History

2009:

Deep Change: Transforming the Practice of Social Justice. In June at Blue Ridge Assembly in Black Mountain, NC this national convening was a collaboration between stone circles, Movement Strategy Center, Rockwood Leadership Foundation and the Seasons Fund. It will brought over 80 frontline organizers together with a smaller group of intermediaries and funders to explore how transformational practice is changing organizing on the ground. A report is on the way!

2008-2009:

Sustainability and Solidarity: Deepening Social Justice Leadership for These Times A partnership with OpenSource Leadership Strategies, Inc., this yearlong program worked to strengthen a cohort of 19 leaders from across North Carolina through an integrated experience of relationship-building, leadership development, skill-building, strategic analysis, reflective practice and knowledge-generation around collective action.

February 2007

We visited a little piece of land in Mebane which was then called "The Human Kindness Foundation"...

Discovering the Stone House from jesse maceo vega-frey on Vimeo.

2007:

Working in a coalition of practitioners from a range of spiritual and cultural traditions, we created a Healing and Spiritual Practice Space at the United States Social Forum in Atlanta, GA. Over 500 activists participated in workshops, for meditation, yoga, healing arts, and ceremony from many traditions. This was a turning point for all those involved, a ground-breaking collaboration between spiritual activists from many traditions and healers of many different modalities. Read more about the vision for the space here. [link to piece – PDF; also link to posting we did on the blog if that’s easy]

2005:

With a stewardship group, we convened a 4-day gathering at the Garrison Institute entitled “Spiritual Activism: Claiming the Poetry and Ideology of a Liberation Spirituality.” The group of 50 leaders included activists, artists, spiritual teachers, trainers, academics, and funders. The gathering helped to further identify the field and define a collective theory of social change. Here is a teaser of a longer video we did of the gathering:

Spiritual Activism - A Video Trailer from jesse maceo vega-frey on Vimeo.

2006-current:

stone circles has been helping to shape the Seasons Fund for Social Transformation since its inception. Seasons is a funders collaborative that mobilizes resources, makes grants, and supports learning activities to strengthen and shed new light on the connections between personal and social transformation.

2004-2005:

We designed and facilitated “Seeding a Movement of Sustainable Activism” with leaders of five grassroots organizations from the Next Generation Leadership program based at the Rockefeller Foundation. This initiative included a mini-grants program, technical assistance and a national conference. ATTACH PDF

2003-2004:

Our stone circles Fellowship fostered collaboration between the organization and leaders in spiritual activism across the country; these fellows – still some of our closest allies – represent diverse and vial institutions. The Fellowship included Kenny Bailey, Design Studio for Social Innovation (Boston, MA), Arrington Chambliss, Episcopal Diocese (Boston, MA), Simon Greer, Jewish Funds for Justice (New York, NY), Albino Garcia, La Plazita Institute (Albuquerque, NM), angel Kyodo williams, Center for Transformative Change (Oakland, CA), and shash yahzi, Spirit in Motion (Oakland, CA).

2003

We hosted a gathering at theThe Rigmor Center intended to bring together young activists, coaches, consultants, researchers and representatives from five organizations: urban PEACE, Movement Strategy Center, No Ordinary Time, Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, and stone circles.

2000-2001:

We worked with fellows from leadership programs at Kellogg Foundation, Fetzer Institute and Rockefeller Foundation to convene two gatherings on Spirituality and Leadership, hosted at the Fetzer Institute.