Leadership Retreat

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14 to 21 June 2025

a deeper reflection space to empower transformative social movements

This retreat aims to support organisers and activists holding ā€˜leadership’ positions within their groups and movements to grow leaderful skills and resilience.

The retreat is designed to create space for reflection, experience exchange and collective exploration of challenges that come with stepping into leadership roles within social movements, and to facilitate relationship building and peer-to-peer support.

How do we relate to leadership in social movements? What views and preconceptions do we have about leadership? How do these influence the way we enter and hold positions of responsibility and influence? How can we hold positions of responsibility and influence and still be aligned with the deeper values we want to see in the world?Ā  What qualities, behaviours and practices can support us in navigating power and rank in our groups? How can we empower ourselves and each other to use power and rank skillfully rather than shy away from exerting influence for the good of the whole? How does socialisation and systemic conditioning influence the way we relate to and hold positions of power? What can we do about it? How do we remain joyful, resilient and energised by the bigger purpose when under pressure of responsibility?

The Leadership Retreat will aim to open up these and other questions related to leadership, navigating power and influence. We will create a space for inquiry, exploration of challenges and sharing of practices. We will aim to break the cycle of action by opening space for reflection, pause and creating conditions for a deeper understanding of our own behaviours and patterns and those of our groups and movements.

 

What are the aims of the course?

  • To create a space for reflection on challenges of holding leadership positions in social movements.
  • To explore and exchange tools and approaches which support more skilful inter-personal work in our groups and networks, and enable ways of organising which exemplify the values we want to realise in the world.
  • To create a vibrant and supportive temporary community of experienced activists and organisers, as a space for deep reflection, analysis, and the sharing of experience of the personal and inter-personal dimensions of our work – finding nourishment and inspiration from each other and the landscape around.

So, the workshop will help participants to:

  • Learn ways to grow as individuals, develop talents and creativity, deepen self-awareness and learn to bring deep inner resources to support our struggles.
  • Identify and draw on the sources of nourishment and inspiration that support our engagement and help us realise our potential as organisers and empowered agents of social change.

Who is it aimed at?

Anyone involved in socially engaged action on environmental, political and social justice issues who holds leadership positions. We embrace a broad definition of activism, including: Resistance – action preventing further damage to ecosystems and social justice; Renewal – action focused on developing and creating alternatives for healthier societies and communities; and Building Resilience – action supporting increased resilience in communities to weather the uncertain times ahead.

The main spoken language on the course will be English.

Compartir
Suggested Contribution
€400/€750/€1100

(See details of our approach to radical economics here)

Contact us

to apply

Equip

Equip

Sergio

Germany

Location:

Germany

Sergio (all pronouns) was born in Romania and migrated to Germany in the early 2010s. In the past, he was a social worker with homeless people and a social consultant for Eastern European migrants for various organisations. Trained as a filmmaker, he spent two years making a documentary about the ā€˜civic reawakening’ in Romania and the waves of protest it brought with it. In connection to this, Sergio is currently co-steering the development of an online open-source participative knowledge production platform on activism in Romania. Over the past nine years, Sergiu has offered his skills to various journalists, grassroots collectives and campaigns, mostly working within the labour rights, climate justice, international solidarity and anti-authoritarian movements in Germany and Romania. Nonetheless, his biggest focus since 2020 has been his work as an organiser with the anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers Union, where he focuses mostly on organising Romanian migrant workers on construction sites, in factories and in the agricultural field.

Linzy Na Nakorn

Location:

Jeroen

Location:

Ella

Location:

Alex Swain

Location:

Nina Scott

Location:

Pròxims Cursos

El nostre Nom

Ulex: del LlatĆ­, (argelaga en catalĆ ) nom:

1. Arbust espinós de fulla perenne i floració, amb gran capacitat de regeneració i resistĆØncia. Les seves pues s’obren en entrar en contacte amb el foc i torna a brollar dels tocones carbonitzats. Planta successional que creix bĆ© en condicions difĆ­cils. Millora la fertilitat del sòl mitjanƧant la fixació de nitrogen, preparant el terreny per a una renovada biodiversitat.

2. Una opció tradicional per a encendre focs. Crema amb intensitat i lluentor.

3. Un projecte en xarxa que aporta nutrició i fertilitat als moviments socials europeus a través de la formació