Courage of Care Coalition

calendar

February 1-28, 2026
Like Fire: Annual Compassion Intensive

Online

ur annual compassion intensive starts tomorrow! We love the way in which it invites us to recommit to practice and to get more disciplined about our commitment to love.

The intensive is structured around four thematic weeks: foundations of care, receiving care, deep self care, and extending care.

Each day, for the month of February, you’ll receive a short guided meditation practice and reflection prompt in your inbox. There also are a number of bonus materials included throughout the course, as well as links to supplemental readings and podcasts.

register

February 7, 2026
Be Like Water: In Defense of Self and Others

DiamondHeart Gym
Brooklyn, New York

In a world that feels increasingly tense and divided, martial arts offer more than physical strength. They cultivate clarity, adaptability, and dignity. This workshop explores how we can meet conflict with presence, power, and care—without falling into patterns of domination, fear, or unnecessary aggression.

Through a blend of somatic awareness, psychological insight, and martial practice, participants will learn how to stay grounded under stress, de-escalate when possible, and defend themselves when necessary.
 
This workshop is open to all levels—from complete beginners with no martial arts experience to seasoned practitioners.
register

March 7-8, 2026
Spiritual Warriorship: Buddhist Based Practices for Defending Self and Others

Union Theological Seminary
New York, New York

In these times of increasing authoritarianism, polarization, and violence, we are committed to engaging and offering practices that help us collectively maneuver with strength, suppleness, and clarity—without reproducing patterns of violence. Learning to navigate conflict, de-escalate stressful situations, and defend and protect ourselves and others when needed, is a compassionate, transformative healing stance that sits at the root of many contemplative, spiritual, and martial traditions.

Drawing on the Tibetan Buddhist archetype of the spiritual warrior, this workshop will help participants deepen their capacity for unwavering compassion; access and embody their relational power; understand their habitual patterns or “shape” under threat; and navigate interpersonal conflict with more clarity and care. This is a highly embodied and experiential workshop that will also include training in specific self-defense techniques.

register

April 3, 2026
Learning to Be Like Water in Times of Rupture and Realignment

University of Southern Maine
Portland, Maine

How do systems of oppression and domination shape us into violence and defendedness, and how can we train to subvert these pattern without reproducing them?

Drawing on the Tibetan Buddhist archetype of the spiritual warrior, this talk will invite reflection upon how we might sharpen our compassionate capacity and commitment to becoming undefended, in our seemingly paradoxical pursuit of learning to protect ourself and all others.

stay tuned for registration

April 4, 2026
Be Like Water: In Defense of Self and Others

University of Southern Maine
Portland, Maine

In these times of increasing authoritarianism, polarization, and violence, we are committed to strengthening practices that help collectively maneuver with strength, suppleness, and clarity. Specifically, we are interested in somatic, psychological, and martial practices that help us learn to navigate conflict, de-escalate stressful situations, and defend and protect ourselves and others when needed—without reproducing patterns of violence, domination and oppression. This is a transformative healing stance, rooted in care and compassion for all, which sits at the root of many contemplative, spiritual, and martial traditions.

In this introductory workshop, we will offer participants both a framework and set of practices for navigating difficult interpersonal encounters as well as a foundational set of self defense practices.

staty tuned for registration information

April 7-May 5, 2026
Like Water Seminar

Online

A 5-week seminar for folks eager to learn how to collectively maneuver with strength, suppleness, and clarity in these times of increasing authoritarianism, violence, and polarization.

In conjunction with the forthcoming special issue of The Arrow Journal, Like Water, this series will bring together martial arts practitioners, spiritual teachers, and movement leaders for embodied and applied explorations of martial principles with the intention of helping us navigate the current waters with clarity.

This seminar series will build off of the ideas in this special issue, and include embodied reflection and group discussion and practice. We will also take a flipped classroom approach to this seminar, by which we mean we will provide short talks and digestible materials via our online teaching portal for participants to view on their own time. Our seminar time will function as a learning lab, with guided practices, reflection, and time for workshopping issues emerging in our organizations and movements.

register

April 12, 2026
The Rosewood Sessions

The Wyckoff
Ridgewood, New York

These curated sessions are held once per month on Second Sundays in the spring, summer, and fall on the beautiful grounds of our community house, The Wyckoff. Our two featured guests will engage in conversation and then lead the group in intentional reflection and practice before dinner. 

Our sessions are designed to pair organizers, activists, artists, healers, and community leaders for an evening of exchange through storytelling, reflection, and practice, in service of fostering meaningful and mutual connection. The hope is that these intimate sessions and community dinners will help us build relationships with other local, NYC-based kin, and inspire us to seek out and build bridges in our own backyards.

Listen to our first season here, and stay tuned for second season announcements. Be in touch if you’d like to join us or if you’d like to nominate someone for a session!

stay tuned for info on season two

September 1-December 22, 2026
RISE: Relational Facilitators Program

Online

This program is designed to help nurture a network of facilitators committed to strengthening the relational tissue of our communities, organizations, and our intersecting movements for liberation. By relational facilitator, we mean anyone called to lovingly develop the heartfelt and skillful capacity to strengthen solidarity, culture, and collective visions for freedom within our communities and movements for healing, justice, and liberation. 

Our Relational Facilitators Program is designed to help folks build loving, compassionate cultures of practice within their movements, communities, and organizations by learning to weave care-based, anti-oppressive, and healing-centered pedagogies—grounded in our CourageRISE model—into their leadership and facilitation.

We understand the core skills and capacities of relational practice—love, care, compassion, somatic healing, politicization, creative visioning, intuitive responsiveness and collective responsibility—to be important life and community skills, and thus we welcome all folks who are committed to justice, healing, and liberation to consider joining us, even if you don’t hold an official “facilitation” title. We are all capable of building and shaping culture and the quality of our relationships in every moment and encounter. 

register