Alternate ROOTS wants to know what is happening in your community! We would like to hear your ideas for Learning Exchanges that will enhance members learning throughout the ROOTS network. We want to know what is going on in the South and how your work is impacted by it.
Our goal is to curate a series of Learning Exchanges each year that responds to various needs within the ROOTS community and extended network. However, this is a good time to remind you that members are always empowered to host their own events and gatherings including learning exchanges. This call is for ROOTS’ supported Learning Exchanges.
*For more information regarding Learning Exchanges, please read detailed information below.
We are seeking ideas around the themes:
Education, Immigration and the Arts
Learning Exchanges that investigate the intersection of two or more of the following: education, the arts, immigration and migration.
Arts and Organizing
Learning Exchanges that delve into the idea of arts and culture as central to movement and coalition building, mobilizing, organizing, and shifting culture.
Holding History and Heritage Using the Arts
Learning Exchanges that highlight how the arts are being used as a tool to hold and share history and heritage, people, places, language, traditions and customs.
Ideas are due by Monday, December 8, 2014 at 5:00 pm.
Who should send their ideas?
- ROOTS General Members
- ROOTS Voting Members
- ROOTS Organizational Members
- Community Members
- Friends of Alternate ROOTS
- Southern organizers and activists
Where can a Learning Exchange take place?
All learning exchanges will take place within the Alternate ROOTS service area, which consists of the following: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington D.C.
How to share your ideas with Alternate ROOTS?
On-line
- Via ROOTS website – click here for webform
- Facebook – use the hashtag #2015LEX
By Phone
- Call the ROOTS office and speak with the Community Partnership Specialist, Ashley Davis, at 404.577.1079, ext 304
- Call in to designated group conference calls to share ideas on Monday, December 1 at 12:00 pm Eastern ~or~ Wednesday, December 3 at 5:00 pm Eastern
- Conference Call Information: 1(619) 326-2772 Pin: 479-5378
By Mail
- Mail to ROOTS Office: Alternate ROOTS, Attn: Ashley Davis, 1083 Austin Ave. Atlanta, GA 30307
Consider the following when submitting your idea.
Please include:
- name
- phone
- mailing address
You do not have to include all of the information; however, responses to these questions may help you convey your idea most clearly.
- What are you proposing to do and why? (100 words or less)
- What are you looking to learn / discover? (100 words or less)
- With whom will you do it? (100 words or less) Please describe the community(ies), organizations, and facilitators that you will engage during this project.
- What are the proposed dates and tell us if the learning exchange is aligned with a particular event or season?
What happens next?
The Alternate ROOTS staff and the Membership Ensemble will collect and review all submitted ideas. From these ideas, the team will shape three to four learning exchanges that will take place in 2015. The team will be looking for similarities, intersections and focuses that seem to resonate most with Southern social issues as well as the ROOTS mission.
ROOTS will hold on to all of the ideas submitted as they may become the foundation for future Learning Exchanges. Lastly, we will solicit ROOTS membership, in all categories, to participate in the LE development process.
More Info On Learning Exchanges
What is a Learning Exchange?
A Learning Exchange is a gathering of people called together to exchange and learn from one another around a specific topic, issue, or matter of concern, using Alternate ROOTS’ Principles of Community Engagement. A Learning Exchange (LE) looks different wherever and whenever it happens. It dismantles the inherent power dynamics of a master teacher, trainer, etc. LE’s are not intended to be one size fits all; they are designed in partnership between artists and community partners. It is an opportunity for a community, a group of people, artists, facilitators/trainers, and any combination thereof to come together around an agreed upon topic or issue.
Our goal is to curate a series of Learning Exchanges each year that responds to various needs within the ROOTS community and extended network.
What is the history of ROOTS Learning Exchanges?
Resources for Social Change (RSC) has transitioned from a workgroup to a support structure for each of Alternate ROOTS’ programs. Resources for Social Change has become an organizational principle, embedded in all programs and threaded through all our actions, rather than a stand-alone program or group of people. The processes that have been developed by this program over the last 20 years will be codified into the fabric of ROOTS’ programmatic and organizational structure, including Learning Exchanges.
Alternate ROOTS’ Mission
Alternate ROOTS is an organization based in the Southern USA whose mission is to support the creation and presentation of original art in all its forms, which is rooted in a particular community of place, tradition or spirit. As a coalition of cultural workers we strive to be allies in the elimination of all forms of oppression. ROOTS is committed to social and economic justice and the protection of the natural world and addresses these concerns through its programs and services.