​​​Creative ideas, stories, practices and resources
​from social change leaders and practitioners from around the world

“Going barefoot is the gentlest way of walking and can symbolise a way of living - being authentic, vulnerable, sensitive to our surroundings. It’s the feeling of enjoying warm sand beneath our toes, or carefully making our way over sharp rocks in the darkness. It’s a way of living that has the lightest impact, removing the barrier between us and nature."  Adele Coombs, Barefoot Dreaming

A new Barefoot Guide

HEALING
CONGREGATIONS

Nurturing Love, Life and Hope
​in a Hurting World

written by
The Love, Life and Hope 
​Writers Collective

Download this Guide 

This is an invitation to a journey into love, life and hope.

We begin by acknowledging that for many, this journey begins in suffering. Suffering is an experience that we all share. Trauma inflicted through abuse of power, meanness, neglect, abandonment, or violent oppression is especially difficult for the human spirit to bear.

Yet, the stories of our scriptures and traditions strive to help us make sense of pain and persecution and connect us to the powerful threads of love, hope and renewal that flow out of our connection with God and with each other—the riotous roots that give us life.

​So, we set out to write a book, a Barefoot Guide, that would be a resource to help ourselves and faith communities to better see, share and connect to their own resourcefulness, their God-granted resilience and practices around theology, congregational and community life.

A wise friend, who happened to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, once said that “You don’t have to know where you are to be there. But if you want to go anywhere else, the very first thing you need is clarity about where you are.” 

This is not just the place you happen to be, but the path. For most of us, the next steps are just extensions of the path we were already walking. This book has taken its authors away from where we were and onto some new paths.
​
We thought we’d come together for a task—to write helpfully about other people’s congregations and mental health. Instead, we became our own congregation and found ourselves helping each other find our own stories. Our steps led us out of our normal path and into a deep, transparent relationship.
​
​The stories in this book are personal and particular. The stories emerged out of our dialogue over months. But they may be the kind of stories alive among the people you gather with already. Not everyone is ready at the same time, so you may consider inviting some part of your congregation that may hear your invitation to dialogue as good news. They may be surprised to learn that their presence might be part of the healing of another. In creating healing space for others, we find space for our own healing.​

Download this Guide 

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A new publication from the Barefoot Guide Agroecology Series

The Climate Emergency

How Africa can survive and thrive

By The AFSA Barefoot Guide Writer’s Collective
of the Agroecology and Climate Crisis Working Group

The climate emergency affects us all deeply, in so many ways. But for farmers, it has more drastic implications. It undermines all aspects of the food systems that they depend on. Extreme weather devastates their crops and livestock, and destabilises the very water cycle that they are intimately a part of.

Today, the majority of the solutions put forth and funded by governments and donors to address these problems are, in the long term, making things worse. Industrial agricultural methods, posing as “Climate Smart Agriculture”, encourage excessive use of chemical inputs on plants and in the soil, another example of the false solutions brought by the rich and powerful.

​But there is a different narrative at work in Africa. The stories in this AFSA Barefoot Guide show that African farmers, long seen as victims, are beginning to implement lasting, sustainable solutions to the climate crisis in Africa. Indeed, they are examples that could well be followed by all farmers.

Through agroecology practices, not only are farmers naturally adapting to the inevitable and growing harm of the climate crisis, but they can also make significant contributions to its mitigation. Read this Barefoot Guide to find out how.

This mini-Barefoot Guide has been produced by ​The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a broad-based alliance of different civil society actors that are part of the struggle for food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa.​

​Download this Guide

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​How are Barefoot Guides produced?

Barefoot Guides are produced by various communities of practice. The Barefoot Guide Connection team facilitates a series of "writeshops" of practitioners and leaders to design the Guide they wish to produce and then to surface and develop stories of change practice, with reflections and perspectives from these.

​These can be done online or face-to-face.

​We accompany editorial teams to further refine and develop the drafts into the final writings, to work with illustrators and then to bring the Guide to publication.

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Taking Agroecology to Scale
Learning from the experiences of
Natural Farming in India

A ground-breaking publi-cation on Community-managed Natural Farming (CNF) as practised by almost 1 million farmers in Andhra Pradesh state in India. The government there has committed to the transition of ALL six million farmers by 2030, mobilising all their resources and civil society behind it. It is one of the big, hopeful stories of our time and may show the way for so many more to follow.

This booklet comes from a learning exchange with the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) who are learning from CNF in their promotion of Agroecology across Africa.

The Barefoot Guide Connection facilitated the booklet's production and provided language editing.

         Go to the AFSA website to Download

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From the Barefoot Guide
​Agroecology Series

My Food is African

Healthy soil, safe foods and diverse diets

By the AFSA Natural Food Barefoot Guide
Writer’s Collective

We invite you on a journey through the farms, gardens, local markets and kitchens of Africa to learn about the unique, delicious and healthy foods and cultures that belong to this beautiful continent of ours.

Many of you may be feeling uncertain, even lost, about how to eat healthily. There are many theories and interests behind these theories, some genuine but many focused more on their profit than your health. We wrote this Guide with your health and well-being as our only purpose. We are not selling anything… this Barefoot Guide is free to download and offered with love and care for every person, every family and every community in Africa (and beyond).

