Healing In and Through Conflict
Too often, collaborative efforts start with energy and momentum only to be torn apart by conflict. Folks who are passionate about making change for their community find moments where they can no longer see eye to eye. But it doesn’t have to end this way. The Canopy invites you to join us in a day of peer-to-peer support to heal in and through conflict.
In the words of Cara Page and the Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective, “healing justice…identifies how we can holistically respond to and intervene on generational trauma and violence, and to bring collective practices that can impact and transform the consequences of oppression on our bodies, hearts and minds.” Healing justice is the how of our movements – it’s the texture, the experience, and the vision that guides us. Remember, just because it’s been called self care doesn’t mean you have to do it alone.
When: Monday, October 17, 2022
Time: 9:00 am – 3:00 pm
Where: Improper City, 3201 Walnut St. Denver, CO 80205
Cost: Registration is sliding scale ($0-200)
Language Access: English & Spanish
Registration Rates
The cost of this experience is sliding scale based. Doing so allows us to provide this experience to youth (25 years and younger) and Community Changemakers (neighborhood/resident leaders volunteering their time) at a discounted rate.
- $100 – Small Nonprofit (Annual Budget < $500,000)
- $150 – Midsize Nonprofit (Annual Budget – $500,000-$2,000,000)
- $200 – Large Nonprofit (Annual Budget > $2,000,000)
- $200 – Government/Foundation/Corporation
- $50 – Community Changemaker (neighborhood/resident leader volunteering my time)
- $0 – Youth (25 years old and younger)
Who should attend?
If you or your organization has ever struggled with how to generate change from conflict then this is the workshop for you. We will work on how to heal among ourselves and each other, so that we can present in unity when we work with our communities. This workshop will give you a chance to address some internal items that you may not be comfortable addressing in your day-to-day lives. This experience will allow space to work among your colleagues and expand your networks through a setting that involves a variety of healing methods. These methods are designed to affect change inside of your body, inside of your mind and inside of your spirit, in hopes that you can share these different methods with your community as you work to support holistic, thriving and equitable environments.
Schedule
Time | Monday, October 17th | |
9:00a-9:30a | Registration check-in & lunch orders: The Civic Canopy | |
9:30a-10:00a | Welcome & Opening Comments: Daniela Young & Dindi Gaines | |
10:00a-11:30a | Movement: Jahala Walker This workshop provides health and wellness information and coping mechanisms for healing conflict within the body. Offering opportunities for individuals to explore how they hold tension and trauma in the body and how to help release that tension using meditation, movement, and touch. | |
11:30a-12:15p | LUNCH: Crock Spot Food Truck | |
12:15p-1:45p | Speaker & Floral Arranging group activity: Dr. Breigh Jones-Coplin During this workshop Dr. Jones-Coplin will guide us through the experience of healing on an individual and communal level. We will talk about liberation psychology, mindfulness, and floral-based healing during our time together. Participants will engage in a mindfulness exercise by grounding and regulating their nervous system using flowers. | |
1:45p-2:00p | BREAK | |
2:00p-3:00p | Closing/Drumming Out Stress: Professor Francis Agyakwa Drumming Out Stress is a research and evidence-informed therapeutic drumming activity that helps professionals to relieve work-related stress by learning to play the Djembe drum. | |
3:00p-3:15p | Closing Remark: The Civic Canopy | |
Dr. Breigh Jones-Coplin, Doctor of Clinical Psychology and Owner of Black + Blossomed
Dr. Breigh Jones-Coplin received her PsyD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology and currently practices as a mental health clinician and sport psychology consultant. Breigh also has a Master’s degree in Sport and Performance Psychology from University of Denver and extensive training and experience working with performers across various age groups, sports and skill levels.
