Mahatma Gandhi urged us to “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” In simple terms, if you want to change the world, start with yourself. Too often , in pursuit of our ambitions we fail to nurture ourselves, to offer ourselves adequate time for self reflection, self praise, to be the best we can be for ourselves and those around us. We’ll ensure you have plenty of time to be kind to yourself, destress and focus on the things that are most important to you. .
We believe our gathering should involve and benefit the local community. We’ll be sponsoring local activists from the anti-fracking community in the North West of Ireland to join us for a couple of days. We expect to learn from them, hear their experiences, share their challenges and offer insights and advice on how similar issues are being tackled around the world.
We’re seeking to nurture eco over ego and foster an ecosystem of campaigners within Ireland to work together for the greater good. Individuals, unions, non profits truly working together as a community can achieve far more than than the sum of their parts.
Many of the issues we face today are truly global and like minded people around the world are taking on similar challenges every day. From the fields of Tax Justice to Climate change we’re inviting friends from around the world to explore a sense of shared purpose, to share with us their stories of success and failure so that together we can learn how to be more effective in the pursuit of our ideals.
Learn to Change is a nascent event convened by Eugene Flynn, Director of Possibilities at 54 Degrees. Eugene has directed campaigns and delivered training and workshops on digital activism on four continents over the last 15 years.
He was a member of the project management team of the Advocacy Initiative in Ireland. During this time, three knowledge exchange forums per year were organised to foster creativity, innovation and the sharing of skills and experiences within the not for profit sector in Ireland. Eugene is also an Alumnus of the eCampaigning Forum (Oxford, UK) and Web of Change (BC, Canada).
Learn to Change draws on his passion and experience as a campaigner and the intelligence of these three great communities and aims to bring them together for an experience of personal, local, national and international activist education and growth.