Introductions

Replies to This Conversation

Permalink Reply by juanita brown on February 23, 2011 at 9:21am

Hola Thais,

Bienvenidos! We've just returned from a wonderful month collaborating in Brazil...and there are a number of people there interested in new ways of empowering youth in the political arena. Please write to me at my personal e-mail ([email protected]) and I can connect you up with them.

Con mucho carino,

Juanita

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Frieze on March 3, 2011 at 9:02am

Greetings, friends.

I'm Deborah Frieze from Boston. I've been playing with the World Cafe since 2003, when I first met Juanita and David and the World Cafe community through my work with The Berkana Institute. Since then I've hosted or been part of World Cafes alongside many friends all over the world.

Right now, I continue to work with The Berkana Institute which works in partnership with a rich diversity of people around the world who strengthen their communities by working with the wisdom and wealth already present in their people, traditions and environment. I also just completed a new book, co-authored with Margaret Wheatley, entitled Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now. We feature the World Cafe in a chapter about large-scale change happening in Columbus, Ohio.

I'm delighted to join this online community!

Warmly,
Deborah

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Permalink Reply by juanita brown on March 3, 2011 at 9:41am

Wonderful to have you Deborah....it's a great community here and much to share with our Berkana friends back and forth.

AND, I encourage everyone who reads this to get Deborah and Meg's wonderful new book. I LOVED it!

With fondest regards,

Juanita

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Permalink Reply by morakot ketklao on March 3, 2011 at 5:52pm

Sawaddee...

I'm new with World Cafe community.

I'm teaching in Painting devision,Fine Arts Department,Chiang Mai University, Thailand.

I would like to try to create world cafe' in my class with art students.

Hope I can learn from many experience in this community.

Best,

Morakot

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Permalink Reply by juanita brown on March 4, 2011 at 3:45am

Welcome Morakot!

One of the most wonderful Cafe hosts in the world is from Thailand. His name is Chaiwat Thirapantu. Do you know him? If not, please write to me at [email protected] and I can put the two of you in touch with each other, so he can be of support to you.

How did you learn about the World Cafe and how are you hoping to use it with our students? Also, there is a Group here on the on-line community that is related to the Arts and World Cafe. Go to Groups and then scroll down til you find that one and you can join in that conversation as well.

With my warm regards and a warm welcome to this community,

Juanita Brown

Co-Founder, World Cafe

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Permalink Reply by susan furness on March 5, 2011 at 2:17am

I enter the 'new world' as a intrepid conscious leader, facilitator and guide to help energise inner and outer communication.

My present state vision and focus can be described as : World Thrivability, Conscious Business, Authentic Communication, Soul-fed Leadership, Spiritual Intelligence

My legacy profile can be couched as a retail, corporate communications and brand development specialist with focus on tourism & hospitality, new market entry, strategic brand management and change management.

(Indeed) For three decades, the common factor of my professional journey is strategic corporate communications cultivated in markets as diverse as Europe, the US and the Middle East.

Today, with almost inexplicable clarity, I offer my intention to help guide conscious conversations for collaborative communication that serves as a bridge, as mankind shifts to act on what is next - in the 'new-world'.

Whenever the moment reveals itself, I commit to always being present with a caring combination of love energy, non-arrogant expertise and fresh experience - fused with an ever deepening level of being.

I do hope that I can be a productive integrant for World Cafe and you all. If you feel that you know where I could add value, just ask!

If you would like to hear more, I invite you to view my profile on Linkedin http://ae.linkedin.com/in/susanfurness, or take a look at www.strategicsolutionsonline.com.

Blessings,

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Permalink Reply by juanita brown on March 7, 2011 at 9:01am

Hi Susan,

Welcome to the World Cafe community! I so enjoyed our skype visit and look forward to continuing our exploration. To find other people from your region and nearby go to the advanced search function under people -- and look up the countries and profiles that are nearby to see who's there and their interests.

With warmest regards and a personal welcome...

Juanita

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Permalink Reply by Nirvair Kaur Khalsa on March 5, 2011 at 9:17am

Hello. I'm excited to discover World Cafe after looking online for some resources to support community building and problem solving at our Montessori school in Tucson Arizona. My name is Nirvair Kaur Khalsa and I am the director of Khalsa Montessori School, a private preschool and public charter school that serves about 350 students from infants to 8th grade. The school is a community of families, faculty and friends who each contribute in many ways. Some of the questions that we are asking are "How do we ensure the sustainability of our school community is these uncertain economic times?" "Are there sources of funding that are not dependent on parent pocketbooks and government policymakers?" "Is disagreement the end of the conversation or the beginning of the conversation?" "How can we best pool the creativity of our diverse community to create the school of our dreams for our children?"

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Permalink Reply by juanita brown on March 7, 2011 at 8:59am

Dear Nirvair,

Welcome to the World Cafe community! One of our closest collaborators, Christine Whitney Sanchez, the host of our Methods of Strategic Collaboration group here in the on-line community is from Phoenix and you might want to contact her for advice (go to her name under "people" and send her a note!

You can also find other possible members from Arizona or nearby by using the advanced search function and putting in Arizona and see who comes up.

Very best of luck in your wonderful work-- I especially like the question "Is disagreement the end of the conversation or the beginning of the conversation!"

Warmly,

Juanita

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Permalink Reply by Dayna Wheatley on March 9, 2011 at 9:13pm

Hello everyone, I am originally from Detroit but now live in Chicago and I do my best to make the most of all that the city has to offer. I spend quite a bit of my free time exploring the different neighborhoods, cultural venues and restaurants. I also love to hike but am not hardcore with that - I can't walk for more than 8 miles at a time and I don't walk fast. I bought a bicycle last summer and am hoping to make better use of it this year.

I have been a self-employed attorney for the last 7 years and I reverse commute to my west suburban office in a small, majority Mexican-American town (immigration interviews and hearings are always in downtown Chicago and I finally decided it made more sense to start my days in the city). My primary practice area is immigration law (family-based, asylum, removal defense), but I also do contract and employment litigation, as well as the occasional "simple" divorce or real estate closing. In addition to my law practice I teach legal subjects to paralegal students for DePaul University's certificate program part-time. Prior to going to law school nearly 11 years ago I taught Sociology at community college and engaged in some Christian ministry. I have a M.A. in Intercultural Studies. I had the opportunity to live for two years in Taiwan in the 1990s and had a wonderful experience there. I would love to be able to travel more, to live overseas again one day, to be able to teach full-time or to use my legal skills for a non-governmental organization. I am also the divorced mother of a grown daughter, almost 25 years old.

I recently heard about World Cafe while attending a local church conference that was focusing on developing communities, immigration, missions and leadership issues. I am involved with a team in my church that has the goal of outreaching into heavily immigrant communities. Currently, our congregation is small, white, with a lot of elderly members and college students. We have a new pastor (from New Zealand) in his 30s and his wife is South African and we are very excited about them. If we are unable to grow within the next few years then we will not survive as a church. I don't know if people here can help me help my church, but I thought the website sounded interesting no matter what and that the people who communicate on it would most likely be people I would like to know, so I decided to check it out, and here I am.

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Permalink Reply by juanita brown on March 10, 2011 at 5:49am

Hi Dayna!

How wonderful to have you here. A very dear friend and colleague of ours Maria de los Angeles Cinta recently also moved to Chicago and has also been interested in immigration questions. Please e-mail me at [email protected] and I can put you in touch with her OR, you can just go to her name under "People"-advanced search -- and she will come up and you can write to her directly. She is the host for our Cafe Latino group in Spanish.

With best regards and a big "welcome!"

Juanita

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Permalink Reply by David Cooper on March 17, 2011 at 7:39am

I am Rev. N. David (Dave) Cooper, an Asset Based (strengths-based) Community Development practitioner and a consultant with communities, congregations, organizations and institutions that want to:

• Build “whole” and transformative community relationships
• Catalyze creative discovery of previously unrecognized resources
• Connect people, organizations, institutions, and associations
• Facilitate and host opportunities for mutual learning
• Develop teams that produce and deliver effective community-transforming projects
• Advocate for social, economic, physical, political, and spiritual equity and justice
• Coach leaders and teams to produce measurable, transformative outcomes

In my work, I use theories, concepts and tools such as:

• Asset Based Community Development
• Shalom Zone Training ®
• Electronic asset and power systems mapping
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Theory U
• Dynamic Systems Theories
• Empathic, empowering, transformative care-giving

My areas of development specialization include:

• Partnership formation among congregations and communities
• Affordable, supportive housing
• Food security
• Prison and corrections reform: Restorative Justice

I hold degrees and certifications in:

• Master of Social Work (macro) – administration, planning, programs, and policy
• Master of Divinity (emphasis on liberation theology, mission and world religions)
• Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Public Management (Nonprofit management)
• Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, Magna Cum Laude (Construction Technology, Philosophy, and Psychology)

Currently, I am consulting as a national trainer with the Drew University Shalom Initiative and am working with Adrian Pyle of the Uniting Church in Australia using Otto Scharmer's Theory U to envision and travel the path of holistic, creative and emergent community building. Here is some more information on a gathering at Yarrambat Australia late last year.

Finally, here is my attempt at providing a definition for "shalom"; however, there is no complete definition of shalom in English.

The Hebrew word for whole-community well-being is “shalom”. While shalom encompasses much more than can be translated into English, shalom is manifested when there is shared power, equity and mutual beneficence among physical, social, economic, political and spiritual systems. Shalom is not simply a transcendent hope; rather, it is a concrete, tangible, proactive, investment of all resources to work in concert for the common good. Shalom-making is not easy and not for the timid. Rather, it is an emergent, locally led, co-creating, bold, purposeful, sustained, and collaborative investment in the healthy transformation of the communities in which we live, work, learn, and play.

Dave

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