Power & Equity Challenge
Our newest year-long learning series
Began January 2023 – Registration is now closed.
If you are interested in joining the 2024 PEC, put your name on the interest list below.
Pre-requisite Course: RUP Core Training recommended, but some prior RUP training required (You can take our free self-paced intro course available on our website).
We hear a lot of people from many different social locations and identities who say they want to do something about social inequities, abuses of power, and systemic oppression.
However, we also hear that people either don’t know what to do, feel emotionally-labored-out, hopeless, powerless, othered…or some combination of these states.
That’s why we’ve developed this challenge. We want everyone to have an accessible, sustainable, compassion-and-connection-centered space to learn, grow, and collaboratively develop their Power-and-Equity Consciousness.
Did you miss the Introduction and Information Session?
What is Power-and-Equity Consciousness?
Power-and-Equity Consciousness (PEC) is a term that was developed by Dr. Amanda Aguilera to refer to the state of awareness of social power dynamics, like those in interpersonal power differentials as well as collective and systemic power, that influence equity in relationship.
Why do we need to develop our PEC?
Power is present in every relationship. As your PEC develops, you are more capable of seeing power dynamics as they occur, inequities that show up in those power dynamics, and deciphering your responsibilities and vulnerabilities within your relationships.
When you have a framework for understanding power dynamics, the language to talk about it, and the skills to navigate it, you are better resourced for creating and maintaining relationships across difference.
Here are just some of the outcomes you can expect as you develop your PEC:
Create Communities of Belonging
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.” This challenge is designed to help build Beloved Community where there is mutual belonging, collective care and active responsibility.
Know Your Power
Often we can feel powerless when it comes to navigating relationships with difference. After this training, you will not only know what power you do have, but also how to use that power in ways that can empower others. Knowing your power and the accompanying responsibilities and vulnerabilities that come with it is empowering for you, can minimize harm (misuses/abuses of power), and empowers others.
Understand Your Brain on Power
Neurobiology has a powerful influence on how we perceive the world and others. Understanding how the brain organizes around power in the power differential can help us navigate power dynamics with more integration and understanding.
Know Ourstory
From our ancestry, cultural past, and the systemic power that shapes us, you will be guided through how multi-level power works to create and maintain systems of oppression. You will get an introduction to systemic power so that you have the full picture of power dynamics.
Work with Emotion
From shame to rage, confusion and frustration, intense emotions can arise when we talk about power and difference. With PEC, you can recognize emotions as they arise and choose to respond from an anti-oppression lens. Learn what it means to self-regulate without “shoulding” others.
Transform Conflict
Go from conflict-avoidant or competitive to conflict-positive by gaining the perspective and skills needed to transform interpersonal difficulties within power differentials into generative conflict and opportunities for deepening your relationships
A 1-Year Journey
2nd Friday of the Month, 10am – 2pm MST
Offered once a year beginning in January, we offer 12 live, virtual learning sessions (most are 4 hours each unless otherwise indicated) that build on each other to support you in developing your power-and-equity consciousness.
After each session, an optional 1.5-hour Integration Session within the same month is offered for deepening into the session’s content.
1
January 13th
Information Session & Introduction to PEC (2 Hours)
This is a free Information Session available to anyone interested in taking the Power & Equity Challenge. We will go over the journey progression, introduce the guidelines and give you a chance to ask questions and get to know us and one another. This session is required by all participants but it is meant to help each person decide if it is a right fit (and right time) to take the challenge. (Full refunds available anytime prior to 2/1 if you attend this session and decide it’s not right for you.)
2
February 10th
Psychology & Neurobiology of Power
Based in research, this session explores our brain on power – how the biological, neurological and psychological intrapersonal experience influences our interpersonal relationships and how power differentials impact our internal experience. Understanding how the body, mind and emotions work in power dynamics gives us an advantage for successfully navigating our relationships.
3
March 10th
Cultivating Personal Power
If you’ve ever wanted to feel more empowered and expand your inner capacity – this session will give you the opportunity to explore the power that is within you. Integration and the ability to relate to yourself in a compassionate way are key for inner growth. This session will give you the foundation for making the development of your Power-and-Equity Consciousness more sustainable. You’ll also discover how personal power is the key to navigating all the other types of power.
4
April 14th
Understanding the Intersections of Power
With this framework of social power dynamics, you’ll come to understand that there are multiple types of power – and they are all operating at once. In this session, we’ll do a deeper dive into systemic power and how systemic lenses influence our personal, role and status power. We will also look at “Ourstory” – from ancestry to collective wounding (from past to present) and how we can address ongoing systems of oppression.
5
May 12th
Status Power
In this session we will go deeper into status power and explore our social identities, status power differentials and the way status power shows up in different systemic lenses. We will also learn about the dynamics of privilege and oppression and learn how to navigate them with a Right Use of Power lens.
