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Training

Groundswell provides training to organizations, companies, teams, and groups to empower leaders, to engage individuals, and to support communities. Training is one way we operationalize our mission of building a more equitable future. Our goal with training is to center our shared humanity and open opportunities for growth, change, and belonging.

We offer training in the following overarching topics:

One starting place can be requesting one of our most popular trainings or workshops. The difference between workshops and trainings is timing–workshops are under four hours and trainings are four or more hours.

Bias

Bias is learned and reinforced socially and systemically. Addressing it requires seeing it, naming it, and understanding its impacts.

Communication

Effective communication deepens relationships and strengthens organizations and teams, and yet communication is often missed or on different pages.

Community Building

Community building is essential for teams, groups, boards, staffs, committees, and organizations.

Conflict Resolution

Conflicts happen every day between people and within organizations. Sometimes conflict happens because of mis- or missed communication, and often because the intent and the impact do not align.

Organizational Development

Organizational Development is a strategic approach to integrating the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion with actions, policies, and decisions.

Identity & Culture

Every person brings a story. Every organization has a culture. Our individual cultures might have different ways of communicating and values, and we all benefit when we are aware of and articulate how it impacts our relationships.

Restorative Justice Practices

At the heart of restorative practices is a commitment to love, community, and joy—values that guide the process of rebuilding trust and relationships.

Systems

Everyone deserves respect, access, and opportunity—but we know our systems don’t always work that way. Our systems are built upon historical and structural barriers that need to be addressed.

Request a Training

We all have bias! Identify & explore implicit bias and ways it creeps into our minds. Together, we will work on re-training our brains and practice tools for seeing and addressing bias within our organizations.  

LEVEL: Introductory-Intermediate

There are everyday and every-relationship applications for restorative justice. This training introduces restorative justice, the anchors for continued practice, and experiential application of community building circles and restorative communication.

Understanding and ascending the stairway to justice is one of the cornerstones of this training. A facilitator’s guide to restorative interventions for conflict and harm. Participants will gain knowledge, skills, and practice opportunities to skillfully navigate the complex dynamics that arise in instances of conflict and harm.

 LEVEL: Intermediate-Advanced

We all get stuck in conflict. Learning about conflict styles and cycles begins the journey to manage conflict, and to bridge connections where there was conflict. This training explores impacts of managed vs. unmanaged conflict, trauma responses to conflict, and getting unstuck through unpacking intent vs. impact.

The 40-hour basic mediation training is appropriate for any individual who wishes to develop better personal or professional conflict resolution skills as well as for those who plan to become professional mediators. Successful completion of the training qualifies the new mediator to participate in DRPA mediation programs across the state of California. 

By building a solid foundation for your team/group, relationships can flourish, engagement increases, and innovative collaboration becomes possible. Invite us to facilitate a foundation-laying retreat where your team/group will feel a sense of inclusion and belonging. 

Learn about the history of civil rights in Orange County and explore how this history informs the present.  This presentation connects a local chronology of bias & discrimination, injustice, and restrictive laws & policies to social uprising, community-driven change, and movement toward racial and civil equity.  

LEVEL: Introductory

Gain new perspective for centering relationships, healing harm, and actively dismantling systems of oppression. This workshop will give an overview of terms and tools for restorative justice practices. 

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are words for action. This workshop defines diversity, equity, and inclusion as goals and processes, and explores how these can be co-created within organizations and rooted into strategic planning and action.  

LEVEL: Introductory

Albert Einstein said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” This workshop will help find the opportunity in conflict and managing conflict using constructive engagement. 

Bias, harassment, and hate harm our community and hurt us all. This presentation provides information about bias-motivated hate activity, how to report, and how our communities are specifically impacted by hate.

