The All Ages Collaboration Lab

Whether you are a parent, teacher, caregiver or you share life with people of younger generations in a different way, the All Ages Collaboration Lab is an opportunity for experimenting with and walking towards radical collaboration with younger people. The lab is held by a team of people who are deeply committed to and who, while on this life long journey themselves, already have a high degree of integration of liberation, nonviolence and the NGL framework.

Arnina, Aya, Gina, Lisa, Mareike and Miki, supported by a team from the NGL community, will support ‘adults’ in transforming what they see as the most acute and global manifestation of systemic power differences. We believe that transforming the existing social order, which is already destroying life on planet Earth, is essential to stopping the reproduction of the status quo. Our work in transforming the social order is to offer this lab. 

In it we explore:

• How to orient more fully to the possibility that people of all ages can share power and live together in ways that honor everyone’s needs and create a flow in which decision making and tending to individual needs is done based on trust.

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

• The key shifts that we see as vital for creating a future that works for people of all ages: moving from coercion to full collaboration, from ‘power over’ to full collaboration.

The lab sessions are live, dialogical and interactive, based on coaching, coworking labs, harvesting sessions, workshops and other offerings. 

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

• 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 patriarchal structures such as work and school

• From 'consequences' to dialogue so that moments 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.

Arnina Kashtan Certified NVC trainer and creator of 'The Compass'

Aya Caspi Certified NVC trainer and educational consultant. Reclaiming Life NVC

Gina Simm Coach, educator and author of 'Heart to Heart, 3 systems for staying connected'.    Teaching From Your Heart

Lisa Rothman Coach and creator of 'the 4Cs of Conflict Prevention and Repair'. Lisa Rothman's website

Mareike Haustein NVC trainer and former teacher at alternative schools

Miki Kashtan Seed founder of the Nonviolent Global Liberation Community & Fearless Heart Website

Some of the All Ages Collaboration Project Core Group of NGL apprentices offer peer to peer coaching (see below)

There is no need to attend every week unless this is what you want. The learning is intended to happen organically and you can come to any session on a drop in basis.

The following is what we are offering for the coming series:

Coaching sessions 

A small group of people who are apprenticing within NGL (the ‘core group’) receive live coaching in support of ‘untwisting’ the patriarchal fields within which they engage with younger people, and integrating the radical framework of the NGL project into their lives. This is witnessed by you, the participants, and in this sense these sessions are a space for ‘learning from learning’: lab participants learn through witnessing someone from the core group  who is learning from the coaching that’s offered. This gives a glimpse into what it looks like to be on the path towards radical collaboration (the person receiving coaching), as well as a glimpse into what can be learned from someone who has a high degree in integration of nonviolence and the NGL framework (the person offering coaching). So to be clear: participants on’t receive direct coaching during these sessions. 

All coaching is based on real life experiences and dilemmas. After the coaching part of the session participants are invited to process or practice in breakout rooms, which is followed by a Q&A. 

In this series we are experimenting with a new format: 2x2 sessions with the same two people offering and receiving coaching. This will give us one session to dive into a topic and the next session to follow up on the first session where we can look at learnings from the first session being put into practice, incl possible challenges and how to move forward with these.

Why this coaching format? This program is aimed at the accelerated learning of this small core group, so that they in turn grow their capacity to bring the NGL framework as it applies to being with younger people to the wider world. So , while inviting participants to witness, practice and ask questions, we also invite their support of this as the central purpose of the Lab. And, we anticipate that everyone who comes will have rich learnings which they can apply in their own contexts. 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 NGL framework into the actual fabric of their lives, all of us learn and our lives are enriched. 

Coworking labs

During the 'Co-working Lab' one of the people offering coaching introduces a tool/framework and invites everyone present (core group AND lab participants) to engage with this, e.g. in breakout rooms, how to apply it to their lives and encourage them to continue trying it out over the course of the following weeks.

