A growth spurt at Groupwork

Steve Ray welcomes our new associates

Just over 2 years ago, those of us who make up the Groupwork Centre organism – a bunch of former alumni, now Associates – recognised that we needed to reach back into the extraordinarily rich network of alumni for some inspiration. 

The times that we are in – polarisation, geopolitical upheaval and environmental tipping points – have been calling us all to show up more purposefully. Our question back then was “how do we meet the challenge authentically?  What would that look like?”

In putting our shoulder to that wheel we began to think about some of the people who could help make such a vision happen.  Since 2000 there have been more than 200 people who have taken our diploma or “long course” that spans several months and explores more deeply the dynamics of groups and how it’s possible for people to work better together.

Finding willing and talented facilitators with an ability to think outside the box is less difficult when looking inside the Groupwork network, than working out how to design a business model that can support that growth.  It’s all a work in progress, but the band of custodian alumni who came into the organisation in 2015 has shrunk, so necessity calls on invention to step in. We are building the plane as we fly it!

Now these particular people have all been around the traps, have often worked with us and and critically, believe in the philosophy that underpins everything we do.  We thought we would start with a pilot program but what’s happened is even more exciting.  We have created the beginnings of an approach that will, over time, help to care for and protect the Groupwork legacy by ensuring people who love and understand this work will be there to support the work of groups into the future.  A substantial training and induction program has now been designed with a view to this becoming a rolling part of our longer-term rhythms and rituals; a successional plan.

And so we are truly excited to be able to officially welcome some new faces to Groupwork Centre in 2025.  All have been at one time, participants of our long facilitation course, stretching right back to 2001.  Each of them brings unique experience, ideas and perspectives with them.

To meet this merry band of facilitators and groupworkers and find out a little more about each one of them click here.