Wow, our Feb 19 to 21, 2016 event is full! Cowichan Lake Education Centre, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada will be brimming over with a wonderfully diverse group of new and experienced Inclusive Leaders.  Our shared goals are to develop awareness, skills and action plans for tending and befriending people and our planet  – starting with ourselves and our communities. What attracts people to a weekend of experiential education in facilitating and mentoring Inclusive Leadership?

The 55 people who have registered come from many different backgrounds:

• diverse generations:  8 decades will be represented
• diverse cultures: we come from many different ancestries, birthplaces, languages, life-styles, interests, experiences, economic circumstances, and other identities
• we have diverse concerns such as racism, ableism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination; toxic waste dumps and other ways the environment is being damaged; bullying; loneliness; refugees, and concerns for others caught up in violent conflicts in many parts of our global village.
• we have diverse ways of serving our communities: students, activists, support workers, educators and other professionals, volunteers, artists, athletes, farmers, families, friends and many more ways of sharing leadership.

Since people from diverse backgrounds do not gather together automatically, we know that each person who has registered has made a thoughtful decision to invest their time in developing their own Inclusive Leadership skills and their skills for facilitating and mentoring Inclusive Leadership with others. Here are a few of the reasons we have heard in the process of supporting people to register:

“Racism and discrimination has happened to me before and I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I think it’s important for everyone to feel equal and safe being who they are.”

“I am working on developing skills for trauma-informed conflict resolution/transformation. I I travel a lot and find myself in a lot of diverse communities. I find myself in many situations where a depth of understanding about inclusive leadership would be helpful to my communities.”

“I am a young adult interested in making a difference in the realms of addiction, mental health, nature therapy, and youth mentorship.”

“My initial interest in the Inclusive Leadership workshop was to support local groups such as Pride Day, our Men’s Support Society and environmental groups…Then, a friend recently introduced me to the term intersectionality, the idea that oppressive institutions (eg. racism, sexism, homophobia) are interconnected and addressing each in isolation has its limits.”

“I’m hard-wired to be inclusive. I believe that gatherings such as Inclusive Leadership, as well as other intentionally inclusive spaces, are medicine for our society.”

“I hope that Inclusive Leadership will give one or more of the youth I am bringing with me the head start it gave me back in 2005 when I was a youth. I want another person to discover the value and gifts they hold within themselves. I really believe being involved with Inclusive Leadership makes a difference. Developing youth so that they understand that they matter, and have gifts and can lead others to this teaching is a real worthwhile investment; and what I know to be the outcome of this training.”