Stories of shifts

During the ‘Stories of shifts’ sessions we invite people from the core group as well as lab participants to share about some of the shifts they experienced in relation to practising radical collaboration with the younger people in their lives. We see this as another form of collective harvesting and learning, with the power of  celebrations feeding our ongoing movement towards a vision of radical collaboration. 

Workshops 

The workshops will be held by one of the people who offer coaching. These will be open to the public and focused on a specific topic e.g. screen time agreements, children with 'vulnerable' nervous systems and other gnarly topics that might emerge over time during the coaching sessions. 

Interactive Sessions

~ more details soon ~

Peer to peer coaching sessions

Alongside the All Ages Collaboration Lab and workshops, we are excited to also offer peer to peer coaching sessions by three members of the AAC Lab core group: Amy Strauss, Janne Campbell and Nadine Robinson. These sessions are a chance for you, lab participants, to receive coaching, similar the lab sessions, around challenging situations and dynamics in your journey with younger people, offered by people who have walked the path towards parenting collaboratively to a significant degree and who have a wealth of experience in this and in supporting others doing the same. 

We hope that people will use this opportunity to increase their capacity to parent collaboratively in a spirit of nonviolence and in that way help build a world that works for all. 

Lab participants will get a separate invitaiton to take part in these sessions.

Learning resources

Participants have access to a collection of learning materials like learning Packets, videos, blog posts etc.

We anticipate all these offerings together forming a deep dive into the consciousness, tools 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. 

All Ages Collaboration Connections 

For participants who look for things like mutual support, sharing resources, discussion of AAC related topics, finding likeminded souls to connect with in person,  forming practice groups and anything else you might think of, we now have a google group where you can contact each other. You will need to opt in for this on the registration form, and then you will be added to the group and have access to people who have opted in as well.

There will be 5 Series with "Coaching seasons" and "Workshop seasons" alternating throughout the year 2026.

NB: For now, the sessions will take place at different times instead of a regular time. We are experimenting with this! So it might change back to a regular time. We welcome your feedback on this.

Series 1 - 2026 - "Coaching season"

#Session 1: "Co-working Lab" - Vision Mobilisation Framework

facilitated by Mareike Haustein

Tuesday 10th March 6-8pm CET  

(check your local time here)

#Session 2: Coaching (a)

Gina Simm offering coaching to Rosalie

Thursday 19th March 2:30-4:30pm CET 

(check your local time here)

#Session 3: Coaching (b)

Lisa Rothman offering coaching to Rosey

Tuesday 24th March 5-7pm CET 

(check your local time here)

#Session 4: Coaching (a)

Gina Simm offering coaching to Rosalie

Thursday 26th March 2:30-4:30 pm CET  

(check your local time here)

#Session 5: Coaching (b)

Lisa Rothman offering coaching to Rosey

Tue 31st March 7-9pm CEST 

(check your local time here)

#Session 6: "stories of shifts"

Tue 14th April 7-9pm CEST 

(check your local time here)

Series 2 - 2026 - "Workshop season"

There will be 6 sessions at different days/times over the course of 6 weeks, starting the week of 11th May 2026. Workshops and interactive sessions will be alternating. 

~ more details soon ~

Series 3 - 2026 - "Coaching season"

There will be 6 sessions at different days/times over the course of 6 weeks, starting the week of 6th July 2026.

~ more details soon ~

In contrast to mere ‘knowledge consumption’, what we want to invite you into is an attitude of support of and orientation to the purpose of this lab, which primarily is to accelerate the learning of the core group. We believe that this will also give you, as a participant, the synergistic momentum of learning and application that allows you to integrate the subject matter, in order to offer yourself more fully in service to the whole. Within this, whether you choose to contribute money or not, with your presence and your orientation to the purpose, you are contributing to the greater potential of this synergistic momentum in a way that is also sustainable for us within NGL.

If it feels to you like it will be a challenge for you to orient to the lab in this way, it may not make sense for you, and us, to join us at this time.   

