Activity 2: Prepare for Workshop 18 Field Trip (5 minutes)

"Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye from Words Under the Words: Selected Poems (Far Corner Books. Portland, OR, 1995).

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

What you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

Like a shadow or a friend.

The UUA Multicultural Growth & Witness staff group offers resources, curricula, trainings, and tools to help Unitarian Universalist congregations and leaders engage in the work of antiracism, antioppression, and multiculturalism. Visit www.uua.org/multicultural (at www.uua.org/multicultural) or email multicultural @ uua.org (at mailto:multicultural@uua.org) to learn more.

This workshop engages participants directly with communities where the dominant racial/ethnic identity is people of African, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latina/o/Hispanic, Arabic/Middle Eastern, and/or Native descent or where a mixture of such persons is the dominant demographic. Participants add to what they have learned from previous workshops and have an opportunity to foster relationships across cultural divides by learning about the aspirations, issues, and concerns of people from racially or ethnically marginalized groups who live in the community around the congregation. Avoid making this a tourist or anthropology field trip. Engage panelists from Workshop 17 to help you identify communities, organizations, and people to meet and talk with.

This workshop will:

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  Engage participants directly with communities where the dominant racial/ethnic identity is people of African, Asian/Pacific Islander, Latina/o/Hispanic, Arabic/Middle Eastern, and/or Native descent or where a mixture of such persons is the dominant demographic
  
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  Present an opportunity to foster relationships across cultural divides by seeking to learn about the aspirations, issues, and concerns of People of Color and from racially or ethnically marginalized groups who live in the community around the congregation.
  

Participants will:

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  Experience discovering values and differences by exploring different neighborhood communities
  
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  Learn about the aspirations, issues, and concerns of People of Color and from racially or ethnically marginalized groups who live in the community around the congregation.
  

This workshop's field trip may require much logistical preparation. Do not become so overwhelmed by this preparation that you neglect to prepare yourself spiritually. Consider Dr. Padilla's words, and talk with your co-facilitator or a trusted conversation partner about your hopes and fears in advance of the field trip. Cultivate an attitude of openness to the experience.

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  Handout 1, Field Trip and Community Walk (included in this document)
  
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  Taking It Home
  
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  Participant cameras
  
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  Participant journals or small notebooks, and pens/pencils
  
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  Optional: Road maps or walking maps of your community
  

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  Download Taking It Home and copy for all participants (or, plan to email it to the group).
  
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  Collect the cell phone numbers of participants who will bring a phone on the field trip. Create a list and copy it for all participants.
  

Gather participants and introduce the activity using these or similar words:

It is far easier to move through the world without really seeing much of it. Think about how often we turn into the driveway or walk home after a long day at work and realize we were on auto-pilot the entire trip home? This workshop interrupts the experience of "turning on the auto-pilot" in order to help us see our congregation and community as thoughtfully as we possibly can. Our task today is simple but powerful: Get out of our car and explore at least two (or more) neighborhoods that are important to our congregation, I invite you to gather a few astute observations, which we will process in later Building the World We Dream About workshops.

Travel in small groups, no larger than five. After you have formed your group, plan your trip. You may begin by exploring the neighborhood where this congregation is located, and then continue on to one or more other communities in the area. You may choose to begin in a neighborhood a distance from the congregation and end your time in the immediate area. Your task is to talk with people and find out about their hopes, aspirations, and challenges and to get to know a bit about the neighborhood. You might stop in at a market to talk with people, at a church, or at a playground (but do not approach children without first talking with their parent!). Take pictures and notes, if they will help you in processing, understanding, or remembering, but do not let the camera or the notebook act as a barrier, or a means of detaching yourself from the experience. You will be asked to report back next time on what you observed and discovered, and what insights you gained.

Distribute the cell phone number list; Handout 1, Field Trip and Community Walk; Taking It Home handout; notebooks and pens/pencils for those who need them; and (optional) maps. Invite participants to form small groups and take a few minutes to plan their trip.

Participants may go their separate ways at the end of their field trip.

Take a few moments right after the workshop to ask each other:

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  What went well?
  
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  What didn't? Why?
  
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  What do you think was the best moment of the workshop? Why?
  
