An Overview of
the Program

The Community Empowerment Program is the first in a series of community programs developed by the Mastery Foundation.

It is designed to bring together those committed to their communities and empower them in creating a new conversation for themselves and for their communities—a conversation based on inclusion, respect, trust, relationship, accountability, and the opportunity for authentic dialogue.

Where there might now be a lack of connection to the community or a lack of power or influence, this program leaves participants with a new sense of their power and place in their community.

This two-day program is generally offered as part of a long-term initiative that includes additional training and follow-up sessions tailored to the needs of those involved. It is currently offered in Northern Ireland as part of the ongoing work of the Ireland Initiative, and in the Mississippi Delta community of Clarksdale.

A three-day Leadership Program is also available. Other programs in development, including one on enlisting and engaging others and one on working with volunteers.

Course Outline

DAY ONE: Creating New Possibilities for Community
Overall Objective: Discover our present relationship to community and that we can create new possibilities

Morning. Objective is to get connected with each other, get connected to community, get accountable for the outcome.

• Relationship As The Foundation For Accomplishment
• Insight Into The Nature of Community
• Accountability As A Choice
• Reflection & Quiet Time
  

Afternoon. Objective is to confront the way it is; create for ourselves that we can create new possibilities, that we have something powerful to say about the way it is and will be.

• Revealing the Community As It Is
• Creating A New Kind of Future
• Reflection & Quiet Time

DAY TWO: Living Out Possibility In Community
Overall Objective: Create and practice new ways to live out the new conversations and possibilities created on Day One.

Morning. Objective is to confront the way we live in the face of that reality and what we do to sustain it.

• Bringing Gifts From the Margins to the Center
• Choosing What Matters Before What Works
• Practicing With Possibility
• Reflection & Quiet Time
  

Afternoon. Objective is to design and practice operating from principles that sustain new conversations and new possibilities

• The Rhythm of Community
• Community Principles In Action
• Reflection & Quiet Time
• Creating the New Conversation

What do we mean by empowering community? When people lack the power to make things happen, they are left with the alternatives of either resorting to some type of force or resigning themselves to putting up with what they cannot change. By empowering community, we mean to give people the tools and the power to have what they say and do make a difference.