Day Three - The New Mentality - Who Are We, Anyway?
The New Mentality is a province-wide network, with strong geographic diversity. From as far north and east as Pembroke and Ottawa, through Toronto, and across to Sarnia and Windsor, with many in between! We try to stay connected – the internet helps – but at the end of the day our groups often work in isolation. The theme of this day was to get to know ourselves, as groups and as a network. To this end, we did a reflective art exercise, gave groups an opportunity to showcase their work, shared some of our evaluation results, and did a talent show to further display our unique gifts!
To get ourselves fully into the space and moment, we began with a meditative painting exercise. Phyllis led us through a series of strokes using different colours and brushes, with which we each painted a personal landscape. We painted in four elements: the Universe, the Ground, Humanity, and Me. As we took a moment to wander around the room, we shared a quiet honouring space together and observed others’ finished paintings. We saw, incredibly, that we are at once so similar and so different in how we map our existence. Some shared that the exercise helped calm their anxieties. Some shared that it was rooting.
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We then entered a Storytelling Marketplace, during which each group had the opportunity to do a presentation about their work and showcase any media, swag, material, or anything else they’ve developed. As each group presented, the audience listened using guiding questions that aimed to tease out skills and bigger systems change questions, and gave feedback to the presenters to initiate learning conversations. People enjoyed the opportunity to learn from one another, and to celebrate one another’s accomplishments.
A highlight of the Storytelling Marketplace was the Evaluation presentation. Between January to June, CMHO’s (now former) placement student, Audrey, developed an outcomes evaluation. As part of her research, she conducted focus groups with all of the New Mentality groups. Audrey discussed some of her findings in an open space session, and shared the beautiful visualization of the evaluation created by a graphic facilitator.
Next Page: Day Three, Part 2 - Building Resiliency, Amplifying our Voice