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  Did anything surprise you?
  
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  Do we need to make any changes in the way we work together?
  

Examine your notes, artifacts, and photos from the field trip and reflect on new insights you have gained. Prepare to share three new insights at the next workshop meeting.

What explicit and implicit values are conveyed by how the neighborhood is designed? What is important? Who is important? For example:

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  Are there sidewalks? What does that imply?
  
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  What about playgrounds, public parks, community centers for children and families?
  
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  What kind of stores are in the neighborhood? What do they sell? Are they locally owned or chains?
  
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  How does the design of the neighborhood welcome or exclude?
  
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  What kind of transportation do residents use?
  
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  Do the homes have front porches? Front or back yards?
  
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  Single-family homes? Condos? Rental apartments?
  
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  How many generations live in the home?
  
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  Where do teenagers hang out?
  
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  What are the demographics of the residents?
  
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  How do income and wealth appear to shape community life?
  
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  How does the visible language (e.g., words carved on buildings, signs, brochures, etc.) shape the message of the neighborhood?
  

Do quick interviews of three to five people who seem representative of the neighborhood. As questions such as:

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  What do you enjoy most about your community?
  
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  What does this community represent to you?
  

The UUA Multicultural Growth & Witness staff group offers resources, curricula, trainings, and tools to help Unitarian Universalist congregations and leaders engage in the work of antiracism, antioppression, and multiculturalism. Visit www.uua.org/multicultural (at www.uua.org/multicultural) or email multicultural @ uua.org (at mailto:multicultural@uua.org) to learn more.

Participants bring their observations, feelings, and questions to shared reflection on the words and stories of panelists from Workshop 17, Voices of the Local Community, and the field trip they took in Workshop 18, Exploring Our Communities. This workshop asks: What are we learning about how different individuals, groups, and communities value and make meaning of their lives? Exploring together the words, images, emotions, and stories that emerged from the panel and the field trip provides practice in developing multicultural competency. This workshop moves participants to more deeply understand and appreciate multiple perspectives and to value the practice of making space in congregations and organizations for diverse voices and communities to encounter and influence each other—a necessary step in transformative social justice work and in creating antiracist/multicultural community.

A couple of days before the workshop, call or email participants and remind them to bring photos, artifacts, and reflections from their community field trip as well as their completed Handout 1 from Workshop 17, The State of Racial/Ethnic Relations at _____ [name of your congregation].

Before leading this workshop, review the accessibility guidelines in the program Introduction under Integrating All Participants.

This workshop will:

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  Provide practice in developing multicultural competency
  
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  Further explore how the practice of making space within congregations and organizations for diverse voices and communities to encounter and influence each other is a necessary part of engaging in transformative social justice work and creating antiracist/multicultural community.
  

Participants will:

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  Share new insights from the community panel presentation (Workshop 17) and the community field trip (Workshop 18)
  
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  Explore together the words, images, emotions, and stories that emerged from the panel and the field trip
  
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  Develop their multicultural competency as they make meaning of experiences/encounters with people who belong to communities beyond the congregation
  
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  Articulate a deeper understanding and appreciation of multiple perspectives
  
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  Value the practice of making space within congregations and organizations for diverse voices and communities to encounter and influence each other as a necessary step in transformative social justice work and toward creating antiracist/multicultural community.
  

Review your own notes and reflections from panel (Workshop 17) and the field trip (Workshop 18). Consider the questions in Handout 1, Reflection Questions and write responses and insights in your journal or share them with your co-facilitator.

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  Sign-in sheet and pen or pencil
  
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  Name tags for participants (durable or single-use) and bold markers
  
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  Optional: Music and player
  
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  Optional: Snacks and beverages
  

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  Arrange chairs in a circle and set out name tags and markers on a table.
  
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  Optional: Play music softly in the background.
  
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  Optional: Set out snacks and beverages.
  

Greet each participant as they arrive.

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  Worship table or designated space
  
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  Chalice, candle, and lighter or LED battery-operated candle
  
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  List of this workshop's Goals
  
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  Covenant established in Workshop 1
  
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  Singing the Living Tradition, the Unitarian Universalist hymnbook, enough for all participants
  
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  Optional: Piano or keyboard