Vocation, Service and Social Change Workshop

VOCATION, SERVICE AND SOCIAL CHANGE WORKSHOP

 WHERE: Highlander Research and Education Center
                  New Market, Tennessee  (35 miles from Knoxville)
 WHEN:  September 15-17, 2000
 WHO:    PEOPLE CIRCLES, INC. founders Nelda Pearson and John Wallace
People Circles is dedicated to using learning circles to nurture individual
and social transformation to build a just society.
 COSTS:  $250.00
                Payable to: People Circles, Inc.
                Due: August 15, 2000
                Mail to: Nelda Pearson
                         6773 Circle Dr.
                         Radford, VA 24141

 TOPIC:  The learning circle workshop/retreat is for anyone interested in
social change and social justice.  The focus of the retreat will be on how
we can best bring together our work, our lives, our many responsibilities,
and our own transformation as change agents.
We will explore issues of how we recognize our path and how we sustain
ourselves on that path. Learning circles are based on people sharing their
stories with each other, laying those stories side by side, and  reflecting
on those stories. Circles focus on listening and hearing our own and
others' voices in a deep and authentic way.

SCHEDULE: Participants in the workshop will arrive Friday afternoon,
September 15, 2000 in time for dinner together at 6 PM.  The workshop will
begin on Friday evening and last through Sunday lunch. Participants will
leave for home on Sunday afternoon.  We ask that the participants plan
their travel schedules so that they do not have to arrive at the workshop
late or leave early.  The strength and value of a learning cirlce
experience depends on being there for the whole time.

Highlander Research and Education Center has been in existence since 1932
in three different locations in Tennessee arriving at its current location
in 1970.  Highlander has been engaged in social justice work first with the
labor movement, then the civil rights movement, and over the last thirty
years in issues of economic, social and environmental justice in the
Appalachian mountains and the South.  Workshop  participants who have time
and would like to have a more in-depth experience of Highlander are invited
to arrive as early as possible on Friday and to spend the time before
dinner exploring the Highlander Library, a rich archival resource.
Exploring the library gives one a close-up sense for the work of Highlander.

On Saturday evening we will have Guy and Candie Carawan and Joyce Dukes
with us for music and story telling related to the work of Highlander and
social justice issues dating back to the Citizenship Schools on the Sea
Islands.  All three have had a long term relationship with Highlander.  Guy
and Candie are authors of VOICES FROM THE MOUNTAINS, a compilation of
photographs, music, and quotations from organizing in the coal fields of
Central Appalachia, and AINT YOU GOT A RIGHT TO THE TREE OF LIFE, a
compilation of photographs, music and quotes from Johns Island, where the
first citizenship schools were held.    They also have been the musical
consultants for various productions on the Civil Rights Movement, including
EYES ON THE PRIZE. They have recorded their own and others music in the
labor and civil rights
movements over the past forty years and are active performers at events
throughout Appalachia.  Guy and Candie were staff members at Highlander
for forty years.  Joyce Dukes was the personal assistant to Myles Horton
the founder of Highlander and the Director of the Southern and Appalachian
Leadership Training (SALT) at Highlander.

FACILITIES: Room, board, facility fees, workshop materials and costs for
Guy, Candie, and Joyce are included in the retreat fee.  This is a flat
rate regardless of when you arrive. We will all stay in the Highlander
bunkhouse style dormitories, sharing a room and bath, and eat in the
Highlander dinning room.
Highlander provides simple country cooking with enough choices to
accommodate vegetarians.  Unfortunately, they do not have the facilities
to provide for special dietary needs. Coffee, tea, and fruit are available
throughout the day.  Highlander is very isolated and if you have any
special needs it would be wise to come prepared

TRANSPORTATION: Highlander is in the country, in the foothills of the Smoky
Mountains, about 45 minutes from the Knoxville airport.  Taxi service is
available.  We are responsible for making these arrangements ourselves.
In late August you will be receiving a welcome letter with further specific
information on your visit including taxi number and maps to Highlander.

REGISTRATIONS AND DEADLINES:  Please fill out and return the following
form no later that August 15 to:
Nelda Pearson
6773 Circle Dr.
Radford, VA
Please enclose your check for $250.00 payable to People Circles, Inc. After
August 15 we will assume that applicants who have not paid the retreat fee
are non-attenders and we will replace them with someone on our waiting list.

REFUND POLICY: If you have to cancel we will refund the full amount up
until SEPTEMBER 1 WHEN WE MUST GIVE HIGHLANDER OUR FINAL COUNT AND ARE
LOCKED INTO THAT FEE.

NAME:______________________________

ADDRESS:___________________________

                   ___________________________

PHONE: _____________________     EMAIL:_______________________________

OCCUAPTION POSITION AND
ORGANIZATION__________________________


 FACILITATORS:

Nelda Pearson is a Professor of Sociology and Anthropology and Chair of
the Race, Class, and Gender Studies Program at Radford University in
Virginia. She has done community development work using learning circles
with the farm women of Canada, the Inupiat of Arctic Alaska, and with
several communities in Central Appalachia. She is one of the founders of
Beans and
Rice, Inc a community development corporation (see www.beansandrice.org).
She has had extensive post doctoral training in conflict resolution,
mediation, prejudice reduction, and diversity training and has led
workshops on these topics over the past ten years.  She is also extensively
published in the area of community development, activism, and popular
education/learning circles. She is chair of the Invisible College.

John Wallace is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota.
He has been deeply involved in the college student community service
movement for more than twelve years.  He has served as chair of the Board
of the Campus Outreach Opportunity League (COOL) and as a member of the
Advisory Council of the Southern Community Partner's program.  He is
founder of the Invisible College, a national group of educators who are
taking leadership on their campuses and in their communities in linking
student's service with the curriculum.  His current main community project
is as part of a leadership team for a neighborhood learning and action
center, the Jane Addams School for Democracy (see
www.geocities.com/janeaddamsschool).  He has published extensively in the
areas of philosophy of langauge and philosophy of education.  He is the
recipient of the 2000 Campus Compact Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for
Service-Learning, the University of Minnesota 2000 Josie R. Johnson Human
Rights and Social Justice Award and the Minnesota Campus Compact 2000
Sister Pat Kowalski Leadership Award.

John and Nelda have been among the leaders in establishing the learning
circle concept as a cornerstone of the Invisible College and have designed
and facilitated learning circles in a variety of settings over the past
four years. They offer three retreats per year at Highlander.

Nelda K. Pearson
President and Execituve Director
Beans and Rice, Inc.
6773 Circle Dr.
Radford, Va. 24141
540-633-2037
540-633-1453 (fax)
nkpbeansandrice@i-plus.net