7th Annual Nature Connection Leadership Conference
Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday
February 23–25, 2022
An online convening of nature connection school leaders, staff, and volunteers designed to support the healthy, regenerative growth of our work.
The time is now. Peoples across the globe are rising to regenerate communities and contribute to a world in which all beings thrive.
As practitioners in the field of (re)connecting humans to the natural world, we have a unique respons-ability to share our collective knowledge and land-based learning deep into the hearts and minds of our local communities. How can we help transform the many systems which intersect with our work: economic, educational, healthcare, and more?
To do this honorably, it will be necessary to continually reconcile our lineage, especially as it is entangled in systems of oppression and culturally appropriative roots. Indigenous peoples, lands and lifeways must remain centered in these conversations as we create greater integrity, unity and impact in our work.
Journey with us as we:
- Acknowledge and understand our individual and collective lineage;
- Honor Black, Indigenous and other historically marginalized leadership;
- Redefine and recommit to organizational excellence;
- Explore the vital role of our work at this time; and,
- Strengthen our network to amplify our collective impact as leaders in building resilient, regenerative, and just communities.
We invite you to Re-root and Rise.
Participate live during the conference or watch recordings at your leisure.
Schedule below may be subject to change. Stay tuned for more session details.
| EST | PST | Wednesday, February 23 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11am | 8am | Opening Circle | |||
| 11:45am | 8:45am | Networking | |||
| 12pm | 9am | ReWilding the Body, The Body in Community: Embodiment as a Path to Deepening Connection in Community & Deconstructing Somatic Oppression | |||
| 1pm | 10am | Post-Session Conversations | |||
| 1:30pm | 10:30am | Break | |||
| 2pm | 11am | Our Joyful Learning Community | The 8 Shields Model: Roots, Strengths, Weaknesses, To Use It Or Not To Use It At This Time | Free To Be You & Me: Unmasking the Hazards & Benefits of Gender |
|
| 3:30pm | 12:30pm | Networking | |||
| 4:30pm | 1:30pm | Mother Earth, Children, and Nature | Beyond Land “Acknowledgement” - Practical Steps to #Landback | ||
| 6pm | 3pm | Break | |||
| 7pm | 4pm | The Harm In Our Work | |||
| 8pm | 5pm | Post-Session Conversations | |||
| EST | PST | Thursday, February 24 | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11am | 8am | Self-Organized Sessions | |||
| 11:30am | 8:30am | Healing Through Ceremony: Indigenous Pathways through Beauty and Trauma | What Is Yours, What Is Mine, What Is Ours?: An Interactive Discussion on Nature Connection & Cultural Appropriation | Marketing for Nature Connectors | |
| 1pm | 10am | Break | |||
| 2pm | 11am | The Wisdom in Your Words | |||
| 3pm | 12pm | Post-Session Conversations | |||
| 3pm | 12pm | Networking | |||
| 3:30pm | 12:30pm | Self-Organizing Sessions | |||
| 4:30pm | 1:30pm | Honoring the Indigenous Roots of the Tracker School and Stalking Wolf | Howling and Healing Our Way Out of Hibernation | Therapeutic Executive Coaching & Holistic HR: Stay Heart-Led, Heart-Centered Without Losing Your Mind | |
| 6pm | 3pm | Break | |||
| 7pm | 4pm | Social Gathering: Music & Networking | |||
| EST | PST | Friday, February 25 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11am | 8am | Self-Organizing Sessions | ||
| 11:30am | 8:30am | Rites of Passage: How To Offer These In Our Programs | Just Transition: Situating Nature Connection in Systems Change | Just Budgets: Mutual Flourishing Without Trade-Offs |
| 1pm | 10am | Break | ||
| 2pm | 11am | Tending Relationships | ||
| 3pm | 12pm | Post-Session Conversations | ||
| 3:30pm | 12:30pm | Closing Ceremony | ||
Ticket holders will have access to conference recordings until March 15, 2022.
Extended access to recordings from select presentations will be available to ticket holders and the public after the conference on a sliding scale.
2022 Sessions
Join us for more than 20 presentations and conversations. Stay tuned for more details!
ReWilding the Body, The Body in Community: Embodiment as a Path to Deepening Connection in Community & Deconstructing Somatic Oppression
Learn more…
We live in bodies. We live in bodies within the body of relationship and in the body of community.
For many of us living in the modern world of the indoors, of separation, of disconnection, of commodification of our world and our own bodies; being in our bodies can be a lonely place.
