This year’s annual Social Developers Network workshop was held at the Don Bosco Retreat, Lysterfield east of Melbourne. It’s an ideal venue – accommodation on site, large meeting room, well-equipped kitchen and spacious dining room, set in delightful pastoral surrounds of paddocks, giant gum trees and granite rocks.
There were eleven participants - six men and five women. Seven had attended an SDN workshop before, but this was their first experience for four others. We came from Melbourne, Adelaide, Newcastle and Deniliquin and quickly formed a family of friends, sharing our thoughts, emotions, hopes and fears, in an atmosphere of trust and support.
As SDN grows there will be more workshops like this one. Don’t miss the next!
The range of topics covered in presentations was outstanding:
- Restorative practice working with young people.
- ‘Ears of the Heart’ project involving Kimberly elder Kankawa Nagarra.
- Post Voice Referendum stories.
- The Colebrook home in South Australia where Aboriginal children were taken, a Reconciliation group and creating a memorial garden.
- Introducing the ‘Detoxing Deniliquin’ workshops.
- The mythical Hero’s Journey as it applies to our own lives.
- Concepts of change when seeking to intervene in contemporary predicaments or accept as beyond our current scope.
We also held a grief and sorry business campfire, an art therapy mini-workshop and deep listening exercises that brought people closer together.