When 'We The People' re-examine connections to beliefs and communities, it creates an opportunity to heal an ailing society." - Parker J. Palmer
"We May Not Have Chosen The Time, But The Time Has Chosen Us." - John Lewis
Humanity has only scratched the surface of its real potential.
- Peace Pilgrim
Delawareans for Benevolent Community
WELCOME,
This is an Invitation to create a Community of Communities:
To all Delawareans - Individuals, Organizations, Places of Worship, and Community Leaders concerned about our social good, who care about nurturing individual and community well-being, who are focused on fostering unity, equality, and respect for every person -
We invite you to help us in our efforts to create a better tomorrow - a Benevolent Community. One where we know and care about our neighbors, where we share our concerns about the many critical issues facing our state, where we recognize our shared humanity and hold every person with the same dignity we want for ourselves, where we work collaboratively to solve the most challenging of our problems.
Every time has its moment and this is ours. It is imperative that we join our voices and our experience - the only way to be a force for good is to join together so that our voices are heard and that the collective good work of every Delawarean and Organization is known throughout the State.
We are excited to embark on this journey with you and look forward to all that
we can accomplish together!
We find ourselves in perplexing times that require us to ask many
complex questions,
too often we are uncertain
of the solutions.
Here are some questions we are holding,
perhaps you are too?
In what ways are we
responsible for one another?
What can we do to support each other in creating honest,
empathic, caring, imaginative, safe, equitable, healthy, and
productive communities that thrive?
How can we illuminate the deep value of factual truth, equal justice and our shared humanity?
Ways To Get Involved...
We invite Organizations and Individuals to join our Community Roster to receive Action Alerts, Newsletters, Event Updates and Invitations for our once a month, on-line, Benevolent Community Conversation and Advocacy Thought Circle.
ORGANIZATIONS may join our grassroots efforts, partnering with us in our work - gaining access to our Community Calendar - a SHARED Google Document where you can post your organization's events. We will also plan a specific zoom conversation to welcome our Organizational partners, date to be announced. At this "Welcome" gathering we will share more about our vision for this initiative and discuss best practices and paths that lead us forward in our collaborative community work to create Benevolent Community, while addressing the critical issues that block this path and brainstorm ideas to collectively respond. Numbers are noticed - and we want our concerns to be not only heard - but resolved in every community in Delaware.
Upcoming Benevolent Community Meeting and Events:
March 4, 2023 The Farmhouse, Milton, Delaware
Benevolent Community - A Courage In Community Circle for Leaders, Human Advocates, and Concerned Citizens. A Half Day Retreat, 9 am - 1 pm, lunch and snacks served. Fee: To welcome all there is not a set fee for this day retreat, donations to Create Safe Space will be accepted. This is part of an ongoing community conversation, addition dates will be announced.
March 26-30, 2023 Montgomery and Selma, Alabama
Searching for the Soul of Social Justice in Sacred and Storied Places -click link for additional details. https://couragerenewal.org/programs/searching-for-the-soul-of-social-justice-in-sacred-storied-places/
August 4-6, 2023 Exploring The Gifts of Benevolent Community, The Farmhouse, Milton, Delaware.
Using the wisdom found in Parker J. Palmer's Books: Healing The Heart of Democracy and On The Brink of Everything, this weekend retreat will challenge us to think about legacy as a responsibility we hold in building benevolent communities and caring for future generations. This weekend retreat is great companion to the Benevolent Community Courage In Community Circle Day Experience, providing an opportunity to consider the value of community and its connection to sustaining democracy. This Retreat will begin on Friday, August 4th at 5:00 pm and conclude on Sunday, August 6th at noon. Retreat Fee $400
May 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th
How To Talk About Race, A Four-part Series via ZOOM,
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Conversations guided by Independent Center for Courage & Renewal trained Facilitators: Lori Yadin and Natasha Warsaw
Workshop Fee $250
HOLD THE DATE: Friday, November 3rd
Delawarean's For Benevolent Community Summit
Keynote Speakers and Workshops for Leaders, Community Members, and Change-Makers 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Place to be announced soon, Registration will open June 1, 2023
If interested in reserving a spot EMAIL us at Director@CreateSafeSpace.org for a reservation form and additional details.
TO BE ADDED TO OUR ROSTER please send an email to: DIRECTOR@CREATESAFESPACE.ORG. Please share your name, name of your organization and position (if applicable) , County you reside, and email address.
We look forward to meeting and collaborating with you! Together we can make a greater difference and provide healing and help to our families, friends, colleagues, and neighbors. Delaware, we believe that together we can lead the way to creating hope-filled, thriving, benevolent communities!
With Gratitude,
Lori Yadin and Denise Davis, Organizers and Co-Facilitators
Action Alerts
We all know that newsworthy and noteworthy events happen throughout our State - Sometimes things occur that require a response or action. We can be more impactful if we collectively use our voices. Delawareans for Benevolent Community will collaborate with our Community Organization Partners to send out alerts to all those Organizations, Places of Worship, and Individuals on our Roster. While many of our organizations have coalition partners, the hope behind our work is that we can share action alerts more quickly to a wider audience. It is our hope to serve our communities and partner organizations so to amplify our concerns, be a force of good, and bring about positive change.
Community Dialogue
Once a month, we invite you to join us in conversation, self-reflection, and exploration to open us to receiving a better and brighter tomorrow. We can only build what we can imagine. This moment of opportunity - the future we dream of for ourselves, our families, and our State has always been one of our greatest responsibilities in reaching and sustaining the full potential of our humanity. In embracing the gift of our humanity we embrace the gifts of all fellow-human beings and create a benevolent community that works to foster and sustain a thriving future. Getting to this place is never easy as it requires us to be honest about the many challenges and obstacles in our path. We will use this time together to begin to name our greatest problems and concerns. Then, using the goal of creating benevolent community, we will rise to the challenge of brainstorming solutions to the issues that our communities face. The Community Circles will meet on-line, the second Wednesday of every month, beginning with October 12, 2022 from 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. When you register for the roster, please indicate that you want to receive the Zoom Invitation for the Community Circle Conversations. These Circles will be co-facilitated by Lori Yadin and Dr. Denise Davis. Denise holds a doctorate in public health, focusing on the identification and reduction of health disparities, program design, demonstration and evaluation of effective community-based models, and health advocacy to effect broad based policy change that would improve health outcomes.
Lori is an experiential educator, leadership and relationship coach, and Courage & Renewal Facilitator, trained by sociologist, educator, author and human advocate, Parker Palmer. Lori's forty year career has focused on understanding how our lived-experiences impact our lives, and speaking about the human need and value of safe space, dignity, and humanity. Lori and Denise will hold the space using the Circle of Trust © approach so to maintain respectful space for all participants.
Community Calendar
We invite our Organizational partners to post their upcoming community events onto a shared google calendar document. Once you join our Roster we will share the link with you. Informing our neighbors and partner agencies of all of our good work, educational and advocacy opportunities is vital to a well informed Community.
Scroll down to bottom of this page to see our Calendar!
Delawareans For Benevolent Community Calendar displays events for Create Safe Space and those organizations who have joined us as partners in this grassroots effort. We are proud to welcome our first two organizations and are excited and grateful to have them with us on this journey.
The League of Women Voters Delaware and The Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice