Work with us
We welcome meeting practitioners who share our values and ways of working. If you are a facilitator or counsellor who is curious about working with Sunflower here are a few things that we think are important to know about working with us:
Governance
We practice sociocracy, a peer governance system based on consent.
We love working in circles with trusted peers as opposed to a hierarchy. We form proposals, listen to differing opinions, and learn from them.
When there is no objection, we are ready to try what is being proposed together.
It may seem like a subtle distinction from seeking consensus or agreement from all, but we find this practice makes a powerful difference in our work together.
Our diversity, equity and inclusion goals
One of the ways Sunflower is showing commitment to work towards DEI is by signing onto the 50 – 30 Challenge, an initiative co-created by the Government of Canada and others to diversify leadership in organizations. As a co-operative with a shared leadership model we are committed to:
Gender parity (50% women and/or non-binary people) in our membership
Significant representation (30%) of our membership will be of other equity-deserving groups; welcoming those who identify as Indigenous, Racialized, Black, and/or People of colour, People with disabilities (including invisible and episodic disabilities), 2SLGBTQ+ and/or gender and sexually diverse individuals.
Community of Practice
A community of practice (CoP) is “a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic, and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals.” (Source: communityofpractice.ca)
Community of practice is at the core of how Sunflower works. Currently we gather as a community of practice every six weeks.
This gives the opportunity for current members, and those on the path to membership, to inquire into the intersections of counselling and facilitation and what it means to work cooperatively.
We have experienced how taking this kind of time positively transforms the work we do in the world, and are passionate about growing our practice in these ways.
The questions we want to keep alive, reflect on and discuss with each other as part of our community of practice include:
Domain
What do counselling and facilitation have in common?
What can these practices learn from each other?
How do we put into practice what it means to be anti-oppressive, holistic and community-based?
What does it look like to weave co-operative principles and values into how we work together?
Community
How might showing up regularly with each other with vulnerability, growing intimacy and ever shifting boundaries influence our practice?
What are our emerging connections with other practitioners and organizations and how do we work in ways that are mutually supportive?
How do we express our responsibilities to our local communities?
Practice
What practices are core to both counseling and facilitation?
How are we integrating practices that heal trauma for ourselves and all who we work with?
How are we nurturing our understandings of what it means to gather with presence, to emphasize embodiment, to focus on alignment of mind, heart, body and spirit?
How do our learning on the land and our active commitments to movements for climate justice, organic farming / gardening, permaculture and food sovereignty inform our work?
Interested in working with us?
We look forward to meeting other counsellors and facilitators whose values align with our own. If you are interested in learning more about our workers’ co-operative please get in touch!