RISE – Cultivating Resilient Youth: Lessons from the Natural World

RATIONALE

Reconnecting with nature is fundamental to human and planetary well-being and to the future of the global ecosystem. In the last 2000 years, many people have been increasingly alienated from their natural environment. Humans have forgotten the language of Intuition, Mystery and the wild world and replaced it with the language of science and technology. Fewer and fewer people turn to the wisdom of Dreams, Natural cycles, the Cosmos and the Forest, and we fear them more and more. Nature which created us has become for humans a warehouse for goods and things

By offering an eight day intensive immersion program, we are creating a space for connecting with the wisdom of Nature, the forgotten ways of intuition, vision, dreams and the deep human connection with nature.

OBJECTIVES

To provide innovative ways and methods to provoke deep nature connection and eco-awakening, and take steps towards personal transformation in a more wholesome and connected way. It will also aim at empowering the participants to offer these methods to the various groups and individuals they work with and become agents of visionary change within their communities.

• To develop participant’s knowledge in nature-based human development by learning and practicing the principles and models of eco-centric development;
• To develop new skills, competences and ideas in facilitating the development of deep nature connection;
• To provide an opportunity to experience a space of safety, intimacy, and profound connection in which personal exploration is encouraged and supported by community;
• To engage and guide participants through innovative processes of personal transformation;
• To inspire in the participants a shift in values and worldviews that will foster a deep nature connection, empathy to all creatures and a sense of oneness with the natural world;
• To support participant’s connection to their sense of responsibility for the environment and Earth’s future.

VENUE

The training will take place at Ekokomunita Sekier in Zajezova, situated at 800 meter in the hills of central Slovakia. The Sekier farmstead has a multiple-decade long history of education in traditional crafts and alternative ways of community-living. Central to the life on the farm is a holistic approach to sustainability, combining self-reliance with involvement and exchange in the surrounding eco-village. The project is known to be open to international visitors through different programs. It invites long-term volunteers to be proactive and develop themselves by living a very simple lifestyle guided by the natural rhythms of the countryside.

The place is RURAL AND REMOTE. So you need to be ready to live close to nature, in a small community far from the city civilization! You would enjoy the place if you are a person who likes the outdoors and country life.