Being in embodied community can be a fraught proposition. And this disconnection fuels our experiences of grief and our tendencies towards “othering” different bodies.
Full embodied engagement with our natural aliveness is a path towards “ReWilding” our bodily experience, of bringing ourselves back into connection with our bodies, our communities and our world.
Inviting in this somatic aliveness is a way of acknowledging the oppressions that impact our bodies and to begin the process of deconstructing those somatic oppressions.
I invite you to be in your body, in this wider body of community, in our diverse bodies of culture and distant geography as we engage in a brief ReWilding of our bodies together in community.
The Wisdom in Your Words
Learn more…
How does our language foster understanding, and how does it separate us and prevent us from learning and teaching?
How do our stories, word choices, and even sentence structures illuminate wisdom, and when do they make it more difficult to connect and grow, for ourselves and our organizations?
This presentation will explore these questions and offer tools and approaches to more effectively use our words to teach, connect, and heal.
Language weaves into every aspect of our lives, and in particular influences how we perceive and address conflict, difference, and change.
By conscientiously approaching how we use language, our words can become a powerful and subtle countergrowth measure to disconnection, disinterest, and distraction, we will find pathways to both share and hear wisdom with more healing, grace and ease.
If our words are seeds, what are they growing?
The Harm in Our Work
Learn more…
In this session David and Saskia Vanderhoop will address the ongoing harm in our nature connection mentoring work by spotlighting the following areas:
- Telling truth about US history and contemporary impacts on Indigenous lives;
- Living and working on stolen land;
- Cultural appropriation in our work including in rites of passages;
- LandBack and why it matters;
- White complexes and entanglements;
- The importance of transformation and activism.
Tending Relationships
Learn more…
We will discuss our journey to greater integrity through the work in building and maintaining relationships with vision aligned organizations, BIPOC communities, and BIPOC-led orgs and in particular Indigenous communities.
We will be centering our work around Land Acknowledgement as a starting point for the work of nature connection schools/organizations.
Our Joyful Learning Community
Learn more…
This session will share what culturally inclusive nature programs with families can look in like in our communities.
Examples of the family experiences that were offered to our Nashville community will be shared and how I built and continue to authentically build relationships with various organizations and individuals in our community.
I’ll also share how we included and encouraged families to lead sessions on certain topics.
Lastly, I’ll share our journey to how we started and why and where I want to go in terms of improvements and working toward social action in the work we do with families.
Marketing for Nature Connectors
Learn more…
Marketing can sometimes feel like a dirty word.
Join us for a facilitated discussion (with breakout rooms, if needed) to share your marketing successes, challenges, tips, and questions.
The discussion will be preceded by a short presentation about the ‘Hubs’ approach to marketing, and how it is used at The Guelph Outdoor School, in Ontario, Canada.
Honoring the Indigenous Roots of the Tracker School and Stalking Wolf
Learn more…
Honoring the teachings passed down through the Tracker School from Grandfather Stalking Wolf.
How do we honor and share these teachings with Youth and our communities?
We will share how we are evolving our organization’s mission to share with youth and give back to Indigenous Peoples.
Therapeutic Executive Coaching & Holistic HR
Stay Heart-Led, Heart-Centered Without Losing Your Mind
Learn more…
I will discuss how the role of the O.W.L. can help Executive Directors to remain heart-centered and heart-led while doing the meaningful and transformational work of re-rooting and raising the consciousness of our nature connection organizations.
Just
Budgets
Mutual Flourishing
without Trade-Offs
Learn more…
What do reparations and land back have to do with your struggling budget? Your ability to survive and thrive.
Move from an economics of fear to one of love. Incorporating principles of equity and anti-racism into your financial practices is the evolutionary step needed to expand your organizational capacity, reach, and relevance.
Through a hands-on approach, we will engage with the reality that all material flourishing is mutual. Long-term organizational strength and health depend on making principle-based budgetary changes through very practical steps stemming from shifts in thinking about resources and access.
Through a re-conception of your budget as a tool for change, you can transform your organizational economic outlook and the world.
Healing Through Ceremony: Indigenous Pathways through Beauty and Trauma
Learn more…
People from all walks of life may at some point choose a spiritual path for healing some form of trauma in their lives, be it historical or lived experience (the two are not mutually exclusive). Oftentimes people find their way to the spirit of healing through Indigenous ceremonies especially here on Turtle Island. We believe this to be a good thing as more and more these ceremonies are open indigenous and non-indigenous alike and these ceremonies can offer powerful opportunities for healing.