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Trainings

Decode Your Conflict

In this on demand course, explore your conflict style and discover effective strategies for tough conversations. Understand yourself and others to build better communication. Learn anytime anywhere and take steps toward healthier relationships.
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The Art of Conflict Response

This course helps you respond to conflict with clarity, care, and confidence. Gain emotional skills, insight, and tools to stay grounded and connected in real life tension through empathy, intention, and emotional intelligence.
Learn more

Training Request Form

We can personalize a training course that is right for you and your team/group/organization/company.
Please tell us a little about what you are seeking.

Bias

Bias is both learned and reinforced socially and systemically. To address bias, we need to be able to see it, name it, and understand its impacts. Gaining awareness and exploring bias helps to identify preferential treatment and policies, understand work culture and climate, and find points of connection and community.

Trainings We Offer

Exploring Bias

Where do biases come from? How do our assumptions and biases about others impact the way we think, feel and act?  Can we have biases and not know it? This training will explore some of the building blocks of bias and offer ways to engage with others in challenging bias in ourselves.

Implicit Bias

We all have bias! Identify and explore implicit bias and ways it creeps into our minds. Together, we will work on re-training our brains and practice tools for seeing and addressing bias within ourselves and within our organizations.

Understanding Microaggressions: A Path Toward Awareness and Healing

There is no tiny thing about microaggressions. Though subtle and often unintentional, they occur repeatedly, reflecting biases that manifest as disrespect, exclusion, and dehumanization. These acts can erode trust, and harm relationships and communities over time. This training focuses on the "what" of microaggressions—understanding their forms and impact and more importantly, it explores the "what now" after recognizing them.

Words Matter

This workshop is a socio-historical presentation catered to Orange County students to emphasize the county’s past injustices to certain communities and students’ contemporary role in making Orange County a more equitable and welcoming community. From BRIDGES, primary audience is students

BOOK TRAINING

Communication

Effective communication deepens relationships and strengthens organizations and teams, and yet communication is often missed or on different pages. When communication is proactive, values-based, and rooted in empathy, it is one of the most powerful tools for conflict prevention. With practice, skill, and intention, communication can move us from surviving to thriving – opening space for understanding, genuine human connection, and liberation.

    Trainings We Offer

    Inclusive Language

    Working on and using inclusive language makes the value of inclusion tangible – in our words and in our ability to communicate. Inclusive language is compassion, strength, and authenticity in action. This training will feel like a conversation and prepare us to communicate with accountability and care for one another.​

    Intercultural Communication

    The ways we interact and communicate with one another are affected by our cultural heritage, background, and experiences. This interactive training looks at our perceptions of social and cultural norms and uncovers barriers, biases, and bridges to communicating across cultures effectively.

    Non-Violent Communication

    This workshop puts theory to practice! This training provides a framework for non-violent communication (NVC) as a communication tool to share observations, articulate needs and feelings and make requests in ways that honors the relationship. The benefits of NVC are boundless and the practice starts immediately!

    BOOK TRAINING

    Community Building

    Community building is essential for teams, groups, boards, staffs, committees, and organizations. When people feel like they matter, relationships and commitment to a shared purpose or set of goals are strengthened. Community building also sets a solid foundation for open and critical communication and a trusting environment to resolve conflict when it arises.

      Trainings We Offer

      Belonging

      Ubuntu – a phrase that means “I am because we are” describes a cultural practice of connection and belonging. When we deepen our relationships—our connections—and understanding of one another, our foundation for belonging is strengthened; we are strengthened. This workshop opens space to explore the meaning of belonging, name its place/purpose in organizations, and understand how to overcome barriers that may interfere our experience of belonging.

      Circle Keeping Facilitation Training

      The way we hold space can change everything. Circles thrive when someone shows up with care, humility, and the courage to guide. This training is for anyone ready to guide conversations that build trust, deepen connection, and create space for truth. Whether you are new to circles or ready to deepen your practice, this training will help you hold space in a way that feels real, grounded, and transformational.

