Recent meeting using OST and other approaches

[Chris Corrigan]

Colleagues:
On Friday I had the opportunity to open space in a community setting
around the very emotional issues of what can be done to support
Aboriginal families who are in the process of being investigated and
having their children removed by the provincial Ministry for Children
and Families.

The meeting was the first of three public legal education workshops
sponsored by Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services.  The day
was a mix of information sharing and discussion in open space.  The
process was designed to maximize learning, discussion and to provide
support for those who needed it.

in attendance were 45 members of the community in Vancouver.  Some
people were agency representatives and others were parents who had been
involved with the Ministry either through the apprehension of the own
children or because they were raised in the foster system themselves.
There is a huge amount of contention in our community about child
apprehension. One the one hand, the rights and safety of children are
paramount, but the other hand is full of an atrocious history of
government social workers taking children away from their families and
communities without any support for either the children or the families.

The morning of our workshops was spent in a circle, with a lawyer and
Ministry representatives sharing the legal and practice issues around
investigations and removals of children.  The circle helped to bring a
measure of respect and thoughtfulness to the morning.  We warmed up with
a "transfer in" exercise (students of Birgitt will be familiar with
this) which served to centre everyone's thoughts on the issue at hand,
and provided a means for people to introduce themselves to folks they
had never met.

In the afternoon the space was opened for further elaboration on the
topic of "less disruptive measures" and other ways of supporting
families in crises.

The process worked well.  There were 11 groups formed.  Some of those
groups were convened by people who were in a deep state of grieving,
while others were convened by folks who wanted to address the policy and
networking opportunities presented by the theme.  In retrospect, we
could not have created a safer space for those who needed to grieve.
Those three or four sessions allowed folks the opportunity to discuss
their pain, and others who participated were able to give them some
comfort and help them through their experience.  It was support in a
very real way.  The other groups beavered away on their work, and I was
glad that they were able to use the time and space to do what they
needed to do without being distracted by the very real concerns of the
participants in grief.

We had a short time frame, so I people met in two periods of 45
minutes.  The closing circle was powerful, as usual, with on woman -- a
strong advocate -- admitting that prior to the meeting she had thought
of all social workers as the enemy, but that now she was prepared to not
tar them all with the smae brush.  Many other people commented on how
the process let them speak about what was on their mind, even though
they were traditionally the shy and retiring types.

Combining OST with the "information sharing" process in the morning
brought a really organic feel to the day.  It was exhaling stale air
(the legislation, the practice standards, the past) and inhaling new
life (the healing, the ideas, the empowerment).


We have two more workshops planned, and I won't tinker with the process
much.

Chris



--
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Consultation - Facilitation
Open Space Technology

http://www.geocities.com/chris_corrigan

108-1035 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC
V6E 4G7

Phone: 604.683.3080
Fax: 604.683.3036
corcom at interchange.ubc.ca

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu
Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

===========================================================
OSLIST at EGROUPS.COM
To subscribe,
1.  Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist
2.  Sign up -- provide an email address,
    and choose a login ID and password
3.  Click on "Subscribe" and follow the instructions

To unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at egroups.com:
1.  Visit: http://www.egroups.com/group/oslist
2.  Sign in and Proceed