● Upcoming Training

Transforming Conflict As Community Practitioners

Are you finding yourself increasingly navigating conflict, division and polarisation in your community?

In the context of growing social fracture, we have developed Transforming Conflict As Community Practitioners, a four-month learning journey to support community facilitators, organisers and leaders to build the confidence, skills and peer support needed to navigate conflict in their communities constructively.

Drawing on practical tools, systems thinking, nonviolent communication and co-liberatory practice, participants will learn how to facilitate dialogue across difference, work through tension and conflict, and foster greater connection and resilience within their communities.

Starting September 2026

Apply here

Across our communities, we’re seeing rising polarisation, increasing distrust, burnout, conflict and fragmentation. 

Many of us are trying to hold spaces, facilitate conversations and bring people together without ever having been taught how to work with power, conflict and difference.

At the same time, many of the forces driving division are systemic. Communities are often encouraged to blame one another rather than understand and address the conditions affecting them all.

What if we had the skills, confidence and support to respond differently?

This four-month learning journey is designed for community facilitators, organisers and leaders who want to strengthen their ability to navigate conflict, build trust and help communities move from division towards collective action.

    • Practical tools for working with conflict and tension

    • Greater confidence facilitating difficult conversations

    • A deeper understanding of power, oppression and polarisation

    • Skills for building trust across difference

    • A supportive peer community of fellow practitioners

    • Space for reflection, practice and experimentation

  • This programme is for people working in communities and places who are increasingly finding themselves holding conflict, navigating power dynamics and trying to bring people together in an increasingly polarised world.

    You might be:

    • A community organiser

    • A facilitator

    • A climate or social justice practitioner

    • A community development worker

    • A local councillor

    • A volunteer coordinator

    • Someone holding groups, networks or community spaces

Content & Structure

  • Before we can navigate conflict, we need to understand the paradigm we are operating from.

    Together we’ll explore how to create spaces capable of holding difference, move beyond blame and othering, and reconnect with what matters most. We’ll look at how our nervous systems respond to challenge, how dominant patterns show up in groups, and how we avoid reproducing the very dynamics we hope to transform.

    Themes include:

    • Moving from blame to connection

    • Creating spaces that can hold difference

    • Embodied awareness and nervous system regulation

    • Living systems thinking and interconnection

    • Recognising and interrupting harmful group dynamics

    • Applying these principles in your own community context

  • Every conversation, community and conflict exists within wider systems of power and belonging.

    In this session we’ll explore how our experiences are shaped by the systems we inherit, how power operates in groups and communities, and what it means to work with power rather than over others.

    Themes include:

    • Power, privilege and belonging

    • Understanding your location within wider systems

    • Speaking and listening across difference

    • Using power collaboratively

    • Moving from domination towards participation

    • Building relationships across different lived experiences

  • Conflict is often seen as something to avoid. What if it also contains information, feedback and opportunities for transformation?

    Together we’ll explore practical approaches for working constructively with conflict, navigating difficult conversations and responding to harm without escalating division.

    Themes include:

    • Understanding what conflict is telling us

    • Finding the gift and feedback within conflict

    • Speaking up and interrupting harm

    • De-escalation and regulation

    • Boundaries, empathy and consent

    • Navigating challenge without creating further polarisation

  • How do we facilitate change without taking over responsibility? How do we remain grounded in our values when tensions are high?

    This final session explores how we cultivate practices that strengthen agency, connection and collective resilience.

    Themes include:

    • Facilitating difficult moments

    • Working with competing needs and traumas

    • Supporting change without rescuing

    • Moving beyond righteousness and certainty

    • Sharing dilemmas rather than defending positions

    • Leading in alignment with the future we want to create

  • We’ll reflect on what we’ve learned, identify how it applies to our communities, and explore how we continue supporting one another beyond the programme.

Peer Practice Sessions

Between Learning Labs, you’ll be invited to meet with a small group of fellow participants to reflect on the learning, share experiences, and explore how the ideas are showing up in your own work and communities.

