What began as a community-based resiliency circle has morphed into a unique model for climate change discussions that could spread quickly across the country, thanks to the efforts of the founder, Maria Talero. A few years ago, Maria quit her job as assistant professor of philosophy at CU Denver and dedicated her life to tackling the biggest issue of our time: global climate change. In 2013, Maria formed the Climate Courage Resilience Circle, which met once a month in the Highlands neighborhood of Denver. In these meetings, Maria used a wide array of techniques to foster a warm and vibrant group culture of dialogue, friendship and mutual support, as well as hands-on collaborative learning about climate change activism and science. The resilience circle attracted a broad range of citizens ranging from seasoned activists to unengaged, yet concerned citizens from across the Denver metro area.

Maria’s focus on citizen engagement landed her a mini-grant through EE Capacity, an EPA-sponsored program. The grant is intended to create a well-documented pilot project for facilitating climate change discussions that can be replicated by other organizations across the country. Drawing from her cadre of dedicated activists, Maria shelved the resilience circle and created a new group called Community Climate Courage, whose stated goal is to “create climate change-focused public forums that develop a capacity for collective action.” The idea is similar to that of the resilience circle, but on a bigger scale: to harness the power of human connection and genuine dialogue in a public forum where people can feel energized and inspired. In this setting, participants can engage in climate change discussions and learn to take meaningful, collective action from representatives of local climate groups.

Maria held planning sessions in which volunteers designed a process for organizing climate change discussions in large group settings. The discussions would follow the screening of a film about climate change. Employing tools like MindMeister and Google Hangouts, the group documented every logistical detail required to carry out these forums. In addition, Maria hired documentary film crew and Hip Hop artists 2MX2 to record the planning process as well as the events.

The planning culminated in two events held at the Alliance Center in downtown Denver on October 4th and November 8th. Each event was preceded by a planning session the following week where attendees learned to become “Conversation Hosts” – group leaders who facilitate discussions at the actual event. The events were promoted by Maria and her group of high-profile volunteers who tapped into their extensive connections to climate change, fractivist, renewable energy, and faith-based networks.

The first event started with Maria welcoming attendees, describing Community Climate Courage, and introducing representatives of local activist groups – Ryan Denham and Gina Hardin of 350 Colorado and Franky Navarette of Fossil-Free CU, a student divestment group from CU Boulder. Each of these groups spoke about the work they did for their respective organizations. Attendees were then shown the film The Wisdom to Survive, which featured climate activists from across the globe.

The event attracted 110 people who broke out into smaller discussion groups following the film. The breakout groups, which Maria coined “birds of a feather,” were organized by interest in a particular topic, such as faith-based communities, permaculture, art, direct action, political organization, etc. The discussion format involved a progressive discussion that started with one minute of silent contemplation on a particular question, two minutes discussing their thoughts with a neighbor, and six minutes sharing their ideas with the breakout group. This process was repeated with a different question and a new partner. During the active discussion period, the room buzzed with the excitement of many fervent discussions as a camera crew filmed the interactions. Most participants left the event with a newfound feeling of purpose and the contact information of their breakout group.

The second event featured Naomi Klein’s new film – This Changes Everything, which attracted a sold-out audience of 160 people. Attendees were also introduced to Robert Chanate of IP3 (Indigenous People’s Power Project), Lauren Petrie of Food and Water Watch, and Betsey House of the Denver branch of the Citizen’s Climate Lobby.   The discussion format modeled the first event, although the larger audience of the second meeting generated even more buzz and excitement than the first.

The first two events were an unqualified success, proving the ability to attract large audiences and stimulate personal interaction, and have already funneled new volunteers into local activist groups. Together, audiences of both events chipped in enough money through donations and optional entrance fees to fund four more of these events. For more information about Maria Talero and Community Climate Courage, visit the website Climate Courage, or contact Maria via email, marialtalero@gmail.com.