The Forgiveness Project around the World!
We are delighted to announce a series of upcoming events, including many that are taking place globally!
Conversations with Shame Symposium and Workshops
In last week’s newsletter, we introduced the Conversations with Shame Symposium and Workshops, which will be running from the 7th-10th of April in Sydney, Australia.
We wanted to spend a moment with you to introduce Ruth, who has been with us in RESTORE since 2009 and who will be alongside Sandra, developing, curating and leading this work in Australia. We are honoured for Ruth to be with us.
“This extraordinary opportunity to go to Australia to share our approaches in RESTORE is a culmination of 14 years of my work with The Forgiveness Project, sitting alongside Sandra and a brilliant team of storytellers. RESTORE is a space of deep connection, dialogue, perspective taking and empathy and has been one of the most defining and precious parts of not just my working life, but my whole life.
I came to this work in part due to a deep need to understand my own lived experience and to find more texture in the traditional binary positions of ‘victim and perpetrator’. In the 14 years of working with the hundreds of men and women who participated in RESTORE, each coming to search for ways to continue to live alongside what has happened to them and what they have done, I have witnessed extraordinary courage and humanity. A dear friend who witnessed RESTORE said ‘this is penicillin and the world needs it’ and at this time in history I believe this to be truer than ever. We need to continue to find ways to be bold and generous in what we are offer to the world and in return receive from the world.”
- Ruth Chitty, RESTORE facilitator.
For more information on the symposium and following workshops, including timings and location, please do take a look at our previous newsletter or follow the link below.
What Does Belonging In Northern Ireland Feel Like?
An Invitation To A Residential Dialogue In Corrymeela, Ballycastle, from the 29th of February to the 1st of March.
In partnership with Keele University and Queen’s University Belfast, Community Dialogue invites activists of diverse backgrounds to participate in two days of residential workshops that aims to assess the impact of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill on reconciliation and belonging across the country.
Dr. Masi Noor, Senior Lecturer at Keele University’s School of Psychology and long time collaborator of The Forgiveness Project, will be co-facilitating these workshops. Joining him will be our very own Sandra Barefoot, who will be offering her experience in creative approaches to support this dialogue.
The residential begins at 9.30am on Thursday the 29th of February, and concludes at 1pm with lunch the next day. Places are free of charge but are limited to 15 by invitation only. To apply for a place or for further information, please contact Aoife from Community Dialogue at aoife@comunitydialogue.org.
The F Word Exhibition in Wisconsin, USA!
The US version of our F Word Exhibition will soon be visiting Wisconsin for two exciting events!
The F Word Exhibition USA at Harvard University, 2023
Union Congregational Church of Christ
Louisa Hext, North American curator of The F Word: Stories of Forgiveness will engage members of the Union Congregational Church of Christ in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in a ‘lunch and learn’ after services at Noon on Sunday, February 25th.
St. Norbert College
From Monday, March 18th, until Saturday, March 30th, the exhibition will be held at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin. Additionally, Louisa will be speaking to participants during a reception on Tuesday, March 19th.
If you are interested in hiring out the exhibition for your organisation, do visit the information page on our site. If you are based in North America, please email Louisa at louisa@theforgivenessproject.com. For exhibitions held elsewhere, including the UK, please email Georgia at info@theforgivenessproject.com.
“I have seen the exhibition twice myself now and for me it is the most moving and helpful experience of my life – it helped me cope with my own experience when all other methods had not succeeded.” - Visitor to The F Word exhibition, UK
Malvern Festival of Ideas
The Forgiveness Project Founder and Co-Lead, Marina Cantacuzino, will be speaking at Malvern Festival of Ideas on Sunday 3rd March from 11:00-12:00.
The title of the 2024 festival is Telling Tales, which explores the power of storytelling, both in the narratives themselves but also in the ideas they convey.
Following this theme, Marina’s talk is called Exploring the Power of ‘Restorative Narratives’ to Transform Lives, this session will discuss the role of storytelling in The Forgiveness Project, and how at the heart of our organisation is an understanding that restorative narratives have the power to transform lives.
For more information, including location and access to tickets, please follow the link below to the event page or visit the Malvern Festival of Ideas website.