[Ailist] A special opportunity to train yourself and young people!! Act soon!

[Bliss Browne]

Dear appreciative colleagues,

I have been thinking ever since I launched the website and masterclass series how very much I want young people to be able to take advantage of this opportunity and to work with mentors who think from a strength based perspective. So I have decided today to change the pricing structure of the classes to encourage this as follows: 

ANY ONE WHO PAYS  FULL TUITION FOR ONE OF THE MASTERCLASSES  CAN REGISTER A YOUNG PERSON TO COME WITH THEM FOR AN ADDITIONAL $200.  This is an 80% discount off the standard price. Anyone who registers and pays full tuition for the one day workshops can bring a young person with them for an additional $100. We are hoping thereby to encourage people to invest in their interns and young employees and equip them to be full partners in this work back at home. Please encourage any teams who want to take advantage of this special discount to contact me directly to make arrangements. bliss at imaginechicago.org  Space is very limited so if you are interested, please act soon!

A short description of the opportunities follows. Lots more detail available at www.imaginechicago.org. 


Two resources likely to be of interest interested in community leadership. Please help me spread the word. 

1. Imagine Chicago has just launched a comprehensive new website www.imaginechicago.org which is a treasure trove of freely downloadable resources on strength based community development. Please check it out and let us know what was most helpful!

2. Anyone interested in community development has a great chance to learn about two of the most widespread approaches to strength based development, namely the Imagine process and ABCD (Asset Based Community Development) in one 3 day course taught by me and Jody Kretzmann. Jody is Director of the ABCD Institute at Northwestern University. We pioneered these approaches and are teaming up twice, from March 19-21, 2009 and from April 27-29, 2009 in Chicago.  Jody and I both do lots of international work and our storytelling will include stories from both global movements.

An extraordinary opportunity for those interested in the relationship between imagination and social change is a masterclass  I am running from May 12-14 with Andries Botha (www.andriesbotha.net)  from South Africa. He is a world class artist and leading African social entrepreneur (his herd of elephants designed to raise awareness about fragile ecosystem issues are now the most recognized art object in Belgium) . All of both of our work is grounded in expanding  imagination as a resource for social transformation . He is a truly original artist and I am thrilled and intrigued at the prospect of teaching with and learning from him how to cultivate creativity and imagination and apply it for social good. 

There is also a series of workshops on offer...shorter-- one day, hands on skill building intensives in which to learn about and be able to use curriculum materials I have developed around foundational social system challenges. They would be very useful for anyone especially interested in the relevant applications-- for example building school/community partnerships or supporting emerging community leaders. The latter has been used successfully in Denmark already as well as in Ghana.  You can review and download many of the materials online for free so people don't need to show up to get them. But they may want to show up to learn how to produce and adapt them in their own settings, which they are encouraged to do. I have tried to schedule these courses on Fridays or Mondays so people coming from overseas have the benefit of a weekend in Chicago which is a not-to-be-missed cultural capital.

Substantial early bird discounts apply for these courses until February 28 (this Saturday) and registration is available online at www.imaginechicago.org. Course size for each course is limited to 15 people. There is some space available for overseas visitors  to stay in my home if they would like to extend their Chicago stay. 

Because Imagine Chicago is dedicated to intergenerational partnerships and to engaging young people as civic leaders, we are offering a special discount  for intergenerational teams for these courses. ANY ONE WHO PAYS  FULL TUITION FOR ONE OF THE MASTERCLASSES  CAN REGISTER A YOUNG PERSON TO COME WITH THEM FOR AN ADDITIONAL $200.  This is an 80% discount off the standard price. We are hoping thereby to encourage people to invest in their interns and young employees and equip them to be full partners in this work back at home. Please encourage any teams who want to take advantage of this special discount to contact me directly to make arrangements. bliss at imaginechicago.org 

Many thanks for checking out the new website and helping spread the word!

Bliss Browne
President, Imagine Chicago
www.imaginechicago.org 
www.ubumama.org