Without awareness or the presence of strong elders in their lives however, folks find that there are many unexpected challenges along this path that they are surprised to discover and then find themselves in the same circumstance from which they turned to these ceremonies in the first place or worse. Even with awareness and having the support of elders there are still bound to be moments of beauty as well as trauma (current and/or historical).
Without being grounded, humbled and compassionate an individual who choses this path may find that not only do they remain stuck in their patterns they also begin to cause harm to others especially those indigenous elders, visionaries, healers, medicine people as well as whole groups and cultures.
Some of the specific ways that this harm shows up are:
- Claiming “ownership” of ceremonies that are not of your cultural lineage
- Failing to understand the difference between ‘owning’ and ‘honoring’
- Ceremonial tourism: Dipping your toe in the proverbial pool of ceremony while not uplifting the elders and supporting the real work that exists not ‘In’ the ceremony but ‘in between’ ceremonies where the real integration lives
- Failing to connect to one’s own ancestral lineage and claiming some indigenous lineage due to proximity to an indigenous culture
In this discussion we hope to share stories of our lived experience about why we feel it is important for folks of ALL walks of life to get on the pathway to healing as well as how to be on this journey with integrity and start to integrate the teachings in your life in a Good Way! We also want to share how strongly we feel that it’s essential to find your way back to your own ancestors. Finally we want to share some ways that we and others have begun making this journey that will expose you to some trauma but that ultimately we may find the beauty in the balance.
Beyond Land “Acknowledgement” – Practical Steps to #Landback
Learn more…
Land acknowledgment is just a first step. What comes next?
Join us for a candid conversation between an Indigenous leader and a white ally on what it means to work toward Indigenous sovereignty and land back in real terms together.
Just Transition: Situating Nature Connection in Systems Change
Learn more…
This workshop provides an opportunity to connect, explore a shared vision of Just Transition, glimpse the possibility of systems change, and consider the question: What will it take to build systems centered on care for each other and our shared home? How might our work play a role in social and ecological well-being?
Through presentation, reflection, story sharing, and small group discussion, we will explore the Just Transition framework, principles and practices. You will have the chance to connect your own experience to extractive and regenerative economic paradigms and discuss ways you are drawn toward weaving one or more Just Transition principles and practices into your Good Work.
What Is Yours, What Is Mine, What Is Ours?
An Interactive Discussion on Nature Connection & Cultural Appropriation
Learn more…
“What is yours, what is mine, what is ours? Are these questions so senseless, Well, who’s gonna answer them At the time when I really need to know?”
I know these are questions and thoughts many mentors are asking these days about various skills and knowledge we share in our programs as we wrestle with decolonization and cultural appropriation.
This breakout session is an invitation to check-in, wrestle and share together as mentors about where we are with these questions, how we are currently answering these questions and who we are engaging in answering these questions.
Nonjudgmental space to share what we are struggling with to create space in our selves to go deeper with this journey of decolonization.
Free To Be
You and Me
Unmasking the Hazards & Benefits
of Gender
Learn more…
This session is designed for participants of ALL genders, binary and beyond-binary.
Gender roles can be supportive, oppressive, and so much more. During this session we will explore the supportive and oppressive power of these archetypes.
How do we personally experience the wilderness of the present-moment? What are the ways that our connection can be eclipsed by a fear of the wild feminine and/or the wild masculine?
Together, we’ll explore how we can leverage our power and privilege in order to create more safety, more love, and mutual accountability.
The 8 Shields Model: Roots, Strengths, Weaknesses,
To Use It Or Not To Use It At This Time
Learn more…
A chance for those of us who were trained in the 8 Shields Model to explore where it came from, its strengths and weaknesses and to see if and how it can be adapted for better, more inclusive results.
Mother Earth, Children,
and Nature
Learn more…
What Mother Earth is saying to her human children during these times, Becoming the Real Human Being, and how you can create the space for a child to do so, by listening to nature outside and within.
Howling and Healing
Our Way Out of Hibernation
Learn more…
This prayer and offering invites the Sacred songs from Nature to not only mend and repair deep injuries from Earthschool, it challenges the willing participant to Move and remove themselves from the stuck places where pain and trauma continue to paralyze us from our highest good.
Stagnation is no longer an option. In preparation for Rebirth this Spring, rituals that release toxicity and address our collective lethargy are required.
If not now, when? If not us, whom?
Join Sangoma and Trevanna for this interactive session.
Rites of Passage: How To Offer These In Our Programs?
