DISCUSSION REPORTS FROM OPEN SPACE WORKSHOP HELD MAY 29, 2011

On May 29, 2011 Anne-Marie Collette, Director of the Greater Moncton Area/New Brunswick Centres for Teaching Peace, co-facilitated an Open Space Technology workshop with 50 participants with the theme:

“Together,PeacebyPeace...
co-creating a peaceful community.”

Below is a copy of the Invitation and 22 Discussion Reports that resulted.

A special “THANK YOU” to all the participants for their contributions.

Our plan is to follow up within the next 6 to 9 months with a more extensive community collaboration using Open Space Technology building upon the success of the May 29 workshop. The tentative theme is: Advancing a Culture of Peace in the Greater Moncton Area.

For more information and next steps, please contact Anne-Marie Collette at or call 312-3303.

[Please note: we are in the process of having all Moncton Centre for Teaching Peace related web site material translated into French. Assistance with translation would be greatly appreciated, if you know of anyone who might help. In the meantime, we apologize for any inconvenience. Translation will be available at meetings.]

[Attention: Nous sommes intéressé de traduire en français toute la documentation du site internet du Centre de l'éducation à la paix de Moncton. Nous sommes à la recherche de personnes qui voudraient nous rendre ce service. Entre temps, veuillez accepter nos excuses. Aux rencontres, un service de traduction sera offert.]

A call to action for servant leaders:

Healers, Intuitives, Cultural Creatives, Wayshowers,
Lightworkers, Mother Earth Stewards, Consciously
Aware Educators and Entrepreneurs.

Are you called to step deeper into your

life mission?

Are you ready to be the change you desire
to see in the world?

Are you ready to put your talents and gifts t to advance peace in yourself, in your family, in your community, in our country, i in our world?

If so, you will want to join us, a group of like-minded individuals, who are passionate, forward thinking and solution oriented change makers, for a day of inspired conversations, networking and fun!

Our Theme

“Together,PeacebyPeace...
co-creating a peaceful community.”

REPORT # 1

Discussion Report

Topic: How to improve access to family justice?

Reflections – Important elements

The basis for the question:

  • Families in NB going through separations face a justice system that is currently more adversarial than collaborative based. How can this change as the victims are the people who are already faced with traumas in their lives and end up losing time, resources, self-esteem and respect for themselves and the other parent.
  • Though there are some lawyers who practice collaborative law and the Department of Justice and Consumer Affairs have reinstated family mediation services as a pilot project, there are still major flaws in the system that hinder the process to getting to a peaceful result. Some of the issues are:
  1. Mediation is not mandatory in NB as it is in Ontario; therefore, it only takes one party to refuse to mediate and that option, though the best one, is no longer available.
  2. Lawyers who practice collaborative law are still not required to abide and respect the process; once again, a more adversarial process is often promoted.
  3. While family mediation services are great to resolve the main issues of custody, access, child support and special expenses, it is still required to have a lawyer draft the separation agreement and these are some of the flaws:

The mediation process is not respected and lawyers try to change what had been agreed upon, even when there is a MOU signed.

Division of assets and liabilities can only be done between lawyers and this process increases the amount of billable hours.

  1. Legal aid services present flaws as well as people who are average income earners must sign over leans on their assets which does not help them financially during an already trying period.

Some organizations such as Support to Single Parents bridge some of the gaps by providing information and educational sessions on all aspects that impact a family’ life but it still doesn’t provide changes to the system.

I believe I have been called to create a coalition to improve this access and to advocate to reform the family justice system. The components of the coalition would be:

  1. Advocacy

At political level:

-Change legislation to make mediation mandatory

-Change legislation to alter the mediation process; either have mediators being able to resolve issue of division of assets and liabilities and or have the document signed off by the mediator and the legal team accepted and recognized by a judge.

Within the legal community (Association des juristes du NB)

-To have a code of ethics adopted, respected and abided by the legal community with respect to the mediation-collaboration process

-To have a code of ethics adopted to make collaborative law a uniform, transparent and legally binding process

  1. Creating an incentive and reward system to promote a collaborative process

Gather key people (mediator, social workers, healers, business people, few lawyers) to create a streamlined, cost-efficient and productive process for families to resolve their separations in an amicable and collaborative fashion.

A-Promotion of the collaborative process- provide an information session to the parents

B-Offer counselling sessions and make certain courses a mandatory process: ie: participants must take For the Sake of the Children course for instance

C-Phase I of mediation: Setting up appointment with the mediator, normal family mediation services process takes place where custody, access, child support and special expenses are determined.

D-Phase II of mediation: Have parties take part into sessions on division of assets and liabilities given by a lawyer so they get an understanding of what the law states and understanding their roles and responsibilities; an appointment with a mediator (previous lawyers) then takes place to resolve these outstanding issues. Mediation would be at a lesser price or free; this portion to be provided at 50% or 75% cost to families in need by coalition.

