The All Ages Collaboration Lab:

An intensive coaching for transforming the lives of younger people all over the world

with 

Arnina Kashtan, certified NVC trainer and creator of “The Compass”

Aya Caspi, certified NVC trainer and educational consultant

Gina Simm, coach, educator and author of "Heart to Heart, 3 systems for staying connected"

Lisa Rothman, creator of "the 4Cs of Conflict Prevention and Repair"

Mareike Haustein, NVC trainer and former teacher at alternative schools

Miki Kashtan, seed founder of the Nonviolent Global Liberation Community

The last series:
** Series #6: September 8 - October 12 **
Scroll down for date and time details. 

When you imagine being part of a group of people with vision, determination, and skills to embody radical collaboration with the younger people in their lives in the here and now, does your heart say a big YES! to it? 

• Does this speak to a deeply held faith within you that it is possible to bring reverence and care to the needs of people of all ages? 

• Do you long to see younger people having pathways for expressing, in full, the seed that they carry with them from life, and for their freedom and dignity to be honored at all times? 

• Do you want to find concrete and practical ways for responding to the immense challenges that arise when living with younger people in our modern, socially divided (along so many dimensions!), capitalist, isolated patriarchal societies? 

• Do you feel called to support this bold and tiny experiment with your presence and love?

• Are you already searching for ways to support the next generation within your family, school, camps, mosque, church, communities, organizations, or other groups to maintain and restore their full power and gifts? 

• Are you committed to nonviolence and already on a liberation journey in some form?

If so, the All Ages Collaboration Lab may be the next step for you.

Inspired by the work of Inbal Kashtan, 

The purpose of the All Ages Collaboration Lab is to equip a group of people with vision, determination, and skills to embody radical collaboration with the younger people in their lives in the here and now

What we intend to offer with this lab is a collective exploration of key shifts that we see as vital for creating a future that works for people of all ages. We don’t yet know what will emerge. We imagine this could look like: 

• • From imposed to natural limits based on actual needs and capacities rather than notions of what’s right for this or that age

  • From holding a front to acknowledging divergences, including between caregivers, so there can be togetherness in choosing how to navigate complex moments without imposing anything on anyone

  • From fairness to what’s possible so that all decisions and movement happen with full attention to what everyone’s capacity truly is

  • From power struggles to mourning limitations and honoring truth as we do what we can to move towards a softer approach to intense challenges, especially when navigating the constraints of outside systems such as work and school

  • From “consequences” to dialogue so that more and more instances of disconnection and challenge can be transformed into learning and intimacy

  • From obedience to self-responsibility as we support younger people in learning to stand up to authority and live from values and choice

  • From forcing change to the power of baby steps as we return, again and again, to the depth of internalization that lives within us and to the magic and mystery that come when we surrender to what is within capacity now. And now. And now.

This lab is an opportunity for learning and co-holding daily life with the support of women that are deeply committed to liberation, nonviolence, and to transforming the lives of younger people all over the world. Arnina, Aya, Lisa, Mareike and Miki, supported by a team from within the NGL community, are rolling out an experimental and simple design to support “adults“ in transforming what they see as one of the most acute and global issues of systemic power differences. We believe that the status quo is essential to reproducing the existing social order that is already destroying life on planet Earth. 

The primary form that we intend learning to take is live and dialogical, based on coaching and role plays. Our basic design is to engage with a small group (currently eight parents) of people who are apprenticing within the larger project and contributing their life energy to each other, to NGL, and to the larger whole. They come with a willingness to engage in being coached in support of “untwisting” the patriarchal fields within which they live with younger people. All coaching is intended to be based on their real life experiences and dilemmas as they arise, while they valiantly attempt to integrate the radical framework of this project into their lives. 

NB: So what this looks like in practice, during any given session is: one person from this core group will receive coaching from one of the people offering coaching. People attending the lab will observe this coaching (so attendees will NOT receive coaching during these sessions). Then there will be small breakout groups to grapple together with whatever came up during the session, and the person offering coaching will give prompts for discussion. Then there will be time for questions, observations, appreciations, and anything else.