      Community Building Dialogues

      Community building dialogues are intentional, inclusive spaces where people come together to build trust, connection, and a deep sense of belonging. Rooted in restorative practices, community building circles share the practice of open dialogue and active listening in a supportive, respectful environment. We offer dialogues that focus on a specific theme, shared identity, respond to an urgent need, or simply offer space for reflection and support. Dialogues can take place in workplaces, interfaith communities, schools, or community settings as a way for people to feel seen, heard, and truly part of the community.

      Half & Full Day Community Building Retreat

      By building a solid foundation for your team/group, relationships can flourish, engagement increases, and innovative collaboration becomes possible. We coordinate and facilitate foundation-laying retreats for your team/group to make and strengthen connections, feel energized, practice effective communication and problem-solving, and establish and enrich a sense of being seen, heard, and understood. Team and community-building retreats focus on the core goals of inclusion and belonging.

      BOOK TRAINING

      Conflict Resolution

      Conflicts happen every day between people and within organizations. Sometimes conflict happens because of mis- or missed communication, and often because the intent and the impact do not align. Finding resolution to conflicts takes practice – articulating needs, setting boundaries, addressing patterns of behavior, unpacking expectations, restoring relationships and healing harms.

        Trainings We Offer

        Basic Mediation Certification

        The 40-hour basic mediation training is appropriate for any individual who wishes to develop better personal or professional conflict resolution skills as well as for those who plan to become professional mediators. Successful completion of the training qualifies the new mediator to participate in DRPA mediation programs across the state of California.

        Conflict as a Bridge to Healing

        Although many of us shy away from uncomfortable conversations and situations, conflict can be a tool for deeper connection, trust-building and healing. Conflict is an inevitable part of life, and this training explores the conditions that lead to conflict and finds constructive ways for both individuals and systems to bridge toward healing.

        Conflict Engagement Skills

        We all get stuck in conflict. Learning about conflict styles and cycles of conflict is the start of a journey to manage conflict and bridge connections of understanding. This training explores the impacts of managed vs. unmanaged conflict, trauma responses to conflict, and getting unstuck through unpacking intent vs. impact.

        Conflict is Not a Bad Word

        Albert Einstein said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” This workshop will help find the opportunity in conflict and managing conflict using constructive engagement.

        Navigating Difficult Conversations

        Looking for ways to talk about conflicts around identity, biases and microaggressions? Interested in the role a sense of belonging plays in resolving these conflicts? This training provides three frameworks useful in understanding how to keep belonging as our center in practicing inclusive and equitable options for resolution.

        BOOK TRAINING

        DEI Organizational Development

        DEI Organizational Development is a strategic approach to integrating the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion with actions, policies, and decisions. Effective DEI efforts are both internally and externally facing, and include focus on leadership, representation, human engagement, communication, and values alignment. Trainings in this area create space to reflect, have honest conversations, and move teams from intention to action.

        Trainings We Offer

        Cultivating a Culture of Belonging

        When fundamental beliefs drive our work, we need to root in these values to promote a culture where our teams feel seen, heard and valued. This workshop is an invitation to learn about the values that drive positive organizational culture and reflect on how to practice values in action. We will include interactive elements as well as practical tools to support organizations in building positive organizational culture, staff connections, and overall wellness of the people and organization.

        Equity Lens & Framework

        Find the right lens for seeing inequity and challenging the existence of bias. This training will review five abilities for organizations to commit to understanding where and how inequity shows up, and map out a strategic path toward organizational equity.

        Unpacking DEI & Belonging

        Diversity, equity, and inclusion are words for action, and they are values that help set a foundation for belonging. This training adds an analytical lens for defining and applying definitions, programs, and initiatives that are rooted in the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. A goal of this training is to feel connected to the values and actions of belonging.

        What is DEI?

        Beginning a conversation about “DEI” can feel vague. This workshop defines diversity, equity, and inclusion – in words, images, and real life examples. This workshop further explores how these can be co-created within organizations and rooted into strategic planning and action.

        BOOK TRAINING

        Identity & Culture

        Every person brings a story. Every organization has a culture. Our individual cultures might have different ways of communicating and values, and we all benefit when we are aware of and articulate how it impacts our relationships. Through reflection and storytelling, we help build communities rooted in empathy, connection, and collective care.

