You want to bring restoration and justice to the world around you. But you don’t know how to do it. Praxis Labs are an invitation to turn your faith into action.
We offer interactive, online labs on three linked themes:
- Lab 1: Explore God’s Grand Story and locate your role in it.
- Lab 2: Tools to Live the Story, including campaigning and community projects.
- Lab 3: Going the Distance (without burning out!)
I have a growing sense that it is possible for me to act and to start things. It feels like having been given permission to partner with God in the way I live life.
Praxis Labs participant
Each Lab lasts 4-5 weeks and features:
- A weekly online session (on Thursday evenings) with experts, artists, practitioners and theologians to help you learn, reflect, practise and grow.
- At least an hour of 1:1 support with a life coach, plus the potential for further time with subject matter experts.
- Time for discussion in small groups (via video-link) with others on a similar journey.
- A short weekly reflection for you to listen to, to stimulate your thinking ahead of the weekly online session.
The Labs have been informed by Tearfund’s experience of movement-building around the world, and Futurekraft’s experience of social action in the UK. They have also benefited from conversations with a number of experienced, existing activists – asking them what they wish they could have known at the beginning of their activism journeys.
The first two labs are best completed shortly after one another. The third lab is independent and works well as a space for reflection after a few months (or years!) of activism.
Praxis Lab 1: God’s Grand Story will be running in January.
Register your interest now to secure your place. It will include the following sessions:
- Thursday 16th January
Love and questions as foundations for activism, with Praxis’ Executive Director Rich Gower - Thursday 23rd January
God’s Grand Story, with Tearfund’s Head of Theology Hannah Swithinbank - Thursday 30th January
Finding your role: identifying your core values, with founder of Connect2Coaching Anna Boocock - Thursday 6th February
Finding your role: what is God giving you hope for? With founder of Futurekraft Jan de Villiers - Thursday 20th February
Conclusion and reflection: Where next? - Plus 1:1 coaching, small group discussions, and weekly reflections.
Praxis Lab 2: Tools to Live the Story is provisionally scheduled to run from Thursday 5th March to Thursday 2nd April, and will be available exclusively to participants in Lab 1.
We highly recommend completing the two labs together, although there is no obligation to do so (sometimes Lab 1 gives people enough pause for thought without proceeding straight to Lab 2). Lab 2 includes the following sessions:
- Coming up with a strategy, with Praxis’ Executive Director Rich Gower
- Poverty and power, with The Snowdrop Project’s Operations Director Rachel Medina
- Campaign tactics with Tearfund Campaigner Billie Anderson
- Planning a local project with founder of Futurekraft Jan de Villiers
- Building a team with founder of Worship on the Streets Aaron Shah
- Plus 1:1 coaching, small group discussions, and weekly reflections.
Exceptional. I feel very privileged to have been part of the course. I found it life-giving… I loved that it was practical, but reflective. I really appreciated the variety of people. As a result of doing the course I set up an Instagram account to record my plastic-less Lent journey… I’ve tagged companies to ask them to reduce their plastic packaging. I also signed up for an ACORN campaigning day course. I wouldn’t have been brave enough to sign up without Praxis.
Praxis Labs participant
A note about cost: Each lab costs approximately £100 per person for us to run, but our first priority is to inspire and equip you, so we operate a ‘pay as you can’ model to ensure that no-one is excluded. This means that before each lab, each participant is asked to contribute £10, to give us some working capital. At the end of the lab, you can then choose to contribute anything further that you wish.
Our cost estimate includes items like: professional life coaching for participants (which normally costs at least £50 per person per hour); IT subscriptions for Zoom, google drive, and our website (~£300 per year); accountancy and legal filing requirements (£500 per year) and various other overheads. We would ideally also like to contribute something to those involved in designing, running and contributing to the course.