Learn more…
A showcase of 5 leaders who have provided Rites of Passage experiences for more than 10 years. They will share their experiences in the field and resources for those interested in Rites of Passage Programs.
Content for every member of your organization.
The Nature Connection Leadership Conference provides your entire team with opportunities to learn from colleagues and to tap into collective genius.
Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion
Whether you’re in the forest or in the office, you will have opportunities throughout the conference to consider ways our work can center around justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Learn from stories of successes and challenges organizations are facing in their JEDI work. Tap into the wisdom of our elders and peers for conversations you won’t want to miss.
Strategies To Navigate This Time
Sessions will explore strategies and tools for excellence throughout your organization. Topics under consideration include: human development, fundraising, strategic planning, budgeting, equity councils, cohesion between admin & program teams, and more. Learn how others are finding resilience during these challenging times.
Prepare For New Opportunities
Learn how other organizations are building partnerships with schools and their communities in order to expand nature connection. Explore ways you can leverage the challenges of today to provide impactful and essential services to your community. Connect with peers for opportunities to develop relationships that can sustain you through times of uncertainty.
Cross Pollinate Your Programming
Sessions will provide opportunity for cross-pollination and learning from other organizations and field staff about how they have successfully navigated challenges that may be relevant in your work. Soak up inspiration and enhance your programming as you learn from peers throughout North America.
The 2022 NCLC is hosted by the Nature Connection Network in collaboration with Earth Path, Lynn Trotta Mentoring, Mycorrising, The Village Hearth Initiative / The Guelph Outdoor School, Two Coyotes Wilderness School, Vashon Wilderness Program, Vermont Wilderness School, and Vilda.
Our conference is flexibly priced so everyone can be included.
Buying for your organization?
Buying a ticket for yourself?
Choose the ticket level that best fits your ability to support our work.
Cover the true cost of the conference and give a little extra to support our BIPOC reparations efforts and provide discounts for those who wouldn’t be able to attend.
Enable us to cover our expenses; supporting presenters and technology costs.
Help cover some of our costs while you receive a discount.
Need further discounting in order to attend?
If you need additional discounting in order to attend, we recommend that you apply for financial assistance as early as possible.
We cannot guarantee that every request will result in a scholarship. Please be assured, however, that we will do our best to help you attend the Nature Connection Leadership Conference.
NCN Members receive a $50 discount on conference tickets.
Not yet a member? Join today when you purchase your ticket!
Reparations Awards for BIPOC Individuals & BIPOC-Led Organizations
Recognizing that many of the systems within which nature connection work is nested are built on the stolen land and/or stolen labor of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and people of color, we are committed to the work of repair.
We support equity and justice by making rights, resources, and representation accessible and honoring the ongoing labor of Black/Indigenous people of color {BIPOC} to bring leadership and skill to this work as we heal divides and restore balance to all people and the Earth.
In service to our goal of approaching Decolonization from a healing perspective, at all of the Nature Connection Network’s programming, we offer Reparation Awards to self-identified BIPOC individuals and organizations who are working toward equity in nature connection programming.
This is not a scholarship fund, and we do not assume that individual BIPOC applicants do not have access to wealth—these reparations are offered with an attempt at integrity and a prayer for collective liberation. All are additionally welcome to apply for scholarship funds to offset costs of attendance, regardless of identity, and reception of a Reparation Award does not disqualify you from receiving further scholarship support if needed.
If you identify as a BIPOC individual please select the ticket price below that best suits your ability to support the conference.
The Reparations Award: Benefactor Price enables you to receive a $50 reparations award while also supporting the conference, providing financial aid for others.
The Reparations Award: True Cost enables you to cover the true cost of the conferences less your $50 reparations award.
The Reparations Award: Discounted Price enables you to receive a $50 reparations award as well as an additional financial aid.
Connect more of your organization.
Buy a group package today.
Buy group tickets, save money, support collaboration, and get featured as a sponsor.
5 Tickets + Sponsorship
$630
10 Tickets + Sponsorship
$1,210
15 Tickets + Sponsorship
$1,740
20 Tickets + Sponsorship
$2,220
Pre-purchase a group package and we’ll send you a private link that you can share with your team so they can enroll in the conference at no cost to themselves.
Group Ticket Packages are exclusively available for NCN member organizations only and only for a limited time. Sponsorship is only available to group packages purchased before January 31. Group packages purchased after January 31 will not be eligible for sponsorship.
Your purchase of a group package directly supports reparations efforts as well as scholarships for those who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend.
