Archives

Stop Talking, Start Doing: Making Change Stick Beyond the Meeting

We’ve all been in meetings full of great ideas that never go anywhere. This webinar gives you tools to bridge the gap between conversation and implementation. Learn how to create agreements people actually follow through on, build momentum after decisions are made, and support your team in sustaining change over time.

Expect strategies for:

• Translating ideas into clear commitments
• Building shared ownership and follow-through
• Designing plans that withstand real-world pressures
• Keeping teams aligned and energized once the meeting ends
  

Perfect for teams who want to break the cycle of “great conversation, little action.”

Pricing

• $50/person (Grassroots)
• $100/person (Nonprofit)
• $150/person (Foundation)
• $200/person (For-Profit/Social Venture)

Your Facilitators

Much of Curtis Ogden’s (he/him) work with IISC entails consulting with multi-interest-holder networks and complex intra-organizational change efforts to ultimately strengthen and transform food, public health, education, and economic development systems at local, state, regional, and national levels. He has worked with these efforts to launch and evolve through various stages of development. Read more.

Adeola Oredola (she/her) is a space holder, educator, and facilitator rooted in a lineage that stretches from Saki, Nigeria, and Bolgatanga, Ghana, to Chicago, Starkville, and her home community in Providence, RI, on Narragansett land. With over 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership and consulting, she supports social justice circles through facilitation, coaching, training, and event curation, centering systemic well-being, collective healing, transformative play, and Black liberation. Read more.

Date & Time

Thursday, November 19, 2026, from 3 – 5 pm ET

REGISTER HERE →

Facilitating Decision-Making Across Differences

Decisions are harder when identities, power, and perspectives intersect. This webinar introduces facilitative tools and structures that help groups make thoughtful, equitable decisions – even when navigating tension or disagreement. Learn how to create the conditions for shared understanding, lift up unheard voices, and guide teams toward choices they can stand behind.

You’ll learn how to:

• Clarify who should be involved and why
• Make power visible and disrupt inequitable patterns
• Use structures that support inclusive decision-making
• Move from conflicting viewpoints to a collective direction

A must-attend for leaders committed to equity, collaboration, and real accountability.

Pricing

• $50/person (Grassroots)
• $100/person (Nonprofit)
• $150/person (Foundation)
• $200/person (For-Profit/Social Venture)

Your Facilitators

Simone John (she/her) is a seasoned equity consultant with deep roots in Boston, MA. Prior to joining IISC, Simone was TSNE’s Senior Director of Organizational Development. Simone spent five years at Trinity Boston Connects as the Associate Director of Organizational Equity Practice (OEP), a program that provides consulting, coaching, and facilitation for nonprofits striving to become racially equitable institutions. Simone has developed and trained curricula on topics including creating trauma-inclusive organizational cultures, group facilitation with a racial equity lens, caucusing 101, and dismantling white supremacy culture in organizations, all scaffolded by three design principles: systems-thinking, relationship building, and trust. Read more.

For over thirty years, Madison (Matt) Thompson (he/him/his) has worked in the areas of conflict resolution, diversity, and cultural competency with community-based nonprofit organizations, as well as major teaching hospitals and banking and higher education institutions of all sizes. Read more.

Date & Time

Thursday, October 1, 2026, from 3 – 5 pm ET

REGISTER HERE →

Leading Through Organizational Change & Transitions

Transitions are inevitable, but how we lead through them is a choice. This webinar offers practical tools for guiding teams through uncertainty, restructuring, leadership changes, and shifting priorities with humanity and intention. Learn how to communicate with clarity, manage the emotional landscape of change, and strengthen trust when the stakes are high.

We’ll explore:

• How to build transparency and alignment in uncertain moments
• Ways to support staff through the emotional side of change
• Practices for shared leadership and collective resilience
• Approaches for keeping values front and center as you move forward
  

Ideal for managers, directors, board members, and anyone responsible for shepherding people through challenging shifts.

Pricing

• $50/person (Grassroots)
• $100/person (Nonprofit)
• $150/person (Foundation)
• $200/person (For-Profit/Social Venture)

Your Facilitators

As president, Kelly Bates (she/her) leads the strategic direction of IISC and pushes boundaries to reimagine what’s possible for racial equity and social justice. With her collaborative and shared leadership approach, Kelly supports a bold team of consultants and trainers who partner with leaders, organizations, and networks to turn their highest aspirations for change into tangible and equitable impact. Read more.

