A full circle … and our new home
We are moving in with an old friend, CERES Community Environment Park, and exploring opportunities to work together
By Gini Gough and Henry Fowkes
CERES Community Environment Park
Almost 25 years ago, Groupwork Centre co-founder Glen Oche brought together a group of people as an experiment to trial what was to become our flagship Advanced Group Facilitation Course. The participants became so immersed in the experience that what was to be a one-year course ended up going for two years.
One of the participants in that first cohort was Cinnamon Evans, who at the time was leading the Education Team at CERES, delivering sustainability education programs to visiting groups. Here she applied the learnings from Glen’s course.
When CERES evolved, through expanding education programs and building social enterprises, Cinnamon joined the senior leadership team, and was appointed CEO in 2012.
Many of those who train with us know that we use the CERES training rooms in Brunswick East as a venue for our public Facilitation Skills course, as do many of our clients.
A few months ago three of us from Groupwork, Henry, Steve and Gini, sat down with Cinnamon, now the CEO of CERES and narrative director of CERES Sieta Beckwith to consider what a more formal partnership could look like. The ideas flowed freely.
During the conversation Cinnamon shared that Glen’s teachings in the Advanced Group Facilitation became the underpinning philosophy and practices she has used to grow CERES over the years – what an incredible tribute to Glen and her work!
“Glen changed my life,” Cinnamon said. “The skills I learned under Glen at Groupwork have continued to serve me well over the last 20 years.”
“One of the four ‘impact areas’ at CERES is ‘resilient communities’. Our work in this arena presents us with a great opportunity to collaborate with Groupwork.” (The other three CERES impact areas are healthy ecosystems, regenerative food systems and local economies.)
During the conversation we shared ideas for new offers within the CERES learning program and using CERES as a venue of choice. With the impending closure of our current home at Epoch Institute, we at Groupwork Centre were also looking for a new space to meet as a team. CERES felt like the perfect place for us and we are thrilled that as part of our partnership agreement we have found our city home.
We are excited about this new partnership and all that it can bring to Groupwork, CERES and the broader community.
And it’s not just our home base that’s changing. The Advanced Facilitation Skills Course is also under review, to ensure it is meeting the challenges of the times we are in. We will soon be ready to reopen the program for enrolments in 2025. In the meantime, if you are interested in this offer please put your name down here and you will be the first to know.