The purpose of the 2009 Midwest Regional Collaboration for Sustainability Education Workshop was to bring disparate groups together to explore the important role of transformative education in achieving a sustainable future.   Through the workshop we aimed to help support:

• Communion with self and others through personal and community visioning
• Shifting paradigms around sustainability and sustainability education
• Acquiring specific tools to support community-based sustainability education initiatives
• Capturing and celebrating our story through multiple modalities such as music, art and poetry
• Honoring equally all ways of knowing and the unique gifts and diversity of perspectives of every individual
• Building comfort with ambiguity and remaining close to the actual messiness and serendipity of ideas, processes, and change
• Defining our future evolution as a community of practice for sustainability education
• Capturing our vision of a sustainability future
• Regenerating our selves and our community

The Main MRCSE Workshop Activities:  We envisioned the MRCSE workshop as an important time and space for us as a collaborative to unfold a new cultural and ecological narrative that upholds our personal integrity and the common good AND an opportunity to develop our skills to help others do the same.  Therefore everyday, we committed time to:

• Reflective journaling and critical friends circles
• Active communion with nature
• Sharing of our emerging story as told by invited “story tellers” – including musicians, artists, photographers, and poets.
• Exploring and applying transformative learning techniques facilitated by invited “wise elders”

The main activity for each day varied and  was co-developed by the participants.  Key activities included:

• A system thinking training
• A half day “Ideas and Tools Marketplace” to allow interested participants to present 30 minute sessions on their sustainability education work 
• An extended excursion into the beauty of the Lake Superior ecosystem and participation in the annual Alliance for Sustainability Pie and Politics  (Pie and Politics is a celebration for citizens and community leaders to gather for lively conversation around the local and global challenges that define our time. Last year over 700 people attended this event.)
• An exploration of questions that matter using both World Café and Open Space Forum approaches

Evenings were a time of celebration and socializing and included an outdoor BBQ and a performance by regional artists.   Opportunities to join specific training sessions on topics such as systems thinking, sustainable capitalism, sustainability assessment tools, transformative learning, sustainability curriculum development and organizational leadership skills.   Most importantly, throughout the week time was set aside for teams to work together to create and/or evolve local community-based sustainability education projects and draft a proposal for MRCSE seed grant funding.