Jeremy Phillips (he series) is an organizational change consultant who works in partnership with his clients to bring the best of themselves and their work forward to advance their vital social justice missions. Jeremy is a cis-gendered white male who brings a racial justice lens and small “d” democratic commitment to his organizational change work. Read more.

Date & Time

Thursday, August 27, 2026, from 3 – 5 PM ET

REGISTER HERE →

How to Set Strategic Direction When Nothing Is Certain

In a world where predictions are shaky and change is constant, traditional planning falls short. This webinar introduces IISC’s Five Practices for Strategic Direction Setting, a values-driven approach that helps leaders move through uncertainty without losing their North Star.

We’ll explore how to:

• Clarify Your North Star: Anchor in purpose and values
• Plan for Multiple Futures: Use scenario thinking to stay nimble
• Design for Flexibility & Collaboration: Build a living, adaptive strategy
• Center Equity & Build Power: Keep justice at the heart of decisions
• Strengthen Internal Capacity & Well-Being: Sustain your people to sustain your mission

You’ll walk away with frameworks and practical tools for leading with clarity when the path ahead keeps shifting.

This session is for anyone who holds responsibility for guiding people through uncertainty – executive leaders, program directors, network weavers, organizers, and facilitators who want to lead with steadiness and purpose.

Pricing

• $50/person (Grassroots)
• $100/person (Nonprofit)
• $150/person (Foundation)
• $200/person (For-Profit/Social Venture)

Your Facilitators

Amy Casso (she/her) is a skilled capacity builder, racial justice strategist, and lifelong learner with 25 years of experience in advancing racial, gender, economic, immigrant, reproductive, and health justice within nonprofits, government, and foundations. Her dedication is grounded in a deep commitment to strengthening organizational and individual capacities and understanding her role in contributing to meaningful and transformative social change. Read more.

Maureen White (she/her) is a consultant, coach, and facilitator based in Boston. Her work is focused on engaging communities to work collaboratively to address social justice issues.  She helps organizations and individuals to gain clarity about where they are and where they want to go, and facilitates the development of strategies to get there. She was recently the lead designer of the public engagement process for Boston’s transportation planning initiative, which has been credited with changing the way City Hall thinks about engaging the public. Read more.

Date & Time

Thursday, April 30, 2026, from 3 – 5 PM ET

REGISTER HERE →

Leading Meetings That Move People and Work Forward

Tired of meetings that drain energy instead of generating it? This webinar introduces simple, powerful practices that help groups move from confusion to clarity, and from talking about work to actually getting it done. Learn how to design meetings that spark engagement, build trust, and lead to real progress, no matter your role or level of facilitation experience.

Participants will explore how to:

• Set the conditions for inclusive participation
• Guide conversations from ideas to decisions
• Navigate common meeting pitfalls with confidence
• Build momentum that lasts after the meeting ends

Perfect for anyone who leads teams, convenes stakeholders, or wants to elevate everyday collaboration.

Pricing

• $50/person (Grassroots)
• $100/person (Nonprofit)
• $150/person (Foundation)
• $200/person (For-Profit/Social Venture)

Your Facilitators

Cynthia Silva Parker (she/her) is a seasoned capacity builder with more than three decades of experience strengthening organizations and equipping leaders who pursue social justice and racial equity. She finds great joy in the ah-ha moments when people learn a new skill or connect their lived experiences to new ideas. She loves guiding groups to deeper understanding and solid agreements about things that matter. And it’s a great day when she can connect good people to one another and to resources to support their work. Read more.

Kiara Nagel (she/her) is a creative strategist with 20 years of experience building creative and collaborative social change initiatives.  Kiara delivers facilitation, training, and consulting services to foster collaboration, grow healthy organizations, and support equitable community development. She has contributed to many local, national, and international initiatives focused on economic and racial justice and narrative and social change. Kiara can often be found training and supporting diverse sets of organizers, educators, and practitioners across sectors to be more strategic and creative in their work. Read more.

Date & Time

Thursday, February 5, 2026, from 3 – 5 PM ET

REGISTER HERE →

RECORDING – Feeding Ourselves: Networks, Data and Policy for Just and Sustainable Food Systems

Who Should Attend?

