Applications are currently closed

Below you will find more important information and criteria for Who Can Apply and Accepted Applications, as well as a Link to the Online Application, and Frequently Asked Questions.

Who can apply?

Practitioners can apply as individuals or as a team of up to 3 people. CEIO will not accept applications for SCC from organizations. Organizations can engage with CEIO through our Community Partnership Organization program.

Applicants should:

Desire to be responsible for creating and/or maintaining a group in the form of a community of practice within the 9 month program.
Currently or desire to be a facilitator of a community of practice that meets regularly (every month or so) to learn and practice together.
Can clearly define their group’s purpose, area of interest, domain, or focus.
Clearly understand the connection between their focus and equity, justice, and liberation.
Be committed to furthering your understanding of communities of practice and practicing conscious co-creation.
Be motivated to build communities that center:
- Justice - equitable sharing of power throughout the community
- Whole systems transformation
- Inviting, listening, honoring people’s stories
Reside in the the state of Connecticut*
Understand and are in alignment with CEIO's values, mission & vision (see our homepage for more info on each of these).
Are 18 years of age or older.

* CEIO is geographically centered within the Greater New Haven area and will prioritize applications from this area; however, we are open to receiving applications from aligned applicants from across the state of Connecticut.

2022-23 Program Outline

CEIO is accepting applications until Tuesday, September 6, 2022. Eligible applicants will go through an interview process to further determine readiness and right alignment with SCC after which the selection committee will announce the 2022-23 SCC Cohort by Tuesday, September 27, 2022.

SCC Programming will take place over 9 months, beginning on Saturday, October 22, 2022 with a Welcome and Orientation Day and run through June 2023.

The Opening Retreat will be held Thursday - Saturday, November 10-12, 2022.

The cohort will meet for 4 hours on each of the following dates throughout the program:

Friday, January 20, 2023 in the morning
Thursday, February 16, 2023 in the evening
Friday, March 17, 2023 in the morning
Thursday, April 6, 2023 in the evening
Thursday, May 11, 2023 in the evening

In June 2023 (date to be determined) we will have an event to celebrate and amplify the amazing work the cohort has done.

Throughout the cohort participants will meet regularly with Support Guides, should attend CEIO Communities of Practice circles, and attend CEIO Deeper Change Forums.

Have questions?

We are more than happy to answer any questions related to SCC. We first encourage you to attend an Information Session but if you are not able to make a session please let us know your question(s).

Ask SCC a question

Accepted Applications

Applications accepted for consideration will include:

Completed online application.
An up to 1 year projected budget for facilitating and running your community of practice circle **
Aligns with all the listed bullets in the above "Who Can Apply?" section
A narrative that:
- Illustrates the vision of the newly forming or existing community of practice.
- Explains how the community of practice circle will help increase equity, liberation, justice, and conscious co-creation locally for individuals, organizations, and/or the larger community.
- Demonstrates the project’s clear societal/systems level impact: Explains how the community of practice is supporting liberation and healing from patriarchy, the myth of white supremacy, heteronormativity, and/or other forms of systematic oppression.
- Includes a plan of how your community of practice will operate in accordance with local and state COVID-19 guidelines.

**We will be exercising equitable practices in determining how many SCC community of practice circles will be sponsored with the $100,000.00 budget that is allotted for this initiative.

FAQ Anchor

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a difference between a practitioner and participant?

No, we use practitioner to identify the participants in Seeding Conscious Co-Creation (SCC) who will be initiating and facilitating communities of practice. The word practitioner was chosen as it means someone who is actively engaged in and practicing a skill. In the case of SCC, we will be practicing conscious co-creation.

How do you assess readiness for participation in SCC?

Readiness for SCC looks different for each potential participant. Our assessment of each participant’s readiness for SCC intends to:

Look at each applicant individually and as a potential part of the whole cohort and
Select participants who are at various stages in both their development of a community of practice and their knowledge and practice of conscious co-creation
If participants are forming a new community of practice SCC seeks participants who display readiness to launch their community of practice within the 9 month program timeline.

What is the process for deciding who gets into SCC?

A group of SCC and CEIO staff will read through all applications to assess readiness and alignment with this SCC cohort. If specific questions arise about your application we will reach out via email for clarification. Selected applicants will then join in group and/or individual interviews with SCC Staff to help determine the final group of applicants for the cohort. All applicants will be notified if they are accepted or not and provided with feedback on their application.

