The solution to the world
economic and environmental crises
is women and girls leadership.

Sophia’s Lead, in collaboration with Ways Women Lead,is ready to launch a chain reaction of women’s leadership training, catalyzing community co-creativity and value-driven economic experimentation, flowing information and resources for sharing what works, in four geographic areas of human need.

Partners have been identified in each area, and conversations are building relationships and infrastructures that will best support our interchange of expertise. 400 women will be trained from the United States, Bulgaria, Nigeria, and South Africa, over a 3 year period, equipping them to carry out a women and girls experiential grassroots leadership program in their local communities.

Each facilitator and those that they train will have access to Internet training and support, and to information exchange from other sites of learning.  Documentation of the training process and its results is also planned as an essential form of exchange that carries much learning potential for women.

Leadership facilitators will be supported to attend the Leadership Program as needed.  They will also be encouraged to charge a fair market value for the leadership training they provide in their communities, and to experiment with other systems of exchange.  Ways Women Lead’s services will be offered on a “loan” basis; as women successfully set up new economic ventures, they will “pay back” into the Ways Women Lead Program to continue its work as a catalyst in other areas of the world.

Sophia’s Leadership Program is an innovative experiential learning, training-of-trainers program designed for women and girls empowerment equipping them to become successful community organizers.  It is modeled after the highly successful Episcopal/Anglican program called Women of Vision, and is provided by Circle Connections (www.circleconnections.com), a global women’s meeting place to co-create a new earth, one circle, one connection, one step at a time.  Circle Connections brings thirty-seven years of experience in designing and implementing important women’s leadership programs around the world, working in partnership with local and global women’s organizations through the United Nations, the World Council of Churches, and other global entities.

The program consists of seven modules given in sequence:
Module 1: Circle (non-hierarchical) theory & facilitation. Wisdom of the interdependence of all living things.

Module 2: Women and girls self-esteem. Belief in themselves individually and collectively as the feminine force for change.

Module 3: Assertive communications skills.

Module 4: Community organizing using Open Space Technology.  Participants decide on a community project and self-organize based on passion and responsibility. Suggested foci for community projects include: Care for Earth, the New Economy, Women and Girls’ Health, Stopping Violence Against Women & Girls, Sex Trafficking.

Module 5: Adaptable business plan, co-creative financing and managing of Community Projects.

Module 6: Media strategies for Community Projects.  How to tell the good news locally and globally.

Module 7: Celebrating the Feminine Force for Positive Change.

400 leadership facilitators will be supported to attend the five-day Training-of-Trainers Leadership Program. They will also be encouraged to charge a fair market value for the leadership training they provide in their communities, and to experiment with other systems of exchange.  Facilitators will be paid for conducting the program by participants and the community. The program structure helps to ensure sustainability and a new economy that is equitable for all. However, women who have the money will pay for their expenses and a registration fee.  After the facilitators have been trained, the program is carried out in teams of two by those who have attended and received a certificate of completion.  Teams are supported to present the program in their own communities, in their native languages, around community schedules and meeting places, and to develop a co-mentoring network of support and ethnic and cultural exchanges.

Estimating that teams of trainers will present the program in their communities about 10 times annually, we have the potential to reach well over 10,000 women in a 3 year period, leading to potentially 1000+ new community projects.  The program will be constantly monitored, evaluated for improvements benefiting participants with new insights, best practices and resources. The trainers will also pay a small percentage of their profit to Ways Women Lead which will ensure our sustainability and capacity to expand.

Ways Women Lead: Women and Girls in Leadership for the Common Good is an exciting program that grows out of the two and a half years of planning for the Sophia 2010 World Conference.  Working with the Bulgarian Council we have reorganized to plan a Women’s Leadership Program October 24-27, in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Please visit our website www.wayswomenlead.net and join as an individual and as your organization(s).

The dream of Ways Women Lead is to engage and connect as many people as possible on a journey of self discovery and empowerment for women and girls.  We envision implementing this dream so simply and inexpensively that everyone will have the opportunity to become a leader for the common good both locally and globally.

You are invited to help us live into this future; and the time to begin is now.

Join the conversation by connecting to the many ways you can participate. All people of all ages are wanted and will be welcomed.  By investing in women and girls, we are investing in the future.

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For more information CLICK HERE

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contact Ann Smith at ann@circleconnections.com