        Trainings We Offer

        Community Cultural Wealth

        Explore and understand how educators and students, respectively, contribute ‘culture’ to their school community. Educators will have an opportunity to learn the six types of capital that educational leaders may use to frame their interactions with students. This interactive workshop will also include space for discussion and reflection on cultural humility as an alternative to cultural competence. From BRIDGES, diverse audiences including nonprofit boards.

        Culturally Responsive Practices

        We all come from different cultures – our race, gender, age, faith, country of origin, etc. – how do we create inclusive systems/institutions that provide equitable opportunities for different cultures and hold ourselves and institutions accountable? This training offers a framework and tools we can use to explore our own cultural norms as well as how cultural differences play out in navigating systemic and positional power dynamics using a culturally responsive approach.

        BOOK TRAINING

        Restorative Justice Practices

        At the heart of restorative practices is a commitment to love, community, and joy—values that guide the process of rebuilding trust and relationships. Core goals of restorative practices focus on building strong relationships, repairing harm, and understanding the impacts of one’s actions. These practices promote accountability and active participation in the healing process. By addressing the root causes of conflict, restorative justice seeks not only to repair past harm but to prevent future harm, all while fostering a deeper sense of belonging within the community.

        Trainings We Offer

        Addressing Racial Slurs and Harmful Language

        Engage in a discussion about the frequency and impact of identity-based harm in schools and gain tools on how to address it both inside and outside of the classroom. From BRIDGES, primary audience is school staff.

        Everyday RJ

        There are every-day and every-relationship applications for restorative justice. This training is an introduction to restorative justice; it provides the anchors for continued practice, practice in facilitating community building circles, and experiential application of restorative communication.

        Harms & Conflict

        Understanding and ascending the stairway to justice is one of the cornerstones of this training. This is a facilitator's guide to restorative interventions for conflict and harm. Participants will gain knowledge, skills, and practice to skillfully navigate the complex dynamics that arise in instances of conflict and harm.

        Restorative Anchors

        This interactive workshop invites participants to explore the core values and practices—restorative anchors—that help individuals and communities stay grounded in the principles of restorative justice. Rooted in the belief that healing, accountability, and community are central to justice, restorative anchors support us in navigating conflict, harm, and disconnection with care and integrity.

        Restorative Mindset

        Gain new perspective for centering relationships, healing harm, and actively dismantling systems of oppression. This workshop will give an overview of terms and tools for restorative justice practices.

        Intro to Restorative Justice & Circles

        This workshop explores the restorative practices mindset and its use in schools and community spaces. Participants will experience the power of circles as tools for connection, healing, and belonging, while learning how circle-keeping can challenge systems of oppression and repair harm. Through practice, participants begin building the skills to facilitate circles that nurture equity, justice, and collective liberation.

        BOOK TRAINING

        Systems

        Everyone deserves respect, access, and opportunity—but we know our systems don’t always work that way. Our systems are built upon historical and structural barriers that need to be addressed. Trainings in this area help teams and organizations acknowledge and address these barriers; making way for equity and justice within our organizations and communities. We have the power to reshape and build an equitable future – one with open access, opportunities, and respect for all.

        Trainings We Offer

        OC Civil Rights History

        History always informs the present. This presentation connects a local chronology of bias & discrimination, injustice, and restrictive laws & policies to social uprising, community-driven change, and movement toward racial and civil equity.

        Power & Privilege

        Get to the core of inequity and oppression; navigate how systemic power and identity-based privilege weave a pattern of organizational structure, policies, and procedures that replicates racial disparity and harm. This training delves into themes of shame/guilt, fragility, and accountability, and challenges participants to utilize their lived experience and identities to open access toward equity.

        Levels of Racism

        There are four levels of racism – personal, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic. This training focuses on providing statistical data, research findings, and historical legacies of the institutional and systemic levels of racism in the U.S.

        BOOK TRAINING