How long is the commitment and how much work is involved?

The 2022-23 Cohort will begin in September 2022 and programming will go till June 2023. Below is approximately how much time will be involved in cohort sessions:

Welcome and Orientation Day = ~6 hours
Opening Retreat = 2 and a half days of programming with 2 nights
Cohort Sessions = ~4 hours per month for January, February, March, April, and May
Meeting with Support Guides or SCC staff = ~1-2 hours per month
SCC Amplification Forum = ~6 hours TBD
Other related events including CEIO Communities of Practice and Deeper Change Forums = ~4 to 6 hours as scheduled

These estimates do not include the hours you will be putting into the community of practice you are facilitating. How much work each participant will put into their community of practice will depend on a variety of factors such as where their group is at in its development, frequency of meeting, etc…

Do participants get paid to show up?

As part of the application participants are required to submit a budget which can include a stipend for yourself but can also be used for other eligible expenses including:

Honorariums and contracts for Practitioners, facilitators, and other subcontractors
Local transportation costs
Food & Accommodations
Supplies and expenses directly related to running your community of practice circle
Fees for use of physical and virtual spaces for gathering
Additional training and development opportunities

More about communities of practice and what it means for facilitators

A general definition of communities of practice is:

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn through practice as they interact regularly.

Communities of practice, as we see them in SCC, have 4 main components:

1. Practice and learn together
“Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice. This takes time and sustained interaction (Wenger-Trayner, 2015).” Members of a community of practice are all practitioners (or desire to be one) within the domain of interest.

2. A shared domain of interest, passion, or concern
This shared domain – or area of interest, passion or profession – is what brings people together and speaks to the members intention to practice in their shared area. So, how do you define a domain of interest, passion, concern? Simply put, it is an area of activity or knowledge. This area or domain could be broad or more specific e.g., visual art (broad) or digital graphic illustration (specific). Or as another example, you could have a community of practice whose focus is racial healing (general) or a racial healing group specifically for women of color or other demographic (more specific). How broad or specific your area of interest is influences who your community of practitioners are.

3. An understanding of the domain’s connection to equity, justice, and liberation
Seeding Conscious Co-creation is all about cultivating more equity, justice and liberation in ourselves, our communities and our larger society. As such applicants should have an understanding of how their domain is connected to these goals. Furthermore, it is helpful to ask the question: what might it look like to practice more equity, justice and liberation in my domain of interest and how can we support each other in that? Or, what does it look like to liberate the domain from systems of oppression? These are principal questions to explore in your community of practice and in our cohort sessions.

4. A desire to cultivate and facilitate community
Cultivating community creates the social fabric for collective learning, healing and practice. There are lots of different ways to cultivate community which we will practice and learn about throughout the cohort. I want to make one note here that connects to the first component, which is that the community you bring together should be made up of those who practice or want to practice within your domain of interest. Members of a community of practice are not people simply looking to take a class, attend a workshop, or receive an offering from you.

Communities Practicing Conscious Co-Creation

Conscious co-creation is the awareness that we all have power and responsibility for creating what is and invites us to be aware of our individual and collective power as well as how larger systems have historically used power. When the practice of conscious co-creation is seeded in a community of practice it looks like a group of fellow practitioners in a domain of interest who desire to cultivate community and practice consciously being aware of and connected to their power to foster more equity, justice and liberation for themselves and in their shared domain.

What does this mean for you as a facilitator of a community of practice?

In many ways, it should take the emphasis or stress off of you being an expert in your area of interest. You are not creating a community of people who are coming to you for guidance and knowledge. Each person/practitioner within the community brings their experience, stories and knowledge to the group. Nor are you creating a group where people come together to just talk about an issue or concern. As a group of fellow practitioners you look deeply at your domain of interest. Together you might explore how power has been historically used, identify ways it is continuing to perpetuate systems of oppression, or understand both your internal and external power. Together you are practicing new ways of being that advance equity, justice and liberation individually and collectively in your domain. Through building relationships and practicing with one another there is more space for support, healing and liberation to take place. Out of this space a shared repertoire of practices may emerge which might include stories, tools, methods, etc… for yourself and your community.

More about communities of practice