Restoring Connection
Fear, Hope, Heal, Change
In a world often driven by fear, we at Inspire to Change believe in the transformative power of hope, healing, and sustainable change.
When we feel fear, we tend to rely on tried-and-true strategies that have helped us survive. Hope encourages us to take chances and imagine new possibilities. Trauma skews our habits and behaviors towards illness; healing moves us towards wellbeing. Sustainable change requires understanding fear, healing past and ongoing trauma, and generating enough hope to imagine and enact new possibilities for ourselves, our organizations, and our communities.
Our journey begins with understanding our fears, healing from past and ongoing trauma, and nurturing hope to reimagine and create new possibilities for individuals, organizations, and communities.
About Restorative Practices
Restorative practices, an emerging social science with deep roots in indigenous communities worldwide, serves as our cornerstone at Inspire to Change. Through these practices, we've witnessed remarkable transformations: from fractured to cohesive communities, from conflict to understanding, and from despair to hope.
Rooted in the ancient wisdom of indigenous communities worldwide, restorative practices serve as a cornerstone for building social capital and fostering healing at Inspire to Change. Our approach centers around creating restorative and equitable dialogues, meticulously crafted to encourage community involvement. Through engaging methods like circles and mediations, these facilitated conversations aim to bridge divides and nurture understanding. Our success is measured by our ability to guide communities from their current state – whether marred by conflict or misunderstanding – towards a path of healing and transformative change. By doing so, we not only address existing issues but also lay the groundwork to prevent future injustices, ensuring a more harmonious and just society for all.
Our Approach To Restorative Practices for
Generative Engagement
At Inspire to Change, we work help people acknowledge fears, change patterns, heal and be healed from trauma, and find and act upon hope.
At Inspire to Change, our unique approach transcends conventional boundaries. We are proud to have established partnerships across the Twin Cities Metro area and far beyond, collaborating with a broad spectrum of entities ranging from nonprofit organizations to government agencies. Our mission is to cultivate environments that catalyze a transformative journey: turning fear into bravery, healing the wounds of trauma, and converting hope into tangible actions. With extensive experience working with a variety of community groups, charitable foundations, and other agencies not only in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota but also on a regional and global scale, we are committed to empowering changemakers. We guide them in focusing on inquiry and wellbeing, paving the way towards more integrated, aesthetically rich, and free societies.
Our work, often aligned with the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and anti-racism (DEI, DEAI, IDEAL), is driven by core values encapsulated in our mottos: 'Be & Become', 'Learn & Unlearn', 'Remember & Create', and 'Disrupt & Liberate'. These principles not only inform our decisions but also inspire our actions. We challenge and support our clients to go beyond the existing cultural paradigms, envisioning and creating inclusive spaces where everyone has the opportunity to flourish. While we support efforts aimed at diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and anti-racism, we strongly encourage our clients to surpass the limitations of our current culture and proactively imagine spaces where we can all thrive.
We Design With You
Each restorative facilitation we design is as unique as the individuals and communities we serve. Blending our expertise as artists, educators, and facilitators, we meet you where you are, ensuring that every voice is heard, every truth is acknowledged, and every possibility for a brighter future is explored. Regardless of how the facilitations are designed, participants will experience the following:
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Conversations where everyone has the opportunity to hear and be heard
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Discovering what can be jointly believed and understood to be true
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Going beyond disconnections to make connections and reconnections.
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Illuminated possibilities for a path forward
Assumptions underlying our work
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Inspire to Change wants a better future for all participants. We assume that everyone involved in this process shares the same goal.
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We acknowledge that many initiatives are burdened by a legacy of unactualized recommendations and plans. We assume that the people involved wish to take meaningful action at this time.
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When our partners have multiple well-researched and credible sources of information at its disposal, Inspire to Change will not create another study. We will focus our efforts on how people will take action based on what they already know.
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We assume stakeholders at all levels will reserve time for this process and participate fully.
Connect With Us
Join us on this journey of transformation. Together, let's turn fear into hope, heal from our collective traumas, and create sustainable change for a brighter tomorrow. Contact us at inspire@inspire-to-change.org!