2025 Shaping Change Facilitator Festival
Join us for a day of connection, learning, and action!
The Shaping Change Facilitator Festival is a one-day gathering for facilitators, community organizers, and mutual aid practitioners committed to strengthening collaboration and expanding the solidarity economy in Chicago. As a locally organized prelude to the Resist & Build 2025 convening in Atlanta, this festival will provide space for deepening facilitation skills, fostering regional relationships, and exploring how we can collectively shape the future of movement-building.
This event is co-sponsored by the Post Growth Institute and Kola Nut Collaborative and will feature a 2-hour Offers and Needs Market (OANM), a keynote conversation, and Open Space Technology, all designed to support facilitators in building trust, bridging divides, and expanding community-led organizing efforts.
Schedule
9:00 AM – 9:15 AM
– Registration & Coffee
9:15 AM – 9:30 AM
– Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
– The Offers and Needs Market (OANM)
11:30 AM – 12:30 PM
– Keynote Conversation w/Toni Anderson of Mindful Rant
12:30 PM – 1:15 PM
– Lunch Break
1:15 PM – 2:00 PM
– Open Space Technology
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
– Open Mingling & Informal Networking (Optional)
🔹 Who should attend? Facilitators, community organizers, mutual aid practitioners, and anyone interested in deepening their skills for community-driven change.
🔹 Cost: Free (though space is limited)
For questions, contact Mike Tekh Strode at mikestrode@postgrowth.org.
Join us in strengthening Chicago’s solidarity economy—one conversation, one exchange, and one community at a time!
Chicago/Pilsen – Shaping Change Facilitator Festival
Saturday, March 22 from 9 AM-3 PM
SpaceISH Chicago
Your Facilitators
Mike Strode
Lead Presenter
USA
Mike is a writer, urban cyclist, facilitator, and solidarity economy organizer with the Kola Nut Collaborative: Chicago’s only time-based service and skills exchange (otherwise known as a timebank) providing an open platform for mutual aid, community organizing, and network weaving.He is a past participant in Nexus Community Partners’ Cooperative Developer Fellowship and LIFT Economy’s Next Economy MBA. He is currently a member of the inaugural cohorts of Post Growth Institute’s Post Growth Fellowship and AORTA’s (Anti-Oppression Resource & Training Alliance) Headwaters Facilitation Apprenticeship.He is a Program Manager at Open Collective Foundation and serves on the boards of the US Solidarity Economy Network, New Economy Coalition, South Deering Manor Community Association, and Dill Pickle Food Co-op.