2026 Workshop Series: Popular Education Methods

Thank you to the over 400 people who signed up to participate in Facilitating Power workshops in 2025 and everyone who helped us prioritize workshops for a Popular Education Workshop series in 2026. 

If I had to describe our approach to training facilitators and organizers in Popular Education methodologies, I would say, “We ‘praxis’ what we preach. Praxis is a word that describes the connection between theory and practice — the act of putting ideas in action. Our workshops are spaces to practice the very methods we are espousing and to apply them to actual work we are moving in our communities. All of the tools and frameworks we share are ones that we have used and have had the chance to improve on over time. There is this dynamic relationship between the training space and the facilitation and organizing work we do in our own communities, each supporting us to deepen and sharpen our practice.

We are excited to expand our workshop spaces to more practitioners this coming year – Announcing 2026 Popular Education Workshop Series! You can sign up for the entire series at a reduced rate or sign-up for individual workshops (see below). Sliding scale prices apply to all offerings. 

Designed for community leaders, organizers, educators, and community-based facilitators, this workshop series offers a deeper dive into the principles, practices, and creative methodologies of Popular Education — a liberatory approach to learning that begins with the knowledge of the people and moves toward collective transformation.

Each session provides practical tools, frameworks, and embodied experiences that strengthen your capacity to design and facilitate powerful learning-to-action processes. Through participatory workshops and a growing community of practice, we’ll cultivate the skills, imagination, and courage needed to move with our communities toward shared liberation.

1 • SEED HARVEST WEAVE: Facilitating Collective Leadership

February 27, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

As outdated systems are coming apart, we have the opportunity to cultivate more collective ways of being and working together that center the common good. SEED • HARVEST • WEAVE is a framework for facilitating community leadership rooted in critical consciousness — our ability to see and transform the conditions that shape our lives. Through interactive activities and reflection, you will leave with tools to strengthen your facilitation practice and grow community capacity for transformation. This workshop provides foundational knowledge to support designing and facilitating Popular Education processes. 

2 • Transforming the Culture of Community Involvement in Planning and Decision-making

March 18, 2025 | 1:30 PM - 4:00 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

Join us for an interactive online workshop exploring the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership, a framework developed by Rosa González of Facilitating Power. This tool offers a powerful pathway for shifting from traditional engagement toward true community ownership of solutions and decisions.

This workshop will highlight the unique and interconnected roles of community-based organizations, local government staff and elected officials, philanthropic partners, and third-party facilitators in cultivating community leadership and transforming decision-making processes. Together, we will explore how the Spectrum can help:

We will leave with a deeper understanding of how to use the Spectrum to support community-driven solutions and build stronger, more equitable local democracies. Facilitating Power is also accepting applications for participation in a cohort to become a certified facilitator of processes to operationalize the Spectrum of Community Engagement to Ownership. Click here for more information.

3 • Designing a Popular Education Learning to Action Process

April 17, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

In this hands-on workshop, we’ll dive into the nuts and bolts of creating a learning-to-action agenda rooted in the principles and practices of Popular Education. You will gain practical tools for designing sessions that draw on the wisdom of the group, use creative and participatory methods for co-learning, and translate insights into collective, inspired action.If you're looking to design community workshops, campaign trainings, or even an organizational retreat, this session will help you design for transformation. 

4 • Integrating Storytelling into Group Process

June 5, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

Our lived experiences carry vital wisdom and can help us see and understand systemic patterns. In this workshop, we’ll explore how storytelling can deepen reflection, connection, and critical consciousness within group processes. You will gain concrete methods for weaving personal and collective narratives into facilitation — using story as a method for relationship-building and a starting point for shared analysis of the issues affecting our communities. Together, we’ll tap into the power of story to transform learning spaces into sites of solidarity and inspire communities toward informed, collective action. 

5 • Creating Space for Genuine Dialogue

July 10, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

Dialogue is at the heart of Popular Education and the cultivation of critical consciousness. In true dialogue, everyone participates as equals, sharing authentically in search of mutual understanding. This workshop offers exercises and facilitation practices for creating spaces where dialogue can flourish, even amid difference and tension. Participants will explore how to invite multiple truths, and guide conversations that help groups to make sense of our lived experiences — clearing a path toward collective insight and transformative action. This workshop is part of Facilitating Power's Popular Education workshop series.

6 • Facilitating Community Alignment

August 7, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

This workshop offers practical tools, frameworks, and facilitation approaches for building genuine consensus, leaning into group tensions, and developing shared analysis that supports alignment on shared solutions. Through examples and participatory practice, we’ll demystify the process of consensus-building and strengthen our capacity to facilitate alignment that honors both unity and diversity. This workshop is part of Facilitating Power's Popular Education workshop series.  

7 • Creative Methodologies for Understanding and Building Liberatory Power

September 11, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

This workshop explores creative methodologies — including art, movement, storytelling, and participatory analysis — as tools for understanding and building liberatory power. Participants will engage in experiential activities that reveal how creativity can deepen critical consciousness, strengthen community bonds, and open pathways toward our collective capacity to affect change and transformation. This workshop is part of Facilitating Power's Popular Education workshop series.

8 • Facilitating Popular Education Methods in Virtual Spaces

November 20, 2025 | 10:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Pacific Time) | REGISTER

How can we hold the spirit of Popular Education — participatory, relational, and rooted in collective wisdom — in virtual spaces? This workshop explores practical tools and creative facilitation approaches for designing engaging online learning experiences. Together, we’ll practice techniques that transform virtual sessions into vibrant spaces for shared learning, critical reflection, and community action. This workshop is part of Facilitating Power's Popular Education workshop series.