relational
culture
building

building cultures of belonging

Tailored Consultation for Organizations, Teams, Communities and Movements

At Courage we focus on building communities and cultures of compassion-based, anti-oppressive, healing-centered, transformative, and visionary practice. Rather than addressing systems change or personal transformation alone, we understand that sustainable, lasting change requires that we build cultures of practice rooted in the values, principles and habits of mind and body in which we long to live. We support this work by teaching a model we call CourageRISE.

Systems of oppression live in our bodies and our cultural practices, and thus we can’t just legislate our way out of them or meditate our way out of them. For us, love is a practice. Justice is a practice. Anti-racism is a practice. Building Beloved Community requires more than Diversity, Equity and Inclusion trainings; it requires that we build cultures of practice rooted in belonging. 

We believe that long-term training and capacity-building is necessary to facilitate sustainable transformation. We offer a variety of direct, tailored consulting services to organizations, teams, communities and movements that are ready to make deep commitments to this work. Learn more about our offerings, and reach out to request support!

Our Offerings

We are committed to supporting transformative and sustainable organizational change. 

We offer tailored workshops, team retreats, talks, capacity-building seminars on how to strengthen relational culture using the theory and practice of our framework, CourageRISE.  Themes include:

    • belonging, care and accessibility;
    • counter-oppressive practice;
    • diversity, equity and inclusion training;
    • generative conflict and repair;
    • rest and pleasure;
    • undoing white supremacy culture;
    • creativity and collaboration;
    • commitment and risk.

Our programs incorporate practices for personal and systemic transformation and often include somatic and contemplative practice, reflection and discussion, art, storytelling and meaning-making. 

In addition to trainings, we are available for curricular consults, strategic planning and relational cultural assessments.  

1.

connect and share your vision with us

2.

assess your team's relational culture

3.

schedule a workshop or event

4.

build a committed culture of practice to sustain the work

Who We Work With

We believe in long-term training and capacity building to facilitate sustainable transformation and prioritize work with teams and organizations that are ready to make deep commitments to this work.

We also prioritize work with values-aligned teams that are working actively to build alternatives to the status quo.

We have supported human rights organizations, foundations, schools, universities, trauma programs, spiritual centers, intentional communities, political movements, and various coalitions working for racial, economic and climate justice.

the Art of Relational culture Building

Shifting culture takes time and practice.

 In order to develop a community of practice, we encourage organizations to support their staff to attend  our Radical Communion Course and our free RelationSHIFT sessions. Committing to practice in an ongoing way helps build a shared language and set of tools to take the relational work to the next level. 

We also are keen to train the relational leaders within organizations—including our directors of culture, our DEI leads, our healers, our counselors and the like—to shepherd this work. Our Relational Facilitators program is designed to offer relational leaders a deep dive into the theory, practice and application of our model, CourageRISE, and to equip them with both tools and confidence to carry this work forward for the long haul.

OUR TEAM

Our team has decades of experience facilitating equity-centered, compassion-based systems change. We have consulted with human rights organizations, non-profits, universities, schools, trauma-centers, political organizations, design firms, contemplative and spiritual centers and community-based organizations. Learn more about our team here.

Ed Porter, M.A., M.S.

Ed has a rich and varied career in public education, professional development, community leadership, and systems thinking and equity training. His vision is to provide services in a variety of modalities to individuals, groups, and organizations that assist them in opening their eyes, minds, and hearts to working together across race, gender, and cultural identities—building a workplace and a world that honors, celebrates, and upholds the values and contributions of all.

Vaishali Mamgain, Ph.D.

Vaishali received her PhD in Economics from UNC Chapel Hill. She is a leading practitioner in the fields of contemplative education, antiracism, and compassion training. As the Director of the Center for Compassion at USM, she helps people develop awareness, empathy, and a critical systemic lens, necessary tools to unseat oppression in all its forms. She completed a 3-year meditation retreat and regularly leads antiracism trainings for leadership at Fortune 500 companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations.

Abra Vigna, Ph.D.

As an Action Researcher and Evaluator at the Population Health Institute of UW Madison, Abra supports organizations and coalitions in advancing systems change. Abra’s research and personal practice centers on healing toward collective liberation at all levels- personal, interpersonal, organizational and communal. Her PhD research focused on self-compassion as a practice to support social change efforts among racially diverse LGBTQ youth and she continues to assess the role that lineages of wisdom can offer to long-term change work. Abra brings over a decade of experience working directly with youth, families, organizations and communities to advance health and racial equity via direct-service, professional development, coalition building, and community-centered research.

Brooke D. Lavelle, Ph.D.

Brooke is the Co-Founder of Courage of Care. She holds a Ph.D. In Buddhism and Embodied Cognition, and is committed to ways in which individuals and communities develop cultures of practice that support love, health and liberation. Brooke has consulted to various human rights, education and spiritual organizations, and has experience leading national and international political, educational and climate justice projects. Brooke consults to the international Solidarity Matters project, is a fellow at Mind and Life and the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies in Germany, and a lecturer at the University of Virginia. As a non-profit leader, Brooke understands the challenges of trying to build alternatives to the status quo, and remains steadfastly convinced that another way is possible.

Be in Touch

Feel free to reach out with questions about our approach and our offerings.

We’d love to hear from you!