Community Climate Healing Circle
Project Leads: Gavin Healy, Jed Lee
Sponsor: Student Environmental Resource Center
Project Theme: Education, Outreach, and Behavior Change
Project Description:
Mobilize Berkeley extends a warm invitation to join the third Community Climate Healing Circle event. This will be a space for all to come together and heal from the many challenges faced by community members and share stories of resilience, regenerative practices and resources. An Empathy Circle is a structured dialogue process that effectively supports meaningful and constructive dialogue. The basic process can be fairly easily learned in about 15 minutes and it is a lifelong practice to deepen. An Empathy Circle increases mutual understanding and connection by ensuring that each person feels fully heard to their satisfaction. The practice is the most effective gateway practice for learning, practicing and deepening listening and empathy skills, as well as, nurturing an empathic way of being.
Project Goals:
The goal of the Community Climate Healing Circle is to provide a space for students and community members to grieve and process the climate catastrophe. With the rapid deterioration of present ecosystems, many people across the Bay, especially those working on the ground, have firsthand experience with the damage climate change is causing. This includes people who are: attempting to build resilient communities, supporting sustainable practices, simply learning about what is going on, and more, have felt the emotional toll climate change can cause. Therefore, the healing circle serves as a space to process those feelings with others. The Circles are not a strictly academic space, they allow people to feel their feelings and move and act in ways that allow resilience and healing. They are one of the only spaces that are multigenerational across racial and class lines where people can talk about climate anxiety.