Intro + 7 biweekly meetings; July 27 - Oct 26th

Mondays 5-7pm PDT Your Time Zone Here

We invite you into a community practice group on building anti-racist culture and a conversation how that is central to being a full human being and to climate action. Our learning together will be guided by the ground-breaking work of somatic therapist Resmaa Menakem and his book “My Grandmother’s Hands.” This offers an embodied step-by-step process to begin holding the inherited physiology of racism.  The societal dysfunctions which perpetuate racism and the destruction of the living world are both historical and physiologically entrenched in our bodies. This community space is a seed to begin building anti-racist cultural practices and systems within white activist communities. 

Fundamentally, this is slow work that must be done in community to have longevity and create real change. It is our intention that this group provide a beginning foundation for this longevity. 

Painfully, we know that racism is central in the history of the white-led environmental movement, in a societal system which often sensitizes us more to the suffering of animals and “nature” than black folks and other human beings who are being exploited and murdered on a daily basis. Through readings, contemplations, group discussion, and Resmaa Menakem’s somatic practices we will explore how racism and “environmental” destruction are intimately connected.

In addition to our bi-weekly community meetings, class participants will be invited to join a private Facebook group and engage with a practice triad to provide further opportunities to engage with the practices, deepen discussion, and build community. 

To join the class, please register (sliding scale) and purchase Resmaa Menakem’s book “My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies.” Supplementary readings, practices, and skills will be provided by the class facilitators.

Participation in this community deep dive is offered on a sliding-scale basis. We invite your generosity, which makes offerings like these possible. If finances are a barrier to your participation, please reach out to us at climate.consciousness@gmail.com. We are committed to providing access to anyone who is inspired to join us.

A note from the facilitators: We are not entering this space as experts. We are fellow community members who recognize that it is essential for white people to form spaces to create anti-racist culture and do the work. Without communities like these, there is very little to nothing keeping white folks accountable to this work. This course is grounded in the work of those who have tread this path more thoroughly and we are providing a space to explore their work as it applies to groups of white people, especially those involved in climate activism. We are drawing on both our own experience in anti-racist spaces, work, and trainings and our years as facilitators and holders of community. We welcome the feedback of those more deeply steeped in this work and invite their collaboration. 

Register Here if you do not see a registration form below. Early bird pricing has ended.

Rabbi Moshe Givental

Moshe brings together insistent compassion, nuance, curiosity, and historical perspective to help people and communities find and nurture what they most need to thrive. He is dedicated to deep listening, imperfection as decolonial practice, the healing potential of relationships, and the transformative power of difficult conversations. Moshe’ s work is grounded in his own immigrant experience, a lifelong search for Indigenous roots in the Jewish tradition, the awareness of environmental collapse, and deep reverence for Indigenous ways of relating to our living world. He is a group facilitator of Work That Reconnects, holds an M.A. in Clinical Psychology focused on Person-Centered Therapy, and Rabbinic Ordination from the non-denominational Rabbinic School of Hebrew College. Moshe lives in Metro-Detroit on traditional Anishinaabe Territory, where he has the privilege of organizing against racism and for a just climate transition alongside African-American leadership. He is the Development Coordinator at Climate Change and Consciousness, and Founder of Water from the Rock: Eco-Chaplaincy and Environmental Education. You can reach him at MosheGivental@gmail.com

Ash Schoep

Ash’s work is grounded in a deep faith of going towards the unknown, taboo, and disavowed places in ourselves, each other, and the world. She is devoted to the slow and necessary experiment of creating regenerative culture and a world where our relationships with one another and non-human beings are nourishing, reciprocal, and loving. Her educational background is in psychology with an emphasis on climate psychology and women, gender, and sexuality studies, which focused on systems of oppression and feminist theory. She is a student of several somatic trauma healing systems, including Somatic Experiencing and The TARA Approach for the Resolution of Shock and Trauma. Ash is a group facilitator of mental health de-stigmatization and suicide prevention workshops, resiliency and leadership trainings, Buddhist meditation groups, and the Work That Reconnects. She currently lives in Bozeman, Montana on traditional Apsaalooké, Salish Kootenai, and Cheyenne lands. Ash is the Program Director of Climate Change & Consciousness. She invites your inquiries and connection at ash.schoep@gmail.com.

Meeting Dates:

Intro Session Monday July 27th 5:00 - 7pm. PDT

Aug. 3rd

Aug. 17th

Aug. 31st

Sept. 14th 

Sept. 29th (Tuesday)

Oct.12th

Oct. 26th

This event is offered as an extension of Groundswell, one of CCC’s major initiatives. Groundswell nurtures the integration of inner and outer climate activism and leadership.