We anticipate a time coming when we are more settled structurally and when we can offer support in other ways to those who come to the lab. And we are not there yet. You are being invited, for now, to support the formation of this field with us, with confidence that through doing this you are likely to also grow your own capacity over time. Your accurate choice at this time is a vital element of what can support this lab to thrive.

This Lab is a gift from us and an invitation to gift to us

This lab is offered as a gift to everyone who registers. We in NGL never charge for anything we offer.

At the very same time, we completely depend on financial gifts given to us freely to sustain our capacity to do what we do and continue to offer what is ours to offer. Because of this, we want everyone who registers to consider their own financial situation and our needs before deciding whether and how much they will give us. If, after this discernment, people choose to give nothing, we see it as a sign of trust in our commitment to the gift paradigm. We get pleasure out of knowing that in this way we make our offerings available to some people who usually don't have access to the resources necessary for similar offerings elsewhere - even as we mourn that such disparities in access exist in the first place.

On the registration form, we vulnerably ask you to fully connect with the needs we are making visible below as well as with your own needs and financial situation, and choose the maximum amount you can gift us without resentment or overstretching. We operate from trust in life that when doing it this way, people will be moved to give us money to care for the material needs of those of us who gift our life energy to NGL.

We want to acknowledge that engaging in this way requires more effort than most of us are used to. It's definitely easier to just see an amount and decide if it's within our means or not. We are asking you to join with us in this experimentation – which also gives you a taste of how we function both within NGL and within this course, where liberation and conscious discernment are central.

Our needs in NGL

Most of what is in this section is now available in a video conversation that you can access here

In 2025, it took approximately €500,000 to care for our minimal infrastructure and for the basic material needs – such as shelter, food, healthcare, transportation, clothing, and utilities, including internet to do our work – of more than thirty people who gift their energy and do all it takes for NGL to function. 

Over the last couple of years, we have reached a plateau in terms of financial resources flowing to us. Some part of it is a response to worsening economic conditions around the world. Some part of it is that we have not yet managed to make our work known in wider circles, and there are only so many people who know of us and choose to support us. And some part of it is that functioning on the basis of needs rather than abstract principles such as market value is often overwhelming. 

What this means is that we operate at reduced capacity, often in overwhelm, and with many voids that hinder us in making it more known what we do, what we are learning, and how many more people and groups could live and function, even now, in more alignment with life's flow. 

You, reading this, may already feel this overwhelm. If so, we ask that you take a breath and connect with the vision that lives in you and that brought you here, and then read on. Or, if this is really daunting, scroll below to where you can find the links to offer your financial gift. 

Our best estimate of what it would take for us to break out of this plateau -- so more people can be sustained through the gifts we receive and help us make what we do and how we can contribute to individuals, groups, organizations, communities, and movements align with their vision, values, and purpose -- is about $650,000, which is $150,000 more than last year. We anticipate this supporting about 4-6 more people to join the group of people who gift their energy to NGL. 

Where money comes to NGL from

Most of the money that comes to us is the gifts of hundreds of people and a few organizations who respond to our requests – either because they have participated in some of our offerings, or simply because they want what we do to continue to be possible. Most of the gifts are small amounts of money that add up, and we received €100,000 from one person who strongly believes in what we are doing and supports it consistently. There are about thirty other people who gift their energy and love to NGL and have other ways of caring for their material needs, including a few who also give us financial gifts.

Through 2025, a significant part of the financial gifts coming to us came through people signing up for courses offered by the NVC Academy. Starting in 2026, the NVC Academy is no longer hosting live courses, and we are going to be doing the registrations and hosting of all our own courses. We have noticed over the years that people contribute more when they sign up for courses through the NVC Academy than when they sign up for courses and other offerings that we host ourselves. We don’t know why this is so, and we are asking you to take in deeply just how dependent we are on your choice of how much you will give us. We ask for this reflection especially if this is your first time joining an offering through us and we encourage you to learn more about our gift economy here.