This session is ideal for anyone interested in social change, equitable wellbeing, and new ways of building stronger communities, grounded in trust, alignment, and distributed action in the service of sustainability, equity, and justice. If you can’t attend live, this session will be recorded.

Why This Matters Now

COVID-19 revealed what many communities had long known: our global food supply chain is fragile, consolidated, and dominated by a precarious concentration of power. At the same time, food insecurity is rising, and more people are asking: how can we create “food solutions” that ensure no one goes hungry?

For over a decade, IISC has supported the launch and growth of local and regional food system networks that build resilience and equity. From the Vermont Farm to Plate Network, credited with strengthening the state’s agricultural economy, to the Rhode Island Food Policy Council, pioneering equitable and inclusive processes to advance food justice, we’ve seen how networks can shift policy, practice, and imagination around what’s possible.

Join us for an interactive webinar with two special guests and partners:

• Ellen Kahler, Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund
• Nessa Richman, Rhode Island Food Policy Council

Essential Facilitation™: Core Skills for Guiding Groups

Starting August 2025, we can bring Essential Facilitation™ to your organization as a two-day in-person training. We plan to roll out an in-person public training based on interest. Fill out this quick form to let us know if you’re interested in these offerings!

Let Us Know You’re Interested

When the path forward feels uncertain, facilitation is the bridge.

In a time of rapid shifts and tough decisions, it’s more important than ever to collaborate. And, it’s more challenging than ever to facilitate effective meetings where people are sharing information, making decisions, and taking action.

Essential Facilitation™ is a two-day, hands-on, in-person training designed to help you:

• Guide groups toward their objectives.
• Support understanding and build durable agreements
• Foster meaningful participation and inclusive leadership
• Engage conflict with courage and clarity
• Prepare for meetings and ensure effective follow-through
• Demonstrate the power of facilitation at work, at home, and in your community.

Whether you’re leading a team, building a coalition, organizing in your neighborhood, or convening community conversations, these skills are essential to our collective work for justice.

Who Should Attend

Essential Facilitation™ is ideal for:

• People who lead organizations, teams, committees, boards of nonprofits, civic associations, and faith communities
• Grassroots organizers
• Leaders and staff of coalitions and networks
• Anyone who helps groups of people build shared understanding, make agreements, and take action together

What You’ll Learn

By the end of this training, you’ll be able to:

• Design and prepare for meetings that lead to meaningful outcomes
• Facilitate group conversations that deepen connection and shared understanding
• Support engagement across difference, bringing out the best in each participant
• Navigate challenging dynamics with skill, structure, and compassion

What to Expect

This session is highly interactive, designed to promote meaningful dialogue and collaboration. You will engage in:

• Demos and In-Session Practice: Practical exercises to apply concepts and strategies in a safe, supportive environment.
• Small Group Discussions: Breakout sessions to explore real-world scenarios and share diverse perspectives.
• Reflection Activities: Guided exercises to encourage personal and professional insights on racial justice and leadership practices.
• Opportunities for full group dialogue during workshop leader presentations.

Are You Interested?

We can bring Essential Facilitation™ to your organization as a two-day in-person training beginning in August 2025. We plan to roll out an in-person public training based on interest. Fill out this quick form to let us know if you’re interested in these offerings!

RECORDING – Light Work for Heavy Times: Networks as Fuel for Long-Term Collective Wellbeing

Who Should Attend?

This session is ideal for anyone interested in social change, equitable wellbeing, and new ways of building stronger communities and grounded in trust, alignment, and distributed action in the service of sustainability, equity, and justice. If you can’t attend live, this session will be recorded.

Why This Matters Now

These are both challenging and promising times. Low vibrations and descendant energies seem to be everywhere. It is vital to defend against efforts intended to harm people and take away their sovereignty. And there is a point at which, if we are all or only responding to negativity, we let that energy set the terms of the conversation and what moves forward. The fact is that light is always present, in and around us. What may be required is some fuel. This is where we at IISC see networks and network weaving playing an essential role.

To counter forces that aim to isolate and keep us from one another, we make and maintain meaningful contact. To keep fear from taking hold, we show up warm-hearted and generous in our interactions. To support collective clarity, we share accurate and timely information and remind each other of what matters most.

