11.19.07

Sowing Seeds Workshop in Keene, New Hampshire

Posted in Social Justice, Unitarian Universalism, Animal Rights, Activism, Humane Education at 11:54 am by Freeman Wicklund

Participants at the Sowing Seeds Workshop in Keene, New Hampshire.

Nov. 10-11 was the Institute for Humane Education’s Keene, New Hampshire Sowing Seeds Workshop. It is always refreshing to be with a group of people who are dedicated to improving the world and willing to improve themselves to make it happen. The participants at this workshop were no exception.

Humane Education Resources

Many of them wanted to know about additional Humane Education resources. We created a huge list at the workshop of humane education resources, but they still wanted more. Here they are.

First, I can’t stress enough how many great resources can be found at the Institute for Humane Education’s Web site, HumaneEducation.org. The site contains:

• fantastic lesson plans and activities you can use to teach these issues
• hundreds of links to the various organizations working on animal, environmental, cultural, human rights, peace and humane education issues
• a variety of excellent books on humane issues that are avilable for purchase
• job listings for people seeking employment in the field of humane education
• and much more, so check it out!

I also have my modest resource list of humane education organizations which you can network with and model your promotional materials after, as well as groups that offer lesson plans which you can peruse.

I’m trying to pay attention to the workshop’s conversation, while one of my favorite participants vies for my attention.

She wins!

Some participants were interested in obtaining photos from a battery cage egg facility, so I have added my photos to my photo gallery. You can quickly download all 25 of them as a zip folder for free by going here and pressing the “add item to cart” link underneath the photo of the hens in a battery cage. When the new page appears, in the upper right hand corner will be a pull down bar. Select, “download in zip” and press “Go.”

Hens crowded into a filthy a battery cage.

Then you will need Stuff It Expander or a similar program to uncompress the files. If you do not have this program, you can download the photos one at a time. Feel free to print the photos, use them as digital files for power point or keynote presentations, or do anything else with them to get the humane message out there.

Social Justice Stretching

Usually in the morning people are a bit groggy, and a little bit of stretching helps to get the blood flowing, and people more focused on the presentations. At this workshop, Kriten from the Albany Free School introduced us to social justice stretching which she adapted from a stretching activity she learned from her Unitarian Universalist church. the stretching went like this:

Reach up to the sky for inspiration.
Reach down to the grassroots for support.
Do jumping jacks of direct action.
Sway with the winds of change.
And hug a neighbor (with consent) to build community.

Working with Law Enforcement

People also wanted to know more about working with law enforcement to train them in on animal issues. I know that Cheri with Healing Species has worked cooperatively with law enforcement on dog fighting issues, so you may want to contact her for more information on how to make that happen.

Humane Education Assessment

Healing Species, along with other humane education organizations, has done a lot of assessment work showing the benefits of humane education, which you may want to read about (be sure to also read the comment section for an additional link to a lot of assessment information).

Thanks to all of you who were able to attend this workshop! It was a wonderful workshop and it was heart-warming to hear about all of your personal and community activism and education to create a more humane, just, peaceful, and sustainable world. Keep up the great work!

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