In addition to all the above, up until 2025 we have had a fund that was available to us after the closure of BayNVC, the organization that was our fiscal sponsor through 2022 – and this fund has now been used completely. This means that even more money will be needed.

We want to repeat: we take pleasure in knowing that many people who do not have the means to give us gifts are regularly attending our offerings. And we depend on others who do have the means to do so to give us financial gifts to keep doing what we are doing. Each time you participate in one of our offerings, we invite you to reflect anew on this request.

How you can support us financially

• • If you want to give a gift in USD, please click here

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

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

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

If you have any questions, please contact Lena, Rosalie and Terry who are the All Ages Collaboration Lab Stewardship Team, on this email address: le-all-ages-project-stewardship@nglcommunity.org  

What NGL is about

NGL’s purpose is “to integrate nonviolence into the fabric of human life through ongoing live experiments with truth focused on individual and collective liberation.” (Strange words? Read the detailed explanation here.) Since May 2022, nearly five years since we began our work, we are ready to share the fruits of our work and what we have learned. The key question we are grappling with is how to liberate ourselves from patriarchal conditioning and rediscover what it might take for humanity to realign with life. 

We are also ready to ask, as widely as possible, for resources to flow towards us in support of the work. We are ready for bolder and deeper experimentation. For example, as BayNVC, our mother organization, is closing, we are passionately experimenting with how far we need to move from mainstream ways of functioning in order to align with our dreams of a full gift economy when the rest of society continues to function as it is.

And we are under-resourced.

We are confident that people exist who would be enthusiastic about what we are doing and will want to support it. Are you one of them? Here are the different ways that we can envision support coming our way:

Bring the vision to where it’s needed

Are you aware of individuals, communities, or organizations that are aiming to function in practical, visionary ways and who might want one or more of our experienced practitioners to offer them concentrated ongoing support, beyond a 3-hour introduction?

Do you have friends you could imagine inviting to this and other events? As individuals alone, we are very limited in our capacity to move effectively towards vision. When we come together with others, our capacity increases significantly, especially if we want to live in visionary ways. Who would you want to do this with in your neighborhood, family, community of interest, or anywhere else in your life? What would keep you from inviting them to come with you? 

Engage with us in support of the vision 

Are you yourself ready to join us and offer your passion, skill, and energy by taking on tasks (always within capacity!) and participating in projects that could use support? If you are unsure, come check us out by joining our growing community of NGL Friends here. 

What happens within NGL?

We are longing to make available to anyone, anywhere, the exciting discoveries we are making about what we can do together as humans when we restore, even in small measure, our trust in life. We also want to share what we are learning about the challenges that turning the tide entails. 

We are experimenting in many areas, including in particular:

• What supports the increase of individual and collective capacity to move towards our vision of a world that works for all?

• What are practical ways of living within the flow of maternal gifting?

• How do we make integrative decisions that support choice within togetherness?

• What makes humility and vulnerability in the sharing of information possible? 

• What makes it possible to liberate ourselves from conflict aversion so that feedback and learning can flow?

• What is the relationship between collective capacity and the presence of conflicts?

• What is a path of liberation for all when it comes to the tough topics of power and privilege?  

• What does it mean to distribute leadership within a field held by a visionary leader?

Yes, we have been experimenting in all these areas at once. 

We started with many principles and practices that Miki had already uncovered through her research, teaching, consulting, and writing. Now many of us are active participants even as Miki is still the main person articulating what we are learning together. This shift to a larger number of committed people increases our collective wisdom. For each of the events in the series, several people are planning to offer similar events afterward to increase capacity for themselves and for NGL as a whole. As more of us are able to share foundational and emerging NGL content as their own, with authenticity, responsiveness, and rigorous accuracy, we are deepening into a flow of modeling, coaching, and mentoring – leaders to apprentices, peer to peer, and apprentices to leaders. One of our goals is for Miki’s work to outlive her. 

Please support us as, both individually and as a community, we step closer to allowing that to happen.

You can find more information on our website