Program and Learning Outcomes, Workshops

Gather at the Table: A Model of Healing

The program: 50-minute presentation followed by 30-40 minute interactive discussion featuring Gather at the Table authors/speakers Tom DeWolf and Sharon Leslie Morgan. Against a backdrop of social history and genealogy, this interracial team shares personal stories of intolerance and healing from their diverse perspectives, providing a model for others to follow in healing themselves and their communities. Program incorporates dramatic readings, audiovisual elements, audience participation (storytelling and Q&A), and follow-up email to participants with resources for long-term actions. Program and outcomes can be modified to meet the needs of different organizations and audiences.

1) Connecting Historical Dots

Learning Outcomes:

• Gain knowledge and understanding about aspects of America’s hidden past and traumatic, unhealed wounds that relate directly to present-day racism and slavery.
• Cite multiple examples that connect past wounds to present-day inequity and/or injustice.
• Acquire resources for the study of family history/genealogy, leading to an enhanced understanding of personal connection to American and/or world history.

2) Breaking the Cycle

Learning Outcomes:

• Define and understand trauma in new ways that explain how terror and oppression committed in the past continue to traumatize individuals and communities today.
• List common responses to traumatic events as articulated in the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) “Cycles of Violence” model (acting in/acting out).
• Acquire skills to interpret and improve responses to traumatic experiences.

3) Healing Ourselves and Others

Learning Outcomes:

• List the four aspects of the Coming to the Table healing model (history, healing, connection, action), and explain why all four are necessary to the healing process.
• Acquire introductory knowledge of Epigenetics; how traumatic wounds of the past impact people today
• Cite 3-5 actions one can take to achieve healthier individuals and communities

Workshops for Corporate and Educational settings

• Successfully Confront Systemic Inequity and Toxic Stress: half-day, full-day, and 2-day workshops explore toxic stress, racism, systems of inequity, oppression, and diversity issues in the workplace and in college/university settings through the lens of trauma awareness and how to be resilient in the face of trauma. Sharon and Tom are trained through advance courses in STAR (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience), which draws on theory and practices from neurobiology, conflict transformation, human security, spirituality, and restorative justice to address the needs of trauma-impacted individuals and communities. Racism, in this context, is seen as an historic traumatic wound (a legacy of slavery) that has not been healed. Through presentation, discussion, and interactive exercises, we’ll look together at concepts around unhealed trauma, cycles of violence that result, strategies for building resilience, and their application in your specific context.
• Beginning Genealogical Research: information and services to help participants explore and appreciate family history and culture. As Sharon’s Our Black Ancestry site notes, we “empower our future by honoring our past.”
• Effective Story Telling: stories communicate our values. The elements of effective storytelling allow us to share our wisdom and inspire others with the courage to act.