#WorkingTowardsZero #safetyculture
Any statistic above zero for sexual violence is too much. Can we imagine a world where the statistic is zero? Can we proactively work towards zero?
After a week of feeling challenged and awakened by the many voices calling #metoo, there is a feeling in the air, a question lurking of what can we do about it?
Hearing each other and acknowledging the scale and magnitude of the problem is certainly a first step. It awakens us all and begins the process of addressing the problem. What we realise with Cultural Emergence is that staying in the phase of challenge and awaken too long can lead to overwhelm, anger, frustration – we need to find a way to move and invigorate ourselves, ways in which we can feel movement out of the problem and into the solution.
Visioning is one of the ways we can do this, can we take time to vision the world we want, to imagine in our hearts and minds different possibilities. One of the principles of Cultural Emergence is ‘allowing for the possibility of the seemingly impossible’, and right now it really does seem impossible that sexual violence will one day be a thing of the past, that perhaps one day to future generations it will seem inconceivable and they will be shocked that it happened at all. We need to allow that dream to take root and give it voice and form.
As we enter a new moon today let us begin a new cycle, a new phase, where we can breathe life into that dream in every waking moment.
And it isn’t enough to just vision and hope that it will come true, we need to give it our attention and intention as well. We are able to manifest these dreams through design and action. At first this can be in small ways while we build up confidence and momentum. And then the bigger visions will come more into our sight and reach.
Is there one step forward you can make today to move us towards a safety culture?
My step today is to share this with you, and to share some design questions which a small group of us worked on a while back. We came together with a grand idea of using permaculture design and principles to work on a conceptual design for creating a safe world. We lost some momentum with this but today feels the right moment to release it and see what comes back. These questions follow the Design Web with the intention of bringing together a large scale conceptual design, which will then hopefully find ways to seed hope and solutions for emerging a safety culture into the world. Even as I write this the voice on my shoulder tries to tell me that the problem is too big and I am too small, and I try and avoid the hundred different ways I could procrastinate further. But today I will give my trust and hope to the small actions of individuals that will come together to nourish and empower us all, and through the emergence of collaboration and co-creation we can create the conditions for a safety culture to emerge. We are the Voice of Gaia and we are being listened to.
To share your design ideas please follow this link – https://goo.gl/forms/sBlPFipex0nAas5g1
There are 3 phases of Cultural Emergence the 3rd phase is to Nourish and Empower and one of the ways we can do that for each other is to really listen, listen without judgement or trying to fix things, or wanting to interrupt with our own stories, and as we do that for each other in real life and on social media we are supporting emotions to flow. There is a widespread need for us to do this, to lower our numbness bar and to honour our pain for the world (in Joanna Macy’s words). Let this be a time of healing and emergence.
We have opened a Facebook group for women who would like to share experiences and stories and questions about Activating Cultural Emergence for Women.
We are the Voice of Gaia
Activating Cultural Emergence
and Working Towards Zero
in Nurturing Circles of Connection
We Find Ourselves
and We Make the Great Turning
We are the Voice of Gaia
We Challenge and Awaken
We Move and Invigorate
We Nourish and Empower
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