6
June 9th
Collective Power
Collective Power is the only type of power that can shift systemic power. This session explores the different types of collective power, how collective power forms, can be sustainable and ultimately shift systems.
7
July 14th
Navigating Power Differentials
With the understanding of systemic power, we move into the complex power dynamics present in every interpersonal relationship. We’ll look at the responsibilities and vulnerabilities in each part of the power differential and address your particular challenges in relationships across difference and power.
8
August 11th
The Art of Giving & Receiving Feedback
Feedback is essential for our own learning and growth as well as for developing and maintaining healthy relationships. Giving and receiving feedback is not only a skill to be developed, it is an art form. In this session you will be introduced to the anatomy of feedback, its critical components, and obstacles to effective feedback experiences. You will also have the opportunity to practice giving and receiving feedback.
9
September 8th
Introduction to Conflict
In many western cultures, conflict is generally approached with avoidance or competition, especially when there is a power differential involved. From a restorative and conflict transformation lens, this session will help shift you into a conflict positive frame so that conflict can become a more generative experience in your life.
10
October 13th
Restorative Approach to Harm
Building on the previous session, we get to go more into the practice of engaging in conflict. We introduce the restorative conversation and tools for working through interpersonal difficulty and harm with Power-and-Equity Consciousness. This session gives you a way to practice difficult conversations so that you can more easily turn toward instead of away from conflict.
11
November 10th
Commitment (2 hours)
Perhaps the most important course of the challenge. Here we get to explore what responsibility really means, and craft our commitment for developing Power-and-Equity Consciousness. We get to challenge each other and encourage each other, and form accountability partnerships for moving forward.
12
December 8th
Celebration (2 hours)
Celebration is such an important part of any cycle – when we successfully complete a challenge we need to recognize our own and each other’s willingness to engage at this level and honor the courage with a virtual party and next steps.
The Facilitators
We are excited to introduce our team of facilitators who are rooted in a Right Use of Power lens and have a great deal of wisdom, experience, skill and passion in the learning session topics. Each learning session will have at least 3 facilitators.
Dott.ssa Amanda Aguilera
Longmont, CO, USA
Amanda (she/her/ella) is the Co-Exectuive Director of the Right Use of Power Institute and a consultant, teacher and strategist in the area of power-and-equity consciousness and conflict resolution. Driven by her core values of curiosity, courage, and connection, Amanda is adept at creating visuals that help make learning more accessible and communicating complex ideas in simple ways.
At the core of her academic and personal passion is the advancement in understanding social power dynamics and deepening the personal and collective uses of power in the world with wisdom and compassion. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the dynamics of shame and power in the justice system and she continues to develop theoretical models in the intrapersonal and interpersonal experiences of power dynamics, including the integration of neurobiology, contemplative practices and restorative practices as they relate to power differentials.
Veronica Borgonovi
Seattle, WA, USA
Veronica (she/her) is a seasoned organizational and project leader, manager, mentor, and coach, with experience supporting over 40 client projects in management and social sector consulting across multiple countries. She continues to guide a multi-year effort to transform organizational culture around equity and inclusion across multiple geographies, and is experienced in strategy development, evaluation and learning, facilitation, and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
She is a certified coach through Leadership That Works, a graduate of Right Use of Power Institute’s teacher training, and a Qualified Administrator for the Intercultural Development Inventory. She is also an experienced meditator and currently studying the application of Buddhist contemplative psychology toward psychosocial change efforts.
Michelle Cottingham
Phoenix, AZ, USA
Michelle (she/her) is a multi-faceted entrepreneur, trained professional speaker, experienced teacher, presenter, and activist with an extensive professional background in the real estate industry.
Since 2015 she has created curricula and guided hundreds of professionals through coursework about personal identity, collective and community identity, intersectional feminism, and the complex topics of race, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, familial status, agency, systems of land ownership, and the history of the formation and current cultural state of the USA.
Farzin Farzad
Reston, VA, USA
Farzin (he/him) is an Organizational Justice practitioner with experience in higher education, local government, and the private sector. Holding two master’s degrees in international affairs and diplomacy as well as a certificate in conflict resolution skills, Farzin leverages his unique academic background, extensive travel experience, and experiential knowledge to provide comprehensive, thought-provoking local and global approaches to his work.
Farzin is the founder of Critical Equity Consulting, LLC, a boutique Organizational Justice consulting firm focused on helping organizations rebuild with a primary focus on creating equitable outcomes.
David Medina
Pamplona, Spain
David (he/him) is a Certified Hakomi Therapist, Mindfulness-Centered Somatic Psychotherapy Trainer & Supervisor, lecturer, and mentor. David utilizes an experiential and somatic approach to support his clients in exploring their relationship with power, including their habits and beliefs, especially those that could create unnecessary suffering. David works with clients in this way in an effort to provide the opportunity to explore new possibilities and reduce suffering.
