Framework

Our facilitation framework and methodologies are rooted in experiential education pedagogies and social justice and racial equity. Rooted in the Kolb Learning Cycles, our engaging and active events are designed to allow for deep connections, foster trust, and feel comfortable engaging in challenging topics. Additionally, we use constructivist listening to empower listeners to hold space for the person speaking to them and the Openness-to-Discovery Scale to promote personal and institutional transformational change.

Our content areas of expertise are wide-ranging, some examples include:

• Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), social justice, and anti-racism

• Experiential and social justice-focused curriculum development for educators at all levels inc. higher ed

• Socially conscious travel

• Writing and restorative retreats

Process

Our team is made up of exceptional program managers, so we ensure that the process of designing and implementing the program is smooth and hassle free for our clients.

Our retreat and workshop development is also a co-creation process with our clients. This means that, while we create the overall framework for the process and help define the benchmarks based on our expertise, the content is created in partnership with our clients. All of our workshops are designed to meet the client’s needs and to feel comfortable and a part of the final result, we work closely with the in-house team to design and carry out the event.

Example Workshops

The following are workshop, retreat, and training examples from our team of trainers and facilitators—Elizabeth Doerr and Ratha Kelly:

• SOURCE Service-Learning Faculty & Community Fellows Program: As the Associate Director of SOURCE at the time, Elizabeth created the program from ground up. In addition to leading the creation and management of the program, she worked in partnership with SOURCE Director, Mindi Levin, to design and implement a three-day training for faculty on community-based service-learning curriculum and ongoing development.

• Independent Schools Experiential Education Network (ISEEN) Summer Teachers Institute: Over the course of two four-day workshop series—each with 30+ teachers from independent schools across the U.S. and Canada—Elizabeth helped design and implement the full retreat agenda and co-facilitated the introductory sessions entitled “What is Experiential Education? And Why is it Relevant to Classroom Teachers?”

• University of Maryland Alternative Break Trip Leaders & Staff Advisor Trainings: As a part of Elizabeth’s work running the short-term service-learning trip program at UMD, she ran all of the trainings associated with the program. The semester-long training for student trip leaders that involved biweekly training sessions and one weekend-long retreat involved topics such as: power & privilege, socially conscious community engagement, logistical planning, reflection meeting and facilitation, and leadership skill development.

• San Diego Teacher Residency Program (formerly Teacher Apprenticeship Program—TAP ) at High Tech High Graduate School of Education (HTHGSE): Ratha Kelly designed and facilitated a retreat to build community amongst the Cooperating Teachers (CT), give an overview of the roles and responsibilities of a CT, and establish relationships between the CT and the student teacher.

• The NSCF (New School Creation Fellowship) Fall Residency Workshop: Ratha Kelly designed a one-day deep dive into the topic of border and immigration issues that launched a full week of workshops.

• Racial Affinity Group for BIPOC: Ratha Kelly designed and facilitated this affinity group that explores issues of racial identity development, the 4 I’s of oppression, and created a SWOT analysis for long-term planning.
  

Our Team

Elizabeth Doerr brings 15+ years of experience in experiential and social justice education having facilitated retreats and workshops for a variety of audiences from college and graduate students, educators, to faculty. She also brings expertise in training public health and healthcare researchers and faculty. As the Associate Director of Johns Hopkins University SOURCE (Student Outreach Resource Center) she designed and ran the Service-Learning Faculty & Community Fellows Program for faculty at the JHU Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health around service-learning/social justice pedagogy and curriculum. She is the Founder and Principal of Doerr&Co., a communications and social impact consulting firm that, in addition to providing writing and strategic communications services, offers social impact-focused facilitation for mission-driven organizations.

Ratha Kelly brings 16 years of experience as an educator. In her current role as an Ethnic Studies Resource Teacher at the San Diego Unified School District (USD), her work centers around delivering high-quality anti-bias anti-racism (ABAR) professional development to teachers in the district. She brings expertise in facilitating adult learning, including workshops and multi-day events from an audience of novice teachers to experienced educators. She also was a National Equity Project Leading for Equity Fellow. In her workshops and events, she focuses on deep constructivist listening, and strategies to support systemic and transformative change.