Confluence

With over a decade of experience working closely with organizations and movement groups, AORTA has identified the following common needs for teams looking to align their mission and values with organizational culture: 

• Incubate and nurture democratic work practices

• Provide practical frameworks and examples for ways of working together that are grounded in grace and compassion

• Build resiliency in organizational communication

• Cultivate leader-full organizations to reduce leadership flight and worker exploitation

• Collaboratively develop road maps for tangible, incremental change within an organization

• Strategically address the root causes of organizational and staff overwhelm when approaching organizational development work 

AORTA is committed to catalyzing and sustaining successful, leaderful movements composed of skilled, democratic, principled, and courageous people and organizations that are able to build collective power and work in solidarity through liberatory praxis (action, learning, reflection). In 2022, we launched the Confluence program to help participating teams bridge the gap between their organizational values, practices, and structure.

The 2024 Cohort is designed for teams of 2-4 participants per organization that have the organizational support, time, and resources to commit to the program.

Over the course of 4 months, Confluence brings together a cohort of participating organizational teams to explore how to: 

1. Nurture the conditions for change in an organization

2. Develop a shared understanding of systemic oppression and identify ways to address inequity within organizations

3. Build the skills to address and transform interpersonal conflict and communication

4. Cultivate a decision-making culture that moves from power-over to a more democratic workplace

5. Implement Humane Resources and anti-oppressive organizational operations

Led by a team of AORTA facilitators and coaches, this intensive program provides: 

• A 4-month program,which includes a combination of 12 live workshops, group coaching, guided practice and integration sessions

• A robust set of tried and trued resources and tools teams can take back to their organizations and begin implementing right away

• Opportunities to connect and build with participating organizations in a private, learning community hosted on Mighty Networks 

Participating organizations will also be able to add-on a bank of consultation sessions that can be used to discuss unique or specific organizational dilemmas and support participants in moving towards solutions.

Application Process and Timeline

Our online application process opens on 6/5/23 and closes on 9/8/23 (new extended deadline).

We will hold an info session on 6/14/23 to offer more information on the Confluence program and answer any questions.

• 6/1/23 - Applications open

• 6/14/23 - Information Session (View the recording)

• 7/12/23 - Early bird application ends at 11:59pm EST. Early Bird Applications (received by July 12th) receive a discount when accepted into the program. 

• 9/8/23 - Applications close

• Mid-September - Application Reviews: The Confluence program team will review all
  applications and select a shortlist. This shortlist will receive an invitation to
  interview.

• Late September - Notification of shortlist decisions and waitlisted applicants

• 10/2/23 - 10/27/23 - Shortlist interview calls: Shortlisted applicants will be
  interviewed by the Confluence team. We will convene via Zoom conference to
  conduct the interviews in early September.

• Mid to Late October - Final Enrollment Decisions: All applicants will receive
  notification of final enrollment decisions

Program Dates
The Confluence cohort runs from February 15 - June 20, 2024 and will meet weekly on
Thursdays, 9am-12pm PST/10am-1pm MST/11am-2pm CST/12pm-3pm EST. Note:
There is no session on April 25th (subject to change based on cohort needs).

Please note that due to tax issues, we are unable to work with organizations outside of the U.S.