The Practical Guide to ASSEMBLIES is an attempt to consolidate our collective learning and reflections on the creation and facilitation of braver, collaborative and caring spaces for learning. This guide is a result of feedback and ongoing conversations with ASSEMBLIES participants and organizers, about the rewards and challenges of collaborative learning, as well as the fun (and less fun parts), of organizing and facilitating—in other words, what works, what didn’t, what might. In the spirit of this iterative and collaborative process, this guide is deliberately a google document. This way, it can easily be shared and modified as the program evolves and continues to be shaped by its participants.

We hope this guide demystifies the process of organizing collaborative learning groups, and that it helps you prevent a few of the mistakes we’ve made. Most of all, we hope that this inspires you, as much as the ASSEMBLIES have inspired us, to create more opportunities for yourself and others, to come together and experience the joys of caring co-learning.

The work produced at NAVEL, including this guide, is a labor of love sustained via member contributions, small donations, the occasional grant, and countless volunteer hours. Support our community with a donation or learn how to become a member here.