Courage is connection
We are inspired this month by courage, the theme for Counterpoint’s Refugee Week this year, from 15 – 21 June. Courage is a daily necessity for many who are facing unknown journeys, new and unfamiliar systems, an uncertain world and future ahead.
In 1913, Suffragist Millicent Fawcett gave a speech saying “courage calls to courage everywhere”, during the years of campaigns toward a version of women’s voting rights in the UK. After last month’s local elections, amidst the rise of racist and Islamophobic sentiment as seen in recent protests in London, and global ongoing issues of genocide and war, we hear the calls of courage loudly.
At Global Learning London, we have been facilitating creative interventions that call and respond to courage, to embed anti-oppressive practice into organisations working with communities. We’ve worked with organisations such as Women in Prisons and Tower Hamlets Supporting Families Division, supporting cultural shifts to embed justice, inclusion, anti-racism and anti-oppression into their practice at board-level and on the ground.
World Environment and World Oceans Days have just passed, along with their calls for climate action and ocean protection – the courage to rethink our role in the systems that are accelerating the climate crisis. A sustainable world is built through a sustainable society. Over the past 2 years, we have been working closely with Greenpeace UK to ensure this. We have worked across their teams to give practical suggestions to strengthen projects, and our anti-oppression training is a key part of their onboarding process for new team members.
If courage calls to courage everywhere, then courage is not an act in isolation. It is sharing stories and listening, too. It’s asking questions. Unlearning, relearning. Courage is the creativity in actions, big or small, that push against divisive lines and connect people to planet, the future to the past, the global issues to local ways of being – how each of these influences each other, and vice versa.
This month, we invite you to join us in considering: where does courage call to you, and how do you respond?