Eating healthily is not that complicated. You don’t have to be a nutritionist to understand how to do so. New scientific research is simply telling us what many of our grandmothers, and their grandmothers, have always known.
​
Read this Guide to learn from the wisdom in their stories.

This mini-Barefoot Guide has been produced by ​The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), a broad-based alliance of different civil society actors that are part of the struggle for food sovereignty and agroecology in Africa.​

Download the English PDF
​
​Téléchargez le PDF en français​​​

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Barefoot Guide No. 9

Future Convergence

Cultivating Practices of Collaboration
for Social Change

By the Forus Barefoot Guide Writers’ Collective

Español - Français - ​English

We all know  that  collaboration is vital for transformative social change. But how do  we practice collaboration in these times? That is the question driving the publication "Future Convergence - Cultivating Practices of Collaboration for Social Change". It is a practical resource intended for individuals and organizations who want to improve their learning processes and social change practices. 

Written by thirty-one civil society leaders and practitioners from twenty countries from across the world, you can find practices and experiences that bring diverse people and organisations together towards a vision of a planet that is more equitable, inclusive, humane and sustainable.

A publication of Forus
Forus is a member-led network of 69 National NGO Platforms and 7 Regional Coalitions from all continents representing over 22,000 NGOs active locally and internationally on development, human rights and environmental issues.

Download:

​Español

Français

​English

Go to the FORUS BAREFOOT GUIDE Campaign page

Ir a la página de la campaña GUÍA DESCALZO DE FORUS

Accédez à la page de la campagne FORUS BAREFOOT GUIDE

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Barefoot Guides  currently being written​

Finding our way back to the heart of the earth
Stories from the practice of the Africa Biodiversity Network

​The African Biodiversity Network accompanies Africans in voicing their views on issues such as food and seed sovereignty, genetic engineering, agrofuels, biodiversity protection, extractive industries and the rights of small-holder farmers. We focus on indigenous knowledge, ecological agriculture and biodiversity related rights, policy and legislation. We pioneer culturally-centred approaches to social and ecological problems in Africa through sharing experiences, co-developing methodologies and creating a united African voice on the continent on these issues.

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Barefoot Guide Images are in the Creative Commons

​Free for you ​to Use

​All the images used in the Barefoot Guides are freely useable for non-profit work. 

Click here for images

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Access all the Guides

​Subscribe ​​to Updates

​Contact us

Through writeshops (writing workshops) and support, we can help your team, organisation or community of practice to write your own stories and  publications about social change initiatives, including new Barefoot Guides.

For more details​

Click here or
​write to us here 

Download
all ​the Guides

​العربية    Kiswahili      Español
Bahasa      English     Français
​漢語      Português       Việt

​Barefoot Guide 1
Working with ​Organisations ​​and Social ​Change
​
Download English PDF​

Download all languages

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Barefoot Guide 2
Learning Practices in
Organisations &
​Social Change

Download English PDF​
​
​​Download all languages

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Companion to Barefoot Guide 2
Designing and  Facilitating Creative Conversations & Learning Activities

Download English pdf
​​Download French pdf

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Resources for Social Change
We also have a range of useful exercises, tools, games, stories and poems for you to download and adapt for workshops and meetings
​Go to the Resource Library

​Barefoot Guide 3
Mobilizing Health ​Assets for ​Transformation 
​
Download the PDF in English

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Barefoot Guide 4
Exploring the ​Real Work
​of Social ​Change

Download English pdf

Download all languages

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​Barefoot Guide 5
​Mission Inclusion:
​Building a World Where ​All Belong
​
Download English pdf

Download all languages

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​Barefoot Guide 6
Generative Leadership:
Releasing Life in a Turbulent World

Download English PDF

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Barefoot Guide​ 7
Surviving COVID-19: 
​The Neglected Remedy

Download the PDF in English
​
​Téléchargez le PDF en français​
​
​Descarga el PDF en español

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Barefoot Guide 8​
Whole Landscapes,
Whole Communities

Download the PDF in English
​

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Barefoot Guide 9​
​Future Convergence
Cultivating Practices of Collaboration
for Social Change

Descarga el PDF en español
​
​Download the PDF in English
​
​Téléchargez le PDF en français​

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Barefoot Guide 10​
My Food is African​
Healthy soil, safe foods and diverse diets

​Download the PDF in English
​
​Téléchargez le PDF en français​

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Barefoot Guide 11
The Climate Emergency:
How Africa can survive and thrive

​Download the PDF in English

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Barefoot Guide 12
Healing Congregations:
Nurturing Love, Life and Hope in a Hurting World

​Download the PDF in English

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About the Barefoot Guide Connection
​
​The Barefoot Guide Connection is a global community of practice from dozens of countries, on every continent, dedicated to promoting the writing and sharing of real stories, approaches, ideas and resources about effective social development and change practice.

​Through online or face-to-face storytelling and action learning based case study writing, we support on-the-ground practitioners to write their stories of practice, helping them to better see and value their experience and appreciate the insights and wisdom they can offer to others. 

Through writeshops (writing workshops) and support, we can help your team, organisation or community of practice to write your own stories and  publications about social change initiatives, including new Barefoot Guides.

Click here or Write to us here 
for more details​
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