These informal peer sessions are optional, but offer a valuable opportunity to deepen relationships, practice together, and receive support from others navigating similar challenges.

Facilitator & Tutor

Sophie Docker is a facilitator, mediator, coach and trainer with over a decade of experience supporting individuals, communities and organisations to engage with conflict, power and difference in transformative ways.

Her work draws on Nonviolent Communication, Restorative Practice, Transformative Justice, relational neuroscience and systems thinking. She is a Certified Trainer with the Centre for Nonviolent Communication and has worked extensively with communities, organisations and social movements exploring how we move beyond polarisation, domination and violence towards connection, liberation and interdependence.

Sophie is particularly passionate about conflict as a driver for learning and change, helping people develop the skills, confidence and awareness needed to navigate difficult conversations and build healthier cultures.

Organisers

OpenEdge supports changemakers, organisations and communities to address systemic conflict, navigate power dynamics and build more equitable, compassionate and collaborative cultures.

Through training, facilitation and consultancy, OpenEdge helps people develop practical skills for engaging with conflict, working across difference and creating systems that enable everyone to participate and belong.

This Living Place is a community-led organisation rooted in rural Somerset & Dorset, working together to create what’s needed for ecologically and socially thriving futures. They bring people together, turn ideas into innovative projects, and build the infrastructure that makes transformative, community-led work possible, locally and alongside communities across the UK.

Dates & Times

Sessions take place from 10:00am–12:30pm UK time via Zoom.

  • 9 September

  • 7 October

  • 11 November

  • 9 December

Commitment

This programme is designed as a learning journey, with each session building on the last. We therefore ask that participants commit to attending all four Learning Labs wherever possible.

Time commitment:

  • Four online Learning Labs (2.5 hours each with breaks)

  • Optional peer practice sessions between Learning Labs (approximately 1 hour per month)

  • Personal reflection and application in your own context

To get the most from the programme, we recommend setting aside around 3-4 hours per month.

Contribution

We believe that the skills, relationships and support needed to navigate conflict and build stronger communities should be accessible to the people doing this work.

At the same time, creating and hosting a high-quality learning journey takes significant time, care and resources. The total cost of delivering this programme is approximately £5,000.

We are therefore offering places on a sliding scale, inviting participants to contribute according to their circumstances.

As a guide:

  • £275 helps cover the full cost of your place.

  • £150 is a supported contribution for those working within under-resourced organisations, grassroots groups, or with limited financial means.

  • If you are attending through an organisation with a training budget and are able to contribute more, your support helps make the programme accessible to others.

  • We are actively seeking funding to offer a small number of fully-funded places for those who would otherwise be unable to participate. Please mark this on the application form if you need a bursary.

We recognise that many community practitioners, organisers and grassroots leaders are contributing significant amounts of unpaid time and energy to their communities. We do not want cost to be a barrier to participation.

Our intention is to create a cohort that reflects the diversity of people doing this work, not simply those with the greatest access to resources.

If cost would prevent you from applying, please get in touch. We’d love to have a conversation about what might be possible.

Application process

We are inviting people to apply rather than operating on a first-come, first-served basis.

This helps us create a thoughtful and diverse cohort of practitioners who will benefit from and contribute to the learning journey.

We expect demand to exceed the number of places available, so applications will be reviewed in batches.

Applications will be reviewed on:

  • 30 June

  • 31 July

  • 21 August

You will hear from us within five working days of the relevant application deadline. Successful applicants will be sent a payment link to confirm their place.

If places remain available after these dates, we may continue accepting applications until the programme is full.

Apply here

Questions

We know joining a four-month learning journey is a significant commitment, and you may have questions before applying.

Emma (emma@thislivingplace.co.uk) and Sophie (sophiedocker@gmail.com) are available to answer questions, talk through the programme, or arrange a short Zoom conversation if you’d like to explore whether it’s the right fit for you.

If you’re excited by the programme but unable to join this cohort due to timing, cost, accessibility needs or other commitments, please let us know, using the emails above.

We are keen to understand demand and explore how future versions of this learning journey can reach more people.

Contact us

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