This is all the work of network weaving. In these times, we see it as “light work”: a way to ease the load, spread warmth, and reconnect with our shared purpose.

Join us for an interactive webinar with two special guests, partners, and “light workers” in their own right:

• Noel Didla, Center for Mississippi Food Systems
• Keith Bergthold, Rural Communities Rising in Fresno County, California.

We will explore strategies to weave stronger load-bearing and light-sharing networks, so that you and the communities you care about can move through these times with clarity and conviction.

What You’ll Learn

• The Power of Networks: What are they, how do they work, and how can we tap their potential?
• Pathways to Wellbeing: What are the core determinants of shared prosperity and equitable wellbeing, and how do networks support these?
• Guiding Principles for Action: What are the core network principles to guide our work for the more beautiful world we know is possible?
  

Interactive & Engaging Format

This session is highly interactive, designed to promote meaningful dialogue and collaboration. It will include:

• Core Concept Presentations – Learn key frameworks and strategies 
• Small Group Breakouts – Engage in meaningful discussions
• Real-World Case Studies – Learn from successful partner networks focused on regenerative food systems and economic development in Mississippi and Fresno County, California. 
• Guided Reflection Activities – Exercises to encourage personal and professional insights on equity and network leadership practices.
• Coaching session with participants? (still exploring if this might work)

Session Details & Pricing

️ Tuesday, July 15, 2025 | 1 PM – 3 PM ET 

(10 AM– 12 PM PT | 11 AM – 1 PM MT | 12 PM – 2 PM CT)

Pricing:

• $25/person (Grassroots)
• $75/person (Nonprofit)
• $95/person (Foundation)
• $115/person (For-Profit/Social Venture)

PURCHASE THE RECORDING HERE →

Your Facilitators

Curtis Ogden is a Senior Associate with the Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), where he has worked for two decades supporting social change leaders, organizations and networks as a coach, consultant, facilitator, trainer and network weaver. He has helped to start the Food Solutions New England Network, Vermont Farm to Plate Network, Cancer Free Economy Network, Digital Navigators Network, Diverse Teacher Workforce Coalition, DC Social Justice Transformations Network and supported numerous other local, state-wide, regional, national and international collaborative efforts. In addition to his work at IISC, Curtis is an advisor to The Transformations Community, Rural Communities Rising, FLOW Public Trust for the Great Lakes and the Connecticut River Watershed Partnership. He also writes regularly on the IISC Blog. He lives in the Connecticut River Watershed in Western Massachusetts with his wife, teenage daughters and a flock of laying hens.

nisha purushotham is a queer femme, leadership coach, facilitator, musician, and writer with 30 years of movement building experience as an organizer, researcher, youth worker, and artist in residence. She is the Founder and Principal of Kriya Coaching and Consulting and has worked as an affiliate consultant with IISC since 2017. nisha’s work is informed by the lens of healing justice, an abolitionist vision, and a deep trust in ancestral wisdom, our bodies’ intuition, and the natural intelligence of Land. She lives in Lenapehoking in the unceded territory of the Ramapough Munsee Lenape, Mohican, and Schatigoke peoples with her son, a musical gamer who loves anime. nisha is grateful for her collaboration with Curtis Ogden which has deepened her understanding of network weaving for healing and transformative change.

Related Blog Posts

Why Invest in Networks Now?

Network Weaving as “Light Work”

Racial Justice Community of Practice

How Do We Sustain Ourselves While Advancing Racial Justice?

Sustaining the work of racial justice can feel overwhelming, especially when facing resistance or isolation. Have you ever wondered how to stay grounded and effective in this work, or how to find the support you need to keep going?

Our FREE Racial Justice Community of Practice is here for you. This quarterly gathering is a space for connection, reflection, and action. Together, we’ll explore challenges, celebrate progress, and share strategies to advance racial justice in and through our organizations. Whether you’re just starting out or deeply experienced, this is your community to recharge, learn, and lead boldly.

In 2024, we expanded participation to welcome anyone engaged in advancing racial justice – not just alumni of our workshops. Join us as we continue building a community of leaders driving meaningful change!

