Building Bridges of Asheville: Spring 2025 Registration (9 Weeks)

PLEASE READ:

Spring 2025 In-Person or Virtual Session

Dates: Mondays, March 10 - May 5 from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM. (*Note: Make-up date is May 12 in the event that a previous evening is canceled due to inclement weather or for any other reason. Please reserve May 12 on your calendar.)

Location: This Session will take place in-person in Asheville - the address will be announced as soon as possible. Free parking is available on-site.

This session we will have limited virtual spaces available. The virtual participants will watch a recording of the live events with facilitators who will also guide the small group discussions. At this time, the virtual option is meant to make Building Bridges available to folks that have accessibility needs that prohibit in-person attendance (e.g. limited mobility, transportation challenges, health concerns). If you would like to attend Building Bridges and could only do so via a virtual option, please reach out to [email protected] to request a virtual space. Please note that virtual participants start and end a week later than the in-person participants (March 17 - May 12).

Each nine-week Building Bridges session offers education and dialogue about the dynamics of racism and is an opportunity to explore how race has impacted our relationships, communities, and institutions, particularly in Asheville. It is also an opportunity to foster antiracism in ourselves and in our community.

Our program will consist of large group learning (panels, discussions, videos) and facilitated small groups. A person must be registered to participate.

Registration Pricing: The cost to register for our in-person or virtual nine-week session (22.5 hours) is based on the dates below. A participant workbook PDF will accompany the program; it will be emailed to participants just before opening night.

• Early Bird Registration: February 1-February 9: $99
• Early Bird Phase 2 Registration: February 10 - February 19: $110
• General Registration: February 20-March 10: $135

We know this is transformative work. If you value what we do and can afford to pay more than the basic registration price, we hope you'll consider making a donation on our website at bbavl.org, or sponsoring an Access Scholarship (see below). Together, we can increase equity in Asheville and the greater Western North Carolina region.

Each participant must register separately in advance: We ask for some information about you to help ensure that each small group has a broad range of lived experience.

Session Workbook: Our participant workbook is 150+ pages. An email with our digital PDF workbook will be provided just before opening night. If you are not comfortable reading a PDF on your device, you may save the pdf and have it printed locally (at a place like Staples or FedEx, cost is approximately $25). If digital reading is a barrier for you and you are unable to print the manual, please contact [email protected].

Access Scholarships: We want Building Bridges sessions to be accessible to all community members. If your health and well-being are negatively impacted by societal structures, you are eligible for an Access Scholarship with Building Bridges. Our goal is that no one who experiences negative impacts as results of Structural Determinants of Health (see definition below) will be turned away from participation in our program.

“The structural determinants of health are 1) the written and unwritten rules that create, maintain, or eliminate durable and hierarchical patterns of advantage among socially constructed groups in the conditions that affect health, and 2) the manifestation of power relations in that people and groups with more power based on current social structures work—implicitly and explicitly—to maintain their advantage by reinforcing or modifying these rules.” (Heller, et al., 2024).

If you would like to be considered for an Access Scholarship, please contact [email protected].

If you would like to sponsor an Access Scholarship, please click here (bbavl.org/donate) and add the note "Access Scholarship" to your donation.

COVID Precautions: Masking will be optional but we will make masks available free of charge to anyone who feels more comfortable wearing a mask. Per CDC guidelines, we ask that you stay home if you have tested positive for COVID within a week of our meeting, or if you are experiencing symptoms.

Reference:

Heller, J. C., Givens, M. L., Johnson, S. P., and Kindig, D. A. (2024). Keeping It political and powerful: Defining the Structural Determinants of Health. (2), 351-366.

If you are unable to attend the session before it begins, you are eligible for a refund. To request a refund, you can submit your request through Eventbrite.

Host or Publisher Building Bridges of Asheville