empower.

Liz Gilbert - Ole!

Watch this.

Now.

Some serious work ahead to set up Enable, mostly in the creation of the working business plan with support from Sheffield Co-Operative Development Group, Business Link and SCEDU. Suzy Ball recently outlined again, the difficulty social entrepreneurs face with the classic conflict of interests in setting up a social enterprise, (see post below). So, while I quiver at the thought of launching immediately into management of something as demanding as Creating Identities, I can see it as a successful pilot and concentrate on a) the slowly evolving plan and b) my solo work as artist-facilitator. I'm looking forward to a placement coming up on the Artist Carousel course in Leeds which will give me lots of experience delivering in schools, about to be registered with Three Consulting and on the lookout for suitable local opportunities with Creative Partnerships. If you work with youngsters and the vulnerable you need to check out the new protection laws. There's also the Bloc Youth Project (Autumn series of workshops) coming up which I'll have a hand in delivering as well as managing (including the exhibition in December). Other work includes the creation of a new video documentary for Mick Beck, website development for Colin Beard and, when I get round to it another experimental music album for John Hackett. I might have time do do a bit of painting as well one of these days... Oh yeah one more thing! My old friend Matthew Burgess has been developing some awesome Islamic artworks which are nearly ready for production (pictured is one example). We started work on this project around 15 years ago! He's getting some exhibitions sorted out and has asked me to submit a couple of pieces but I also think I really want to look at the possibilities of staging our own.

Check out my photos on Flickr