Carlos Ramirez
Bilbao, Spain
Carlos (he/him) is a Psychotherapist based in Bilbao in the Basque Country of Spain. He is a Hakomi Method Trainer and Psychodramatist, curious about the interface between body, mind, and ethics in psychotherapy.
Sarah Silvas-Bernstein
Boulder, CO, USA
Sarah (she/her) is a dedicated advocate, educator, and professional contributing to the eradication of sexual violence through proactive and responsive approaches for effective social change. Her work and research are rooted in the practices and principles of restorative and social justice as a means to increase institutional and personal capacity, well-being, and resilience.
Sarah’s professional work as the Title IX Coordinator of Naropa University, volunteer experience with The Blue Bench and Moving to End Sexual Assault, and on-going experience as a Restorative Justice Facilitator and Community Member with local agencies bolster her commitment to lifelong and fulfilling community-based work. She holds a dual undergraduate degree in Organizational Leadership and Business Management from Graceland University.
Ki Smith
Boulder, CO, USA
Ki (she/her) is a Contemplative Psychotherapist, consultant, and facilitator of Nonviolent Communication presented through an ever-evolving Power-Conscious lens. Ki is passionate about co-creating spaces where collective wisdom is valued and centered, and where growth edges can be met with curiosity, courage, and collective care.
Through her business, Warrior Wisdom, LLC, she offers counseling, consulting, Power-Conscious NVC coaching, and a 12-week course rooted in the integration of The Right Use of PowerTM and Nonviolent Communication, entitled “Language for the Open-Hearted Warrior.” Ki is grateful to have ongoing mentorship and support from others in this work as she walks the path of the compassionate and wise “Open-Hearted Warrior,” humbly knowing the journey is never complete.
Dr. Sherri Taylor
Oakland, CA, USA
Sherri (she/they/femme) is a contemplative, teacher, end of life doula, consultant, and facilitator.
She completed her undergraduate education in Feminist Studies at Stanford University and earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. Her scholarship and research interests include contemplative leadership, dreamwork, the intergenerational transmission of benevolence and resilience, and the somatics of belonging and unbelonging.
She is also the guardian of the soulstudiolab and Black Womxn’s Dream Lab. Dr. Taylor aspires each day to appreciate the fullness and complexity of the human experience.
Dau Windwater
Boulder, CO, USA
Dau (they/them) is a contemplative practitioner, systems thinker, and lover of the living world. They bring pragmatism from a past career in bookkeeping and a big heart from their deeper interest in community and belonging. Through Dau’s work, they foster the awareness and exploration of power and paradox in order to empower and encourage multicultural understanding. As a facilitator, their style is infused with ritual, reflection, and space to experience the relationship between our inner and outer landscapes.
Jamelah Zidan
Boulder, CO, USA
Jamelah (she/her) is the Restorative Community Coordinator at Naropa University. She was born in New York City to Palestinian parents. She earned her B.A. in Political Economics from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was the recipient of the Scholarship for the Environment. She then pursued her M.S. in Education from Sarah Lawrence, where she was the recipient of the Regina Arnold Memorial Scholarship.
For several years, Jamelah worked as a teacher in New York City. Desiring to work in a more spiritual atmosphere and impact the quality of people’s lives, she later changed careers, taking up a position as Assistant Director at the Abode, a Sufi and Interfaith retreat center in the Berkshires. She moved to Colorado in 2020 to be with her husband, Netanel Miles-Yepez, and is now happy to be working with the compassionate and skilled staff, students, and faculty of Naropa.
She’s currently a fellow in the Emerging Leaders Fellowship, and volunteering in the Restorative Justice program of the Boulder County DA’s office.
Ian Sanderson
Erie, CO, USA
Ian Sanderson (he/him) (Mohawk Nation, Turtle clan) has spent the last 25 years inspiring reconnection to self, community, and the rest of the natural world by exploring convergences of the philosophies found in Indigenous and Eastern traditions as a means to realize empowered personal development and socio-ecological change.
He owns and runs the Boulder Quest Center, which trains youth and adults in the Japanese art of Ninjutsu-To-Shin-Do, teaches in the Environmental Studies Department at Naropa University, and offers professional development and training to businesses and non-profits. He lives in community with his wife, dogs, cats, chickens, trees, plants, and humans, 15 miles east of Boulder.
How much does it cost?
Please note: Registration is now closed for 2023.
If you are interested in the 2024 Power & Equity Challenge, please indicate your interest in the form below.
Reduced Rate
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This rate is for those who frequently struggle to meet basic needs or are facing temporary financial crisis.
Standard Rate
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This rate is for those who are mostly able to meet basic needs and have some discretionary income.
Redistribution Rate
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This rate is for those who comfortably meet their basic needs and have significant discretionary income.