When: 1pm August 28th - 2pm August 30th
Availability: 10-12 spaces available
Location: Epona Rise Retreat Centre, 3968 Heffley Louis Creek Road, Heffley Creek, British Columbia
Accommodations: All meals provided for all dietary needs. There are 12 beds in 7 cabins: 4 rooms with 1 queen size bed, 3 rooms with 2 double beds and linens and pillows are provided. Each cabin is equipped with an ensuite bathroom with a shower, bath, and towels available. Free wifi is available. Cell reception is limited and the lodge has a landline.
Applications are now open with selection of applications starting June 21st. If selected, you will be asked to confirm attendance and pay to secure your spot.
Description:
Join us for a three day climate educators retreat at the beautiful Epona Rise Retreat Centre!
This retreat is for educators who are motivated to bring transformative climate justice education into the classroom; who seek to explore, embrace and embody life-affirming ways of teaching, leading and being.
The impacts of climate change on our emotional, physical and social wellbeing pose challenges to our ability to be well, do well and bring about what’s needed to regenerate the wellbeing of people, communities, ecology and climate through education. Climate distress and general anxieties related to growing crises have lowered our thresholds for emotional regulation and our personal and collective capacities to thrive. If we’re stressed and depleted, we can’t create what is needed; creative communities are resilient communities capable of thriving in uncertainty, challenging and changing circumstances.
As climate educators, we do not often take time to rest, connect and grow our personal capacities to be well. We are ever challenged to do more with fewer resources and never stop. Stress, burnout and uncertainty are on the rise, having been escalated by the Covid-19 pandemic. How might things shift if we slowed down in community to clarify what we want for our lives, students, schools and communities; connect with our passions, strengths and what we love; lean into the possibilities of who might become and what we must do to be the change we want to see in the world? What if we took time to connect with ourselves, each other and the natural world without all the pressure to do more?
Together we will:
- Collaborate and share our wisdom and experience; create space for gratitude, joy and fun.
- Learn how we can foster climate wellbeing and resilience in our students and ourselves.
- Explore how the wisdom of nature and living systems thinking can help us live, teach and be in a way that supports ecosystems to thrive and people to come alive.
- Co-create a vision to shift how we teach to create thriving, creative and resilient classrooms capable of meeting the needs presented by the climate crisis.
- Learn through experiential activities which foster a deeper connection to self, others and the natural world; leave with tools and practices to support our teaching, being and leading.
- Co-create a vision of what transformative climate education looks like.
- Explore our personal and collective challenges inhibiting our ability to thrive while teaching for social and planetary impact.
- Explore decolonized ways of teaching and being, prioritizing Indigenous rights and leadership.
Cost: We are offering this retreat at a subsidized cost on a sliding scale to increase accessibility. This retreat will cost $630 per person to run. We ask for a minimum contribution of $250 with sliding scale contributions. Those who are able to contribute more will contribute to a fund which will offer those unable to pay the minimum contribution a chance to attend at an extra subsidized rate. We encourage those with greater financial flexibility to slide up their scale!
Subsidized positions available: Please indicate in your application whether you would like to apply for a partially or fully subsidized position. Your application will not be made known to other participants.
After the retreat:
Participants will be invited to leave the retreat with a ‘buddy’ or group who would like to collaborate, practice and support one another to bring transformative teaching into their practice. We will stay connected for continuing group support, with the intention to reconnect for a virtual session in the months following the retreat!
Facilitators:
Dayna Margetts, C.A.R.E. Program Manager at BTCEA
Dayna is a mother, settler, activist, and educator. She has spent the past 19 years teaching middle and high school science in Kelowna, BC. Through her Masters studies in the field of Environmental Practice, she has come to see how important education is in working for a just and sustainable future for all beings. Her personal experiences as an educator have provided her with the opportunity to explore and experiment with transformative teaching practices. She is eager to help educators and the youth they work with thrive in the face of much instability and uncertainty through dialogue and critical reflection. Dayna finds joy in watching her daughter chase the family dog around the yard, and enjoys yoga, reading, and sipping on a hot oat milk latte.
Jake Hubley (He/Him): Regenerative Education Specialist at BTCEA
Jake is an integrative coach, meditation and mindfulness instructor and eco-connective facilitator serving our conscious transition to regenerative, emergent futures through education, leadership and being. With 10+ years experience in various changemaking capacities, Jake now serves agents of change to live meaningful, aligned and authentic lives, while creating extraordinary impact in the face of uncertainty. At Be the Change, Jake is passionately working to support our education system, teachers and students to live and learn in ways that support holistic, life-affirming educational experiences which increase our resilience and capacity to live a meaningful and fulfilling life, while creating the deep shifts needed to regenerate the wellbeing of living systems- people, communities, ecosystems, souls and climate.
