Engaging Communities through Dialogue

A four-part series of training sessions in Community Facilitation and Convening

Community Engagement… What is it? How do we get it… or, if we already have it, how can we use it effectively to build the kind of community we want, both now and in the future?

About the Program

The CMCCF’s mission is to support, empower and amplify community voices through “excellence in engagement.” For the CMCCF,  “excellence in engagement” is based on the fundamental principle that in all cultural community engagements, everyone should be heard, respected and involved. Through facilitated engagement and dialogue, cultural communities have the opportunity to share their lived experience and work together to bring about change and strengthen community capacity and wellbeing.

To enable “excellence in engagement,” CMCCF is offering a series of facilitation workshops to provide both the framework and opportunity for skill development that effective facilitation requires.

The objectives of the program will enable participants to gain/demonstrate the following:

  • knowledge of concepts and framework for facilitation
  • communication skills in facilitating group conversations
  • their ability to determine objectives of their sessions and build appropriate agendas
  • their ability to select and use appropriate facilitation tools
  • their ability to use their skills and tools in a virtual or face to face setting
  • skills in managing group dynamics and conflict should it arise

These topics will be covered in a combination of face -to-face and virtual sessions, depending on the needs and preferences of the groups.

Our initial offering will begin with a half-day introductory session in mid-December and three, two-hour weekly sessions commencing in early January.

We look forward to your involvement!

Get in touch with us if you are wishing to enhance your facilitation skills in support of bringing about change in your community as well as having the opportunity to practice these skills in future CMCCF engagement events. 

Read our blog post to find out more about some of the participants in our first cohort in our program.

Our J.E.D.I. Initiative, the Intercultural and Intergenerational Diversity and Inclusion Engagement Project, is funded by:

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Purpose

The Purpose of These Peace-First: CollaborationNet Pages These pages exist to share what we have learned. Over the past year, Peace-First: CollaborationNet has operated as a time-limited demonstration initiative, which is a space to test ideas, host conversations, and discover what might grow when peace is placed at the center. Conversations took root in informal Peace-First Hubs across Winnipeg, Thompson, Brandon, and Portage la Prairie, with related gatherings in Vancouver and Toronto. Toronto now helps convene national roundtable conversations, linking local dialogue with a broader Canadian exchange. What began as small, local discussions has become more connected — not through expansion or centralization, but through coherence. Across regions, shared themes, tensions, and hopes are emerging. This webpage documents that journey. It gathers reflections, materials, and learning from Hub conversations so others can understand what has been explored and carry it forward. From the beginning, Peace-First was designed as a seed-planting initiative, formally concluding March 31, 2026. Its focus has been to explore how individuals and cultural communities understand inner peace, collective vision, community cohesion, and cultural dignity and visibility. The Hubs are volunteer-led spaces where community connectors and members gather to listen, reflect, and imagine what a peaceful geographic and cultural community might look like in practice. Along the way, we developed background papers, reflection documents, and practical toolkits shaped by lived experience in Manitoba and beyond. This page now serves as a living repository within the Peace-First Library, offering capacity-building tools, framing papers, hub guidance, and shared learning that communities can adapt to their own realities. The purpose is not to centralize authority, but to make learning accessible. Peace-First Hubs are community-led and partner-supported — grounded in relationship, not hierarchy. Supported by ACOMI, ECCM, Palaver Hut, MIA, cultural community members across the country, and allies such as MANSO, Mediation Services, CanU Canada, and PCHS, this work moves through partnership rather than control. This initiative has been made possible through the principal financial support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, with a supportive role played by The Winnipeg Foundation. Their investment has allowed these conversations, materials, and connections to take shape. These materials are not instructions to replicate. They are tools to adapt. This page is more than documentation. It is an invitation. Peace-First is not about imposing a uniform model. It is about strengthening conditions for dialogue, cohesion, and shared responsibility before a crisis. If this resonates, we invite you to explore further, join a national roundtable call, or consider what it would mean to host or support a conversation in your own community. Join a national roundtable call. Complete the survey. The seeds have been planted. What grows next depends on all of us.

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