What to Expect

In each session, we will dig into the “who” and “how” of leading for racial justice. We will use the document Preparing Yourself to Serve as a starting point for our discussions. Topics will include:

WHO: Sustaining Myself as a Leader in This Work

• How am I staying grounded and centered? How can I prepare my heart and mind to lead for racial justice?
• How does my identity matter as I lead for racial justice? What challenges am I facing as a leader? (includes racial affinity spaces)
• What’s my orientation toward collaborative leadership? How does/doesn’t that align with the expectations of the people I’m leading and partnering with?

HOW: Collaborating to Advance Racial Justice

• Making the case for change and building buy-in, especially in the current context
• Engaging stakeholders and making decisions together
• Designing spaces for planning
• Designing spaces for learning

Session Details

Register for all four sessions now, or register for individual sessions as the year unfolds. There is no fee to participate; however, donations are appreciated.*

• Wednesday, March 4, 2026 | 2 PM – 4 PM ET
• Wednesday, June 10, 2026 | 2 PM – 4 PM ET
• Wednesday, September 16, 2026 | 2 PM – 4 PM ET
• Wednesday, December 2, 2026 | 2 PM – 4 PM ET

(1 PM – 3 PM CT / 12 PM – 2 PM MT / 11 AM – 1 PM PT)

REGISTER HERE →

Join our private LinkedIn group to stay connected and share resources between gatherings!

Note: While we may distribute resources or tools shared in the sessions, due to the sensitive nature of the discussions, we will not record the sessions.

*Running a Community of Practice takes significant, often invisible labor – designing content, facilitating meaningful conversations, and coordinating logistics. Your donation helps sustain this work so these much-needed spaces can continue to thrive, especially in challenging moments. Together, we can advance racial justice and create lasting change.

An Introduction to Advancing Racial Justice in Organizations

Who Should Attend?

If …

• you are formally or informally leading racial justice work in your organization or network;
• you know that guiding your organization or network to move from commitment to action isn’t a solo act;
• you want to exchange ideas with other leaders who are advancing racial justice in and through their work;
• you want more tools for making your organization or network more collaborative, powerful, and even joyful;

… then this workshop is for you!

Why This Matters Now

Now more than ever, change agents in organizations large and small need new tools and a fresh perspective to catalyze and sustain the work of racial justice. Whether you are already leading or want to lead racial justice work within your organization, ARJ will introduce essential skills and tools to move forward collaboratively with your colleagues.

What You Will Learn

An Introduction to Advancing Racial Justice will equip you with frameworks and tools to design a collaborative process to guide your racial justice work. You’ll explore how to:

Session 1: Envision the Future
Articulate a vision for what racial justice and liberation could look like in your organization or network and begin to identify how the “who, what, why, and how” of your racial justice work can provide leverage for organizational change
Session 2: Frame your Collaborative Change Effort and Assess your Situation
Understand collaborative planning principles, a simple framework for developing a racial justice action plan, and guidelines to explore your context and current reality.
Session 3: Make the Case for Change
Practice communicating to stakeholders about the importance of your racial justice change process (a.k.a. sharing your “Case for Change”).

And, you’ll leave with a workbook full of useful tools and tips to support your ongoing collaboration for racial justice.

How Will You Learn?

Each interactive session will feature: 

• Brief presentations with practical examples 
• Full group dialogue
• Paired and small group discussions
• After-session reflection questions and worksheets

Pricing

• $150/person (Grassroots)
• $300/person (Nonprofit)
• $380/person (Foundation)
• $450/person (For-Profit/Social Venture)

STAY TUNED FOR FUTURE DATES!

What Happens After the Workshop Series?

Post-series opportunities include:

• Workbook with additional resources and tools to explore on your own 
• Free Quarterly Community of Practice gatherings (see more below!)

Racial Justice Community of Practice

IISC also offers a free quarterly community of practice for anyone who is working with others to advance racial justice within their organizations or networks. This community of practice, facilitated by Cynthia Silva Parker and Amy Casso, is a place to explore challenges and share successes and encouragement as we work to advance racial justice.

Register here to join us for one or all of the 2025 community of practice sessions:

• Wednesday, March 12, 2025 | 2 PM – 4 PM EST
• Wednesday, June 11, 2025 | 2 PM – 4 PM EST
• Wednesday, September 17, 2025 | 2 PM – 4 PM EST
• Wednesday, December 3, 2025 | 2 PM – 4 PM EST

(1 PM – 3 PM CT / 12 PM – 2 PM MT / 11 AM – 1PM PT)