Workshops held on stolen land at Jura Books every second Saturday from 5pm - 6pm. These workshops are accessible from the street but bathrooms are located up a set of stairs.
11/01/2025 | Deescalation Training
An open discussion on tools and strategies to defuse and redirect aggressive behaviour without resorting to aggression in kind. Common social situations will be considered with a focus on developing skills in building empathy and assertiveness.
25/01/2025 | Overcoming Addiction
One of the most challenging aspects of modern life is the ubiquity of stimuli designed to hijack our attention and reward systems. Everywhere we turn, there are advertisements, notifications, curated content, and now sophisticated algorithms designed to keep us hooked. Addiction is no longer the exception but the norm - a cultural condition perpetuated by those that profit from our inability to resist. Faced with this reality, people often look for solutions in irrational or superstitious belief systems to regain a sense of control and agency. While such belief systems can offer a sense of community and solidarity with like-minded individuals, this feeling of belonging can itself become addictive, as one comes to crave the emotional intensities of connection and shared purpose. True recovery involves not only breaking free from addiction but also cultivating a life that doesn't rely on any single crutch - be it substances, behaviors, or even group membership. This workshop will offer simple strategies to achieve this, giving you the breathing room to renegotiate the terms under which you participate in social life.
Workshops listed below may change without notice. If you are keen on running a workshop, we may be able to rearrange some dates below to make room for your workshop when it suits you.
Always check back here for the most up-to-date schedule. Where possible, past talks will be recorded and shared here too. If there are workshops you would like to see, or skills you would like to learn, let me know.
Contact me if you're interested in running a workshop. The guidelines are as follows:
There is a strict 30 min time limit on monologues. These are not intended to be lectures. Group discussions, activities, and questions are not included in this time limit.
You must teach something actionable that attempts to empower the learners. In other words, open-ended theory, book clubs, and philosophical discussions that don't provide some realistic suggestions on what the audience can do in their own lives, is better saved for another group. However at Sydney Skill Sharing there's no rejection or preference towards "soft skills" or "hard skills" (whatever that means).
Where possible, give learners the opportunity for direct practice. This may not always be feasible, but is preferable.
You do not have to be an expert. School teaches us that only select people with select certificates can teach select subjects. At Sydney Skill Sharing, we encourage beginners to help beginners, and we reject the idea of experts. Be skeptical and scrutinise all information regardless of your teacher's or peers' skill level.
If you run at least one workshop, you become eligible to join the Sydney Skill Sharing organising group. Being a member involves reaching out to the wider public and connecting those who want to learn things with those who want to teach those things. Other possible roles include logistics (recording, social media, etc.) and facilitation.
Schools actively discourage critique of the status quo. Universities do encourage it, but largely only to those who were willing to humiliate themselves entirely to the school prison. Much leftist organising involves amending this lack of social and economic critique. This is great, however we must also realise that schools, broadly, do a piss-poor job at giving students opportunities to practice what they learn. Sydney Skill Sharing aims at being a space for people at any stage of life to participate in learning, recognising that direct practice reduces the alienation usually felt between the process of learning and the outcome of one's learning. This is not to remove emphasis on the importance of developing sound theory and critical thinking, but to encourage ways of locating these theoretical tools within everyday skills.
28/12/2024 | Practical Pain Management (recording here)
Covering principles of pain science, practical tips to self-manage flare-ups, common myths and more. If there are topics or questions you would like Daniel to cover, email him at daniel@tkex.org.
14/12/2024 | Tomato sauce from scratch ...and other open sauce recipes (recipes here)
With the increasing cost of living, preparing home cooked meals can sometimes feel too exhausting. In this workshop, I'll be teaching you how to make tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce, teriyaki sauce, italain dressing, mustard, and maybe chutney! Every one of these low-cost vegan recipes can be made without a blender and scaled up easily to provide excitement for many future dinners. Keep these on hand for lazy nights and lower your dependence on ready-made meals!
30/11/2024 | Divest from Fast Fashion: Clothing Repair Skills Workshop (also on Facebook)
This workshop teaches practical skills in the craft of repairing clothes. Bring along 1-3 broken/worn garments and let's go through a demonstration of what it takes to get the clothes back to working condition. All participants will learn how to do basic hand stitching, and how to sew on a button. If you have a favourite piece of fabric and a button or multiple buttons, please bring it along to use in the workshop. Needles, thread, fabric, scissors and buttons will also be available for use on the day.
16/11/2024 | Installing Debian Linux: A hands-on walkthrough
Is your old laptop slow? Do you feel like a slave to your computer? Are you scared of "messing" with software? In this workshop, we will be installing Debian Linux on an old laptop while discussing how Free Open Source Software can help answer those questions. If you have wondered what Linux is, come along! If you've ever wanted to install Linux, but been afraid it would take too much time, bring your old laptop along and we can help you at the end of the workshop! Don't work for your computer, make it work for you.
02/11/2024 | Empathetic listening for community care
Drawn from contemporary counselling theory and practices, empathic listening skills is a structured framework for active listening when a person needs to be and feel heard. Useful for community care and healing in the wake of stressful events.
19/10/2024 | Radical Self Care: Be more selfish
Competitive lifestyles teach you to feel good when you are doing better than those around you. This is measured by how much money you have, how much stuff you can accrue, or what symbols or statuses you have collected. Religious foundations in our society teach us to feel sinful when we place ourselves above others. Whether you believe in God or not, these religious sentiments appear as unquestioned truths within many socialist/leftist spaces. This talk aims at getting people out of this false-binary choice of either being selfless or selfish, and encourages the nourishment of your ego through discussions and written activities.
Page last edited on 4 Jan 2025.