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Relationship
September 7 @ 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM CDT
Relationship
Cooperative Culture Handbook Book Club Series
Sunday, September 7, 2025
- Pacific: 10am-11:00am
- Mountain: 11am-12:00pm
- Central: 12-1:00pm
- Eastern: 1- 2:00pm
Description
The Cooperative Culture Handbook offers a framework and practical toolkit for groups to solve problems, build community, and change culture towards greater empathy and authenticity. It is designed as a resource for leaders, facilitators and changemakers to develop core practices in discernment, curiosity, communication and engagement. In this inspirational guide, North American culture is broken down into 26 easy-to-understand Culture Keys, and 52 transformative group and individual exercises.
Each week, Co-author Yana Ludwig will open conversations that focus on an individual Culture Key, moving consecutively through the book.
Yana will facilitate each session and the space will be open for relaxed conversation among all participants!
In order to fully participate, we strongly recommend purchasing the Cooperative Culture Handbook, and reading the introduction before the first session.
A Social Change Manual to Dismantle Toxic Culture and Build Connection
Participants will have opportunities to connect with others striving to gain a better understanding of cooperative culture while having Yana as a support and resource as questions arise. Please make sure to review the Culture Key for the upcoming week as well. This will allow for the highest quality collective conversation.
Culture Keys and Dates
Participants are encouraged to read the Culture Key before each session and to come prepared with thoughts and questions.
- May 11 – Key #1: Skillful Hearing
- May 18 – Key #2: Individual and Collective Responsibility
- May 26 – Key #3: Speak the Authentic
- June 1 – Key #4: Common Ground Within Differences .
- June 8 – Key #5: Good Enough for Now
- June 15 – Key #6: Understanding and Effective Action
- June 22 – Key #7: Emergent Stories
- June 29 – Key #8: We
- July 6 – Key #9: Mutual Aid
- July 13 – Key #10: Security is Social
- July 20 – Key #11: Differences Are Good
- July 27 – Key #12: Consensus With Healthy Boundaries .
- August 3 – Key #13: Hierarchy Lite
- August 10 – Key #14: Share Emotions Well
- August 17 – Key #15: Share Resources Well
- August 24 – Key #16: Conscious Power
- August 31 – Key #17: Beyond Narcissism
- September 7 – Key #18: Relationship
- September 14 – Key #19: Interdependence
- September 21 – Key #20: Empathize With Circumstances
- September 28 – Key #21: Skills Used to Empower
- October 5 – Key #22: Beneficial Creativity
- October 12 – Key #23: Good Intent and Good Impact
- October 19 – Key #24: Becoming Whole
- October 26 – Key #25: Ask With Vulnerability
- November 2 – Key #26: Find the Aligned Way
Your facilitator
Yana Ludwig
Yana served on the Board of Directors of the Foundation for Intentional Community for over a decade. She lived in community for 26 years and has been both a founder and a joiner: all of her work is grounded in deep community experience. Her writing includes The Cooperative Culture Handbook (co-authored with Karen Gimnig) focuses on articulating a vision and practical pathway for intentional culture building; and many articles in Communities magazine. Her new book, Building Belonging: Your Guide to Starting a Residential Intentional Community, was released in May 2023.
Yana is the former Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable and Cooperative Culture at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage and North Coast Food Web. Taking the lessons of community into the nonprofit and worker co-op sectors is one of her passions. Yana is a dynamic, compassionate and thoughtful speaker, writer and teacher, committed to creating a more just and resilient world.
Learn more about Yana here.
Registration
You’ll receive a Zoom link in a confirmation email after you register from orders@ic.org.
