Why do I need you?
Why do you need me?
Who and what are we working for?
What are the unintended consequences of our work?
How can our work build whole communities?
Whole Thinking Retreats are six-day forums that help leaders of the environmental and social justice fields grapple with these questions together. Through fellowship awards, we bring together leaders whose work relates to land and people to find common ground, common purpose and common courage in tackling the major issues of our day.
Retreats are attended by leaders of urban and rural land trusts, environmental justice advocates, community development practitioners, food security advocates, farmers, ranchers, faith-based activists, wilderness and farmland conservationists, business people, biologists, writers, educators, elected officials, and others. We bring them together to ask questions of themselves and each other and through that process to help them see their work and potential in a new light.
“A truly transformational experience.” -- 2007 retreat participant
The Whole Thinking Retreats aim to strengthen the environmental and social justice movements in this country by:
- Helping individuals from specialized groups to re-think their work together, in terms of whole systems and in terms of addressing root causes as opposed to symptoms
- Initiating values-based inquiries that will help the movement to better understand and communicate the values that hold it together and, later, will inform better strategies and tactics
- Helping all people within the movement to engage in a safe and productive dialogue about the roles of race, class and privilege in their work
- Introducing new definitions and measures of success that foster greater collaboration, link social and environmental objectives, and offer the movement a clearer vision of what a whole community is and how to get there, and
- Rejuvenating people’s strength and wisdom through nurturing, reflective and creative practices that open the door for more authentic relationships, deeper dialogue and new ways of leading.
“The retreat was flawless. I have never come close to saying the word “flawless” about any other training I’ve been to.” -- 2007 retreat participant
Bringing Together Diverse Perspectives
“The geographical, professional, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity [of my retreat] really helped me see the blind spots and margins of my work . . . where I can grow and meet others.” -- 2006 retreat participant
The staff and board of Whole Communities work hard to create a safe space where people with very different perspectives and views can have honest and sustained dialogue with one another. We believe that great change begins between people, within communities, and across a nation when, as one participant said, “I tell you who I am and you tell me who you are.”
The retreats allow diverse people to come together and hear one another’s stories while working through the tensions that are created by divides. We endeavor to ensure that each retreat’s teachers and participants reflect the true diversity of those working in careers connected to land and community in America, whether that diversity be cultural, racial, professional or otherwise.
We recognize that our capacity to help people practice “whole thinking” depends entirely on the trust that we build and the diversity of people who come to our retreats. More than one-third of our retreat fellowships go to people of color, and we work hard to ensure that participants in each retreat feel as though they have a cohort present with whom they can identify professionally, culturally, or in terms of background. Individual participants are never expected to “represent” a group, whether that group be the organization they work for, the ethnic group with which they identify, a religion, or a sector.
While attention is paid to the challenges created by divides during the retreats, we focus equally on the bonds and necessities that hold us together. We aspire to help build a shared vision for an emerging future that depends on us. What is emerging from this work is a new leadership for the land community that acts with more wisdom, more collaboration, and more commitment to creating change.
As an organization committed to addressing issues of race, power and privilege in our work and to the process of dismantling oppression, we continually strive to ask better questions of ourselves and our participants, not to assume we have answers.