Belgium-the flower of resources

It’s been 10 years already since BelCompetence was created as an association to stimulate local response in Belgium. During these 10 years we have learned from the implementation of the CLCP and the SALT approach. Our experience, our way of working as an organisation and the implementation of the process is in perpetual adaptation. The dedication and creativity of our members has added to our panel of tools and tips for facilitation.The BelCompetence stand was an experiencing stand, where you could test whether a Life Circle, the Mandala of our truths, the dream sculpture or be guided through several experiences such as the Letter to humanity project, the Agora cafe or the facilitation of trainings.

Hereafter find some of the tools and projects presented (if you want more details or are interested to know more about a specific project, please contact laurie@communitylifecompetence.org, celicia@communitylifecompetence.org or anitasheehan2003@yahoo.com.

The Life Circle : “a Life Circle is a space where we share our dreams and individual life competence practices; we talk about SALT in our lives and about what makes us human; the circles are opened to anyone, so the 'we' goes beyond Constellation or Belcompétence; after a convivial moment of sharing the latest news and simple food that we have brought or prepared together, we sit and talk/listen at the rhythm of the talking piece circulating around the circle; these Life Circles are held once a month.” - Nathalie Legros talks about this initiative on Ning . During the Market Place, Jean-Louis hosted a circle under a tree near the entrance of the hotel. The topic of this life circle was: “Do we need to wear a mask?”

The Mandala of our Truths - A tool to explore tensions

Celicia starts “Who has ever experienced working in a community where at some point, you could sense a tension, something that could, if not attended to, generate a conflict?” Sitting in a circle we all raise our hand.

“We decided to propose this tool, as this tool can be an interesting tool for you to explore such situations of tension”.

In the circle symbolically represented by a few scarves knotted together we find four symbolic spaces represented by the following elements: leaves, a stone, a piece of wood and an empty bowl.

What do those element represent in this Mandala?

The stone stands for fear;

The piece of wood stands for anger;

The leaves stand for sadness;

The bowl stands for lack/emptiness.

The mandala of our truths is a receptacle of all the tensions we could experience and that we can feel, share and let go of. Each element represented in the circle is there to help the participant to express/sense the pain he/she is experiencing.

Each participant holds the space, and can at any moment come into the circle. Coming into the circle is not an obligation to talk or share, you can just sense and stay in the circle in silence.

There is no obligation to come into the circle either.

Each person, when they feel called, enters the space, picks up one of the elements and either expresses why they have picked it up, or stays silent in their experience. Once that person has finished, everybody connects to the person and the circle and says “We have heard you”. Once everything that needed to be experienced/expressed is over, the facilitator goes over each element again, and speaks of the “antidotes” of each. If i feel fear then I am also capable of courage, if I feel emptiness I long for abundance and fulfillment, if I feel sadness it is because I am capable of love, my anger springs from passion for justice. Recognizing the painful truths that we carry inside our hearts and honoring them can help us reconnect with these antidotes, which are the engines of our action in the world.

Dreaming in body and movement: In this stop of the Belcompetence stand-journey, Celicia explained, and proposed an experience, of the ways in which dream-building can be facilitated using the human body as a tool of expression and connection. She walked part of the Singapore team through the process, first giving a few concrete examples of where she has applied this in the past, and then engaging them in creating their own “human sculpture” to represent their dream. After some exercises to get their playfulness going and sink into their bodies (eg. an “energy clap”), the group was asked “what is a current challenge that you are facing in Beyond Singapore and that you’d like to dream about?” The challenge was identified, and then Anne-Marie bravely stepped up to the challenge of proposing a “human sculpture” that would represent her dream. Once she was done, she sparked us to move and a great surge of joy was felt by all as we danced around in a circle! Celicia asked individual participants what they were feeling from their bodies as they were in the sculpture. These were elements of reflection that could probe the group to either decide that yes this is the dream sculpture, or to modify it somehow until they were happy with the results.

The Letters to Humanity project - A cultural and educational project, a human adventure to re-awaken teenagers to the quest for meaning simmering within them, waiting to bubble up and transform them into change agents to dream (and act out!) a world where our human unity is honored, and our differences welcomed and celebrated. “Letters to humanity” to cradle this vision and help it travel the world!

Working with teenagers who come from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, and stimulating them to explore their potential, meet one another, free themselves from their preconceptions, identify and explore the core values which make us human, and finally position themselves as visionaries and actors of a world where difference and plurality rhyme with tolerance, social mix and solidarity.

True to its early slogan, Talent for Humanity has created this project in order to Discover, Support, and Celebrate:

• • Help the teenagers Discover themselves, and also help us discover some of the exceptional dreams they harbor for the world.

  • Support them on the path to discovering what animates them, and what they wish to contribute to the world.

  • Celebrate the teens, assemble to honor their vision and stimulate its manifestation into reality.

The facilitation team used tools and experience of SALT to go through a process going from the “I” to the “we”. A long first step was needed to support teenagers to build self-confidence and deconstruct the prejudice or the boxes they created, to then help them create their vision for the world and the society they want to grow up in.

A beautiful process of growth, that included pain and conflict.

Today, 10 of the 34 participants are actively engaged to carry out the action plan they developed and to spread the word around them and create authentic human connection between people.

Agora Cafe is a citizens initiative in the town of Grez Doiceau (Belgium), where Jean-louis and his neighbours decided to open a space on a regular basis to discuss questions that concerned them directly as citizens.

You are interested about this initiative and want to know more about it, contact Jean-louis@communitylifecompetence.org