She is also the owner and founder of Black + Blossomed, LLC – a floral design company. Black + Blossomed creates floral arrangements for special events, photoshoots, and everyday decor. Breigh created Black + Blossomed to showcase Black art and ignite a movement away from merely surviving as a community to thriving and is passionate about intersecting the world of floral design and mental health. Black + Blossomed is also meant to be a community for all people to become an active participant in the beauty of the world around us and most importantly, the beauty within ourselves. We are all partaking in this process of growing, becoming, and blossoming and we hope to facilitate that process for each person.
Dr. Jones-Coplin is featured in Cherry Creek Lifestyle, Denver Vibe, Architectural Digest and recently presented on healing and wellness at the American Psychological Association Convention and Details Flowers for their Master Class series. She teaches that it is our responsibility to heal ourselves so that we can heal each other. Because your commitment to your own healing will permeate through this world and touch everyone you come in contact with.
Let this be a call to action for you, to open yourself up to a different way of engaging with yourself and the world. To be an active participant in your life and in the lives of others.
We are all connected. Our pain is connected. Our stories are connected.
And our healing is connected.
Jahala Walker, Certified Doula and Licensed Healing Practitioner at Mama Bird
Denver born and raised, Jahala Walker is a certified birth doula and licensed massage therapist, aiming to bring holistic health and wellness to the forefront of the community. She uses touch to facilitate healing in the mind, body, and spirit. Jahala is working to become a midwife and is guided by her purpose around black maternal health and overall community health.
Jahala uses therapeutic touch to promote muscle relaxation, and stress management. She believes in the healing power of touch and incorporates her skills in helping individuals physically, mentally, and spiritually.
This Albert Einstein quote helps Jahala remain grounded in her work each day:
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us “Universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Francis Agyakwa, Trauma Informed Specialist and Owner of Wosom-Wosom
Francis K. Agyakwa is a first generation Ghanaian immigrant (naturalized United State Citizen), a father of two amazing boys, an educator, an advocate, a Trauma Informed Specialist, a certified Compassion Fatigue Trainer, and a Traditional African Drummer.
Mr. Agyakwa, graduated from the University of Ghana with his bachelor’s in Social work with Psychology. Upon graduating, as part of his National Services to his country (Ghana), he worked on a USAID sponsored project- Quality Improvement in Primary Education (QUIPS) as a Community Facilitator and later as a deputy regional training director. Mr. Agyakwa traveled to different communities assessing, facilitating, and developing quality improvement educational plans including infrastructure development with community members and Leaders to enhance education. An Adjunct Professor at the University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work, he’s held various positions in child welfare, including nine years at the Denver Department of Human Services. His research-based therapeutic program, “Drumming Out Stress,” is deeply rooted in the traditional Ghanaian belief system of using music to drive off bad spirits and celebrate life. Mr. Agyakwa believes talk therapy is a great way to heal from abuse, neglect, or abandonment. But some things are hard to talk about, that’s where traditional therapies, like drumming, can help.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is The Civic Canopy talking about conflict?
As the Canopy internally addresses ongoing change, we’ve been looking at the definition of conflict. The context it’s used in, is often associated with a negative experience or negative environment. Here at the Canopy we’re committed to a leadership disruption process that continues to evolve and helps us grow as individuals and as an organization. This experience has caused us to take a look again at conflict and kind of redefine the word, the actions and feelings associated with it and to redirect how we operate internally and arrive externally in community.
Is parking available?
Yes, free street parking is available around the venue.
What is language justice?
Language Justice is a key practice used in social justice movements in order to create shared power, practice inclusion, and dismantle traditional systems of oppression that have traditionally disenfranchised non-English speakers. It is more than interpretation and translation, it is an intentional practice that values interpretation and translation as critical tools for opening communication and empowering all voices. Language justice is needed to facilitate opportunity for everyone to engage and participate in the language of their heart, and to create an inclusive and equitable space.
What’s the attire for this event?
Please arrive in comfortable clothing with a towel, blanket or yoga mat.
Is lunch included?
Yes and will be provided on site by Crock Spot Food Truck.