INSPIRED BELONGING
A Guided Creative Writing Workshop for Educators and Organizations
Take your purpose-driven organization, team, or business to the next level!
“How do we create community? When can we say that we truly belong?”― bell hooks
Overview
With creativity, poetry, writing, and playfulness, our workshops uncover unifying values and goals for purpose-driven businesses, organizations, and teams. Our workshops help leaders to find creative solutions in novel ways, and encourage team member flourishing within a mindful and creative practices. Our approach encourages:
developing and clarifying values
growth through visioning techniques
development of mindfulness in the workplace
cultivating human flourishing and human potential of team membes
Leadership Workshop
strategies for developing a purpose-driven organization or business
understanding visioning techniques that transcend strategic planning
understanding somatic cues to better support teams and individual flourishing
Participant Workshop
understanding each member’s unique imprint within the organization, business, or team
recognizing somatic cues for optimal participation
developing team, individual, and organizational flourishing
creating value-driven approaches
unifying team and individual purpose
Workshop Structure
The workshop begins with grounding and creating an expansive space
The heart of the workshop is the writing, using selected poetry as inspiration
The workshop concludes with the creation of a “Positionality Statement” to cultivate an understanding of how each participant is uniquely positioned within organizational communities
Participant Takeaways
awareness of an unique imprint within the organization
contemplative and invitational practices for the workspace & everyday life
awareness of somatic cues
strategies to recognize and shift low personal and community energy
unify purpose-driven approach throughout the organization
Special Workshops for Educators
self-actualization -finding your authentic voice as an educator
modeling authenticity - sharing your origin story to encourage engagement with students
nourished bodies/nourished minds - prioritizing wellness and self-care in the classroom
“To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps.”
― Elie Wiesel
About the Facilitators
Daniel Dissinger is an Associate Professor in the Writing Program at the University of Southern California, host of the award-winning podcast Writing Remix, a poet, Kerouac scholar, and writing coach. Dan earned his PhD and MA from Saint John’s University as well as an MFA from The Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University. Dan’s poetry has been published in a variety of journals, and Shadow Mountain Press published his first chapbook, tracing the shape. In 2021, he co-created an international network of academic podcasters called The Humanities Podcast Network.
Stephanie Renée Payne is an Associate Professor in the Writing Program at the University of Southern California, a Board Certified Coach (BCC), and a mindfulness instructor at Mindful USC. In her over 10 years as a meditation and mindfulness practitioner and teacher, Payne has engaged in numerous trainings, including at the Upaya Zen Center, and The Omega Institute, among others. Payne holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and a doctorate in Educational Sustainability. Payne is the author of ESP: Extreme Self-Pampering for the Soul, along with publications in numerous journals, including The Los Angeles Review, Hunger Mountain, and For Harriet, among others.