Women’s Leadership and Building Resilient Communities: A Personal and Practical Seminar an

Before the first Earth Day in 1970, women worldwide worked to protect their communities and the regions where they live. Their love and care to protect water, forest, farms and air is a shared and honored history. Come partake in the legacy of women-led earth movements and your next step in the journey.

This gathering will focus on personal leadership skills for women in a turbulent world; the challenges and successes of women’s experiences as change-makers, giving real tools and exercises to create positive momentum. We will explore what it means for women to lift up their voices for their own empowerment and for the sake of the Earth, our children and future generations.

The seminar will help women unlock new ways to contribute to their home circle, organizations and communities and is designed for women who are 1) already leading and want to deepen their skills and collaborate with others or 2) those who are just finding their way into leadership.

As a learning and teaching model, we will utilize the Ecocity Framework, a current project of Ecocity Builders along with a group of international advisors, to help women better understand how cities typically work, how they are part of larger systems and where the usual networks of power and influence lie in relation to the features that drive cities and make them more healthy or less, including the city's relationship with natural systems. We will use the Framework as a tool to explore where people see their point of influence or potential point of influence. As part of the inquiry, we will explore some of the many pathways to engagement through the Ecocity-Ecocitizen values types. The take-away will be setting both a personal and public/community engagement goals statement based on what each person is passionate about doing, alone or with others. In this way, everyone is validated for their part and can see how we are all working together for the same goal - a better future with thriving communities.

We will also visit the Black Dot Artists West Oakland community to learn about their ongoing projects that include developing an urban farm, a cafe/cultural center, a performance venue, neighborhood museum and more. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience community resilience with a number of projects that are about local economic revitalization, local jobs, local food and cultural ecology.
Suggested Reading:
Eco-Cities, Richard Register

Instructors:

Kirstin Miller is the Executive Director of Ecocity Builders. She is a frequent speaker locally, nationally and internationally on the Ecocity topic. She works closely with Ecocity Builders’ President Richard Register in the development of the organization’s “toolbox” of strategies, such as car free by contract housing, environmental restoration transfer of development rights, ecological demonstration projects and ecological zoning overlay mapping. She is the also the Lead Facilitator of the International Ecocity Framework and Standards, an international guide to help cities and citizens analyze and evaluate their city in an integrated framework that supports systemic thinking and solutions. Her articles and essays on ecocities, urban ecology and the environment have appeared in a number of publications, including Orion Afield, Ecotecture and Wilderness and Human Communities, The Spirit of the 21st Century.

Osprey Orielle Lake is a lifelong advocate of environmental justice and societal transformation. She is the Director of the Women’s Earth and Climate Caucus, on the Board of Praxis Peace Institute and an advisor to the International Ecocities Framework and Standards initiative. Osprey has traveled to five continents studying ancient and modern cultures while making presentations at international conferences and universities. She is the Founder/Artist of the International Cheemah Monument Project, creating 18 foot bronze sculpture monuments for locations around the world, where people can ponder a better future for the earth and humanity. Osprey’s unique perspectives as a renowned international sculptor and public speaker on environmental issues have been featured on both national and European television. Her book, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature is a 2011 Nautilus Book Award winner (White Cloud Press).

Seminar/training fee: $145.00