In unpacking these experiences and dilemmas, we anticipate taking a deep dive into the consciousness, tools, mourning and seeds of possibility for collaborating with younger people in a way that enriches life and pulls us towards a future that works for all. 

Over time, we anticipate adding classroom teachers and others who live or work with younger people in all kinds of settings.

What is the commitment we are asking for?

This program is focused on a small core group and invites the larger group to witness, practice, and ask questions. We anticipate that everyone who comes will learn a lot that they can apply in their contexts. At the same time, we want the learning to happen within a field committed to the accelerated learning of the small group. We trust the paradox: as all commit to focusing on gifting our presence and attention and creating a field of support for the core group to grow their skills and integrate the framework into the actual fabric of their lives, all of us learn and our lives are enriched. 

We already have this experience happening in the Weaving Togetherness Lab which functions in a very similar way, and we trust that this lab will function in a way that cares for all. Each week, one of the women who is offering coaching is pairing up with one of the people in the core group to focus on a particular situation that we anticipate sharing with all participants ahead of time. 

What we are planning for this course

• We have a bunch of materials everyone can engage with, including videos, blog posts, and Learning Packets 

• We plan to offer six series of six sessions each over the course of a year. 

• Once you sign up, you remain signed up until you let us know you want to cancel your participation. 

• Each session runs for two hours.

What we imagine you will learn

• How to orient more fully to the possibility that people of all ages can share power and live together in ways that honor all their needs and creates a flow of trust in decision making and tending to needs.

• A deeper understanding of the social conditioning that interferes with our conceptualization of what younger people are capable of.

• An exploration of key shifts that we see as vital for creating a future that works for people of all ages.

We are new to this too, and will create it as we go…

This is the first series of what will hopefully grow into a robust and resilient lab for people of all ages. Right now, we do not know how the lab will work; we anticipate working it out as we gain coherence within the core group and with those who join us over time. We surrender to the immense beauty of the trust and togetherness already within this core group of people having traveled together within NGL or very close to it, for some time.  

We rely on your orientation to us…

One of the things we have learned within the Weaving Togetherness Lab is that even on screen, when a large group of people creates a field of support, encouragement, and reverence, this is palpably noticeable and influences what becomes possible, despite how little capacity we all have individually. In this way, you are contributing to the greater potential of this cohesive whole forming and sustaining itself and, possibly, including you in the future. 

If it feels to you like it will be a challenge for you to orient toward us in this way, it may not make sense for you, and us, that you join us at this time. We would like those who join us to be fully aligned with the idea that it is possible to relate to younger people without coercion and control, even if we don’t yet know how to do it. If it is a stretch for you to imagine this is possible, being with us is likely to be very challenging for you and unlikely to be supportive to us, so we ask you to consider strongly if it makes sense for you to join. 

We anticipate a time coming when we are more settled structurally and when we can offer support in various ways to those who come to the lab from those who will have integrated the learning sufficiently to offer it. And we are very far from there at present. You are being invited, now, into the formation of a field, with your support, and with confidence that you are likely to grow capacity over time even as you orient to us. Your accurate choice at this time is a vital element of what can support this lab to thrive.

There is no curriculum

The Lab is intended to be completely driven by the content that those who are apprenticing will bring. There is no need to attend every week unless this is what you want. The learning is intended to happen organically based on the interactions between those who offer coaching and those who are coming to apprentice. 

This project is very dear to our hearts. All of us are looking forward with deep curiosity to what will unfold, for all of us.

How to contribute to this? 

This training is offered as a gift to our community. In order to sustain our capacity to do our work and continue to offer what is ours to do in the future, we ask that you contribute financially the maximum amount you can give without overstretching or resentment. We fully accept and take pleasure in knowing that, while many people do not have the means to contribute, we trust that others will contribute enough to make it possible for us to do this work.

• If you want to give your gift in US dollars, please click here.

• If you want to give your gift in EUR, please click here. 

• If you want to give your gift in GBP, please click here.

• If you want to give your gift in AUS dollars, please click here