E-Once an MOU is drafted, refer the parties to lawyers who have accepted to abide by our system. This means we will GUARANTEE that a separation agreement will be done up and signed for $1000 and to be divided by both parties equally. This would mean that for $500 each, the parents would resolve all aspects of their separations. The incentive for the lawyers will be to receive a bonus of $1000 by the coalition for abiding to our process. This would be paid by funds raised by the coalition. This way, they actually improve productivity and get to do more with less hassle and turmoil.

  1. Education and information
  1. We feel there is a education to be made amongst the legal community on the mediation process and collaborative law. Subject matter experts would be chosen to offer those on a regular basis and training could be folded in under the umbrella of the coalition.
  1. Assistance to people who fall through the cracks, which may also involve financial assistance-

Examples of this can take form in the following:

-Special fund managed by a Board of Directors and that reviews application and determine if participants are eligible and if so, at what percentage

-Folding in complimentary services such as Micro Credit Lending Institute (a new business that wants to offer financing to individuals needing micro loans specifically single parents).

UI will create this by:

-Obtain private capital by asking 100 individuals or more to donate a start up contribution and attempt to raise $50,000

-Obtain an operating grant for 3 years from NB Dept of Justice to get the coalition going

-Have fundraising events

-Thank you for the time today-first time I get to finally put my thoughts on paper!-

REPORT # 2

Discussion Report

Topic: How to Ignite People to Awaken to their Potential

Discussion – First we began by addressing what it was that ignited ourselves to wake up. We agreed that it was generally a point of suffering that inspired us to ‘move’ and change. It was then discussed, “What would it be like if we didn’t have to suffer to awaken, if we could find love, beauty and joy to inspire us and even within a suffering time. That we could honour both the shadow and the light while we mined the gold of the experiences of our lives (within the good, the bad and the mediocre) to bring more love, joy and meaning to the awakening experience.”

Overall the final outcome for the process to deliver the message and to ignite others would be the following 3 points:

1)Live by example: Be the change we want to see in the World. Allow ourselves to speak from our experience in a Heartfelt and vulnerable place with love and peace.

2)Seek Role Models and a Community who are ignited and living their Life Mission fully! Ask them for help and guidance, learn by their example. Know your needs and ask from those who can help you (who are a living example)

3)Find practices and Tools that will help you become the person you want to become so you many address the areas in your life that you want to improve, enhance or grow.

REPORT # 3

Discussion Report

Topic: Where are the Men?

Reflections – Important elements

  • No candles and fluffy stuff
  • Food, Beer, Pool Table
  • Women tend to overcome the group
  • They’re afraid
  • We need to invite them!
  • Our group had 3 out of 4 men! The 4th one was the initiator of another group.

REPORT # 4

Discussion Report

Topic: How to cultivate peace and presence with Qigong.

Reflections – Important elements

  • How to calm the mind and cultivate peace
  • How to connect to Source
  • How not to be pulled away to the daily distractions
  • Using Qigong to clear out negative energies
  • Using Qigong breathing techniques to instil calmness
  • Learned general movements to cultivate peace

REPORT # 5

Discussion Report

Topic: How best to educate the Public about our work

Reflections – Important elements

  • Passion – how to translate to the market?
  • Love what you do – heart is in it!
  • Have people talk about you after experiencing.
  • Word of mouth is the best advertising.
  • Blog – cheaper than websites! (free!)
  • Freebies – giveaways – free demos – etc.
  • Experiential work needs to be ...EXPERIENCED!

REPORT # 6

Discussion Report

Topic: Assisting Children Getting/Staying Connected

Reflections – Important elements

  • Children are connected, how do we nurture that
  • Spirituality:
  • children know something is different, can’t talk to friends about it.
  • Kids in sports meditate yet don’t even realise they do it.
  • Vision
  • Kids seem to
  • Yoga out most to children and special
  • Needs kids
  • French class learning meditation
  • Yoga starting at school/meditation
  • When looked at as spirituality, people associate it with religion
  • What are spiritual values we want them to ______
  • Trust them
  • Dialogue with children and parents
  • Let children be their own ______
  • Love children follow their feelings (intuition)
  • Meditation brought into l’Odyssey/How to bring it into Anglophone district/help st. To recognize.
  • Chigmg – cultivating peace within.
  • High school – play – focusing on being your own person
  • Role Models – having guest speakers for children.
  • How do we connect education and family, teachers vs. parent, school vs. politicians.
  • What’s your PASSION
  • PEACE
  • Parents today may not understand their children
  • How to build healthy relationships between parent and child, child and parent
  • Program called Rainbow will be introduced in school district 2
  • Special moments with children before bed, what’s one good thing, one bad thing happened in your day

