Since 2015, Western Washington University’s Community Engagement Fellows program has brought people together across organizations to expand the learning capacities of our communities. It has created joyful and practical learning for a wide variety of people, and new ways of living and working together.

 

Community Engagement Fellows recasts higher education as a systems convener – creating possibilities for transformative partnerships that lead to more equitable and just communities. The program is a conscientious departure from traditional modes of community engagement such as service-learning coordination or partnership-brokering. We believe the demands of the present require new approaches that focus on deep listening, relationship-building, equitable and genuine collaboration, and openness to reorientation and transformation. CE Fellows is our ongoing experiment to discover how we can best serve the dynamic and diverse communities that WWU seeks to contribute to positively, including yours.  

 

Join us in Xwotquem/Bellingham, WA in Spring 2024 for Community Engagement Fellows: State-of-the-Art, an opportunity to learn how you might expand your organization’s role as a systems convener. We’re eager to share what we’ve learned through convening local cohorts, community forums, place-based retreats, international online cohorts, interactive tours, and working with others to establish their own adaptations of the program.  

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We welcome participation from those working in higher education as well as other community organizations such as libraries, non-profits, tribal and non-tribal governments, etc. We’re keen to gather people from a variety of places and organizations, to enhance the learning possibilities for all.

 

Community Engagement Fellows: State-of-the-Art will be an interactive, place-based workshop that demonstrates and allows you to practice the social learning techniques at the core of CE Fellows, and to learn how our practices have evolved as we learn. We plan to use a variety of venues in downtown Xwotquem/Bellingham and on the Western Washington University campus. Refreshments and lunch will be provided each day.

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Here is an example schedule for the workshop:

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Day 1

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9:00-9:10: Informal Gathering/Mingling

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~9:10-9:15: Call to Mindfulness

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~9:15-10:00: Orienting Round-Robin - Making a Difference in Our Communities

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~10:00-10:45: What brings us here?…

 

~10:45-11:00: Break

 

~11:00-11:30: CE Fellows - experiments in systems convening

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~11:30-12:00: Visualizing the Future We’re Trying to Create

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~12:00-1:30: Lunch and (optional) boating

 

~1:30-2:00: Gallery Perusal of Visuals

 

~2:00-3:00: Building a System Convening Identity and Leadership Approach

 

~3:00-3:15: Break

 

~3:15-4:15: Articulating Value Creation through Convening

 

4:15-4:30: Wrap-up/Reflection 

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4:30-5:30: Clean up/Travel back to Bellingham

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5:30-8:00: Place-baced community forum

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Day 2

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8:30-9:00: Gathering/Mingling/Snacks

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9:00-9:20: Opening Sharing 

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~9:20-10:20: Crafting Social Learning Spaces

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~10:20-10:30: Break

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~10:30-11:00: Dominic Savio on CEF: Africa (Example Convening Scenario)

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~11:00-12:00: Crafting a Convening Scenario

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~12:00-1:30: Travel downtown, lunch and relaxing at Brandywine Kitchen

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~1:30-3:10: Design Clinics/Workshop of Local Convening Challenges

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~3:10-3:25: Break

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~3:25-4:00: “Learning Oases”  - The Challenges of System Convening

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~4:00-4:15: Wrap-up/Reflection

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~4:15-5:00: Travel to Fairhaven

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5:00 pm: Place Matters Social Hour @ Stone’s Throw Brewery

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Evening: Self-Organized Dinner

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Day 3

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8:30-9:00: Informal Gathering/Mingling

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9:00-9:20: Opening Sharing

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~9:20-10:00 “Learning Oases”  - The Challenges of System Convening

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~10:00-10:15 Collecting burning questions/issues

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~10:15-10:30 Break

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~10:30-12:00 Design Clinics/Workshop of Local Convening Challenges

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~12:00-1:00 Lunch and (optional) boating

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~1:00-1:40 “Learning Oases”  - The Challenges of System Convening

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~1:40-2:15 Addressing burning questions/issues

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~2:15-2:45 Self-directed planning for convening action @ home

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2:45-3:00 Closing/tearful goodbyes

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Dr. Travis Tennessen, originator and lead convener of Community Engagement Fellows, will serve as the primary workshop facilitator.

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