Center for Transformative Change is the first national center entirely dedicated to bridging the inner and outer lives of social change agents, activists and allies to support a more effective, sustainable social justice movement. We do this by offering inner awareness practices and programs to enable folks to ground their work for change in the world in inner transformation.
Center for Transformative Change began as a project born out of the insight and vision of its founder: spiritual teacher, author, and activist, Rev. angel Kyodo Williams.
The dynamic cadre of dedicated individuals who turn the gears that activated what is now known as the Center for Tranformative Change) were first brought together in February 2003 in New York City as the New Dharma Meditation Circle by author/activist Rev. angel Kyodo Williams. There she held weekly gatherings that offered basic instruction in meditation and helped connect that practice to the daily lives of a diverse group of people. The success of the New York Circle became the inspiration for offering that potential on a larger scale.
After co-teaching back-to-back African-American and People of Color meditation retreats at northern California’s renowned Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Rev. angel Kyodo williams was compelled to move to the San Francisco Bay Area in December 2003 to open a center of operations. She saw the Bay Area’s long standing twin cultures of social change work and mind-body awareness practices as a unique opportunity to bring these two commonly discrete areas together.
Over the next year, the Bay Area based New Dharma Circle quickly grew into the New Dharma Meditation Center for Urban Peace. From the time of its inception, the Center was designed with an abiding attention to the needs and sensibilities off people of color. It was clear that people of color, though not well represented in existing practice centers, were out there seeking to engage in mind-body awareness practices that explicitly and inextricably linked these practices to their immediate concerns and commitments to heal their communities and transform the society in which they live.
The Center was firmly established and recognized in the community as a resource for deepening into contemplative mind/body practices and cultivating vital tools for sustained commitments to truly “be the change we want to see in the world” But after some years NDMC shut its doors because they began to realize that their approach wasn’t the best vehicle to support larger change in the world. As a result, members of the organizations came together to to regroup and revision.
From that experience, NDMC became the Center for Transformative Change (CXC). CXC is the first national center entirely dedicated to bridging the inner and outer lives of social change agents, activists and allies to support a more effective, sustainable social justice movement.
“If we want to bear witness to the sea change towards lasting, sustainable, social transformation, we cannot afford to consider doing inner work to be a choice for those that do social work. We must make them synonymous. It is the inner life of the individual that expresses itself through community, and communities give rise to society.”
— angel Kyodo williams, Founder