REPORT #8

Discussion Report

Topic: Food: A Big Piece of the Picture

Reflections – Important elements

  • Support local market and producers
  • Food and water are becoming big issues in Canada and other developed countries
  • We need to influence “food” from planting to harvesting, delivery and how to cook it
  • “Peaceful” production of food
  • We could use retired farmers to teach young people about how to grow food
  • Teach people about how to prepare and eat “real” food
  • We need another Canada Food Guide without agro-business
  • More education in schools and connected to environment
  • Have POSITIVE messages – fear doesn’t work – make food fun
  • Have healthy food in hospitals
  • Student doctors need to study nutrition
  • Support new “virtual farmers markets”
  • Create local money (example in Switzerland), barter
  • No fluoride in water
  • Encourage urban gardening
  • Instead of donating to cancer society etc, donate to natural/local food initiatives
  • Use existing structures/groups like the Co-operative Enterprise Council, Buy Local, Conservation Council, Atlantic Canadian Organic Network

REPORT #9

Discussion Report

Topic: How to be creative “Creativity”

Reflections – Important elements

  • Creating an impact (positive impact)
  • Share our knowledge in a creative way in our community
  • Re-connect with our inner-child
  • Help and connect with teens in our community and young children “they are our future”
  • Maybe creating a logo for this group
  • We all have a need to create
  • Creative visualization = positive

REPORT # 10

Discussion Report

Topic:How to truly forgive

Discussion – We talked about the importance of forgiveness. How do you truly forgive someone

Who has deeply hurt you ? The women in the group shared experiences that has happened to them and we discussed about going within the heart center and setting yourself free. That there is no time frame set about how long it takes to forgive,just that we are setting this as our intention and then one day we awake and no longer feel negative towards this situation. Also if we chose we can turn this situation into a positive and can use it to empower others. Thank you for this beautiful day and opportunity to share in this group.

REPORT # 11

Discussion Report

Topic: Raising awareness of our surroundings

Reflections – Important elements

  • Just having awareness, as ourselves as one person, affects others and everything around
  • To have a daily practice, like yoga, writing , painting, helps align us to a higher vibration
  • To change how we look at things happening in our world, ex – our youth, they are going to ruin the world, to … they are here to make a change.
  • To try to look at everything from a different perspective.
  • As one person here, that we can affect what happens on the other side of the world
  • Something as simple as a smile or kind word, can bring about major change in the world.

REPORT # 12

Discussion Report

Topic: Engaging Communities in Peace

Discussion – Important elements

The 4 initiators decided on a common theme and to merge their topics. The 4 main areas of interest were:

  • Creating a positive peaceful community and making positive connections
  • Bringing Tools to NB for hosting connected community dialogue
  • Creating positive communities through teenagers who are not currently engaged
  • Bring peace through our own spaces to pass on to others

What is the glue that keeps communities together? PEACE

What is PEACE?

  • Comes from within
  • Compassion (for ourselves and others)
  • Openness
  • Love (unconditional)
  • Acceptance
  • Openness

Various tools that can be used to host, create and foster these community connections are:

  • Ho’oponopono (Hawaiian Shaman)
  • Art of Hosting Practice (Open Space, World Cafe, Circle – facilitation technologies)
  • Courses in Non-Violent Communication (NVC)
  • Teaching parents how to communicate with teens
  • Rudolph Steiner Schools

These can be used to target groups such as mental health, teens, multi-stakeholder communities groups, organizations, etc.)

REPORT # 13

Discussion Report

Topic: Are you familiar with holistic health and how to bring awareness to others?

Discussion – Important elements

-How to bring holistic health more into the main stream.

-Work with hospitals, medical systems – work together as a whole

-Discuss about associations and insurance coverage for holistic services in the province.

-Dev. Chapters in cities across New Brunswick for holistic health therapist to connect with each other and also a resource to bring awareness to the public .

-Practitioners and people in the holistic fields need to get out there and talk about what they do, what are the holistic options. Let go of the fears about bringing awareness about holistic healing to the public.

-People in the holistic health field, wellness and healing therapies needs to keep pushing on doors, lots of new development in the past few years in the field.

-Getting people to own up to their own health, be responsible for our own health and rearrange priorities.

REPORT # 14

Discussion Report

Topic: Creating Peace Through Political Leadership

Discussion – Important elements

-Local political grass roots activism brings national change. “Your water is their water and your food is their food”.

-Bring solutions to politicians in order to ‘do good’ as well as look good.

-Organize now for what we want to accomplish 4 years down the road

-Support the idea of alternative parties, -Green party, create Peace party?

-Support movements like “Vote Mob” or Botsford Station type gatherings.

-We all have to rise up, use social media as seen recently in the Middle East to support non-violent solutions to global problems.

-Focus on creation of jobs as a result of ‘green money spending’ vs. fighter jets and prisons.

-The bad decisions of gov’t are the responsibility of the apathetic voter.

REPORT# 15

Discussion Report

Topic: How do we Reach/Market the People who are ready and Willing to Awaken

Discussion – Important elements:

Objective: to reach markets that aren’t already aware of what is available and how it will benefit their lives, relationships and the World.

1) Writing; Newsletters, Articles for magazines, newspapers and coffee shops

2) Develop Workshops that can be given to groups of organizations to help promote, educate and inspire Positive Change in our Worlds