As a sponsor, your logo, hyperlinked to your website, will be displayed prominently on the main reception page, visible to attendees throughout the conference.
Curious about last year’s conference? Below are session details from the ’21 Conference.
Join us for an interactive online conference designed for administrative staff, board members, and program staff.
Wednesday, February 24
Seeing Through (Actual) Native Eyes
Decolonizing “Nature Connection”, Rematriating Indigenous Lifeways
Learn more…
Miakoda and Pınar, two racially-prismatic Indigequeer con-SPIRITors and kin, will unpack Pınar’s indictment of the Nature Connection field and discuss the Centering Justice: Decolonizing “Nature Connection”, Rematriating Indigenous Lifeways project that they are collaboratively stewarding. #LifewaysBack
Centering Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Nature-Based Education Programs
Learn more…
Nature-based education programs are often created and delivered without centering the importance of anti-racism and cultural relevance.
This session explores the importance of centering anti-racism and justice work in nature-based programs with children and professionals.
We will first explore the importance of naming, understanding, and exploring racism individually and how it impacts our institutions.
Then, we will explore seven strategies for creating culturally relevant nature-based programs.
The Snowshoe Path:
Akomawt’s Recommendations for VWS’s Decolonization Path
Learn more…
For the past year, Vermont Wilderness School has been working with a Native-led consulting group Akomawt Educational Initiative.
In this session, an Akomawt co-founder will share their perspectives on the Vermont Wilderness School and describe their recommendations for VWS’s path forward.
Representatives from Akomawt and VWS will describe the processes and practices that were used during their year together, including prioritizing long term, multi-generational investments for change.
The session will serve as a case study for other nature connection organizations that may be embarking on a similar path.
Sacred Activism
Learn more…
Sacred Activism is the act of making all things Sacred.
The Sacred filled with Grace and Love can help us in these times.
Some of us have lost sight of the Sacred even as we are having to evolve to be resilient in the face of adversity.
Join your Guides, Sangoma Oludoye and Amy Hyatt, for conversations and adventures into the ways Nature and the Act of making all things Sacred can guide us in these times.
This is a deep reweaving of who we are and what it takes to complete the missions we are on!!!
Five Nation Council Process to Decolonize Ourselves
Learn more…
Hierarchy and dominance are passed on through our culture, generation to generation.
Learn how the Five Nation Council Process can decolonize this lateral violence in order to heal ourselves and our organizations.
Right Relations & Product Innovations
Learn more…
As a product innovator-of-privilege working in the field of nature connection, I recognize that my “products” are directly sourced from First Nations teachings, and are essentially intertwined with the still-living wounds of a shared past.
In my work, I recognize that reckoning of the past awaits attention, messages from others await being heard, recognition and honoring of the teachings’ sources is due, and collaboration moving forward is possible.
This open conversation invites all voices, and uses two specific, recent product innovations – a young person’s nature connection workbook (Put On Your Owl Eyes) and a Bird Language board game (Migratorius) – as focal discussion points to explore this topic.
Nature Connection as Full-Time Curriculum
Learn more…
“But what about academics?” Is a question parents ask when enrolling their children in Nature Connection programs.
Now more than ever, we have an opportunity to demonstrate how nature IS curriculum.
Full-time school can be a place where nature-connection is fully integrated with learning to read, write, compute, and so much more.
Shifting the educational conversation from “this” or “that” requires that we understand what learning is, how children learn, and how to translate the “nature” conversation into one that addresses the ‘problem questions’ that block schools and parents from letting nature lead.
Indigenous Perspectives and Teachings
Thursday, February 25
How Outdoor Learning Meets This Moment
Learn more…
The global pandemic underscores the benefits of nature connection, which nature-based programs have extolled for decades.
At the same, we have come eye-to-eye with the pervasive and undeniable issues of equitable access to green space and technology.
As ERAFANS shifted from large gatherings to online courses in 2020, we have experienced surprising (counter-intuitive!) success fulfilling our mission through virtual platforms.
This workshop examines how the Eastern Region Association of Forest and Nature Schools balances community-based programs that nurture nature connection while offering meaningful professional development that reaches thousands of teachers nationally.
Relationships, Hip Hop, and Forestry:
Thinking about Diversity & Inclusion in the Environment
Learn more…
Easley will lead participants through a presentation that demonstrates how to bring the arts into diversity work, while maintaining healthy self perspective and being aware of others. Participants will learn some diversity language and start to generate ideas of how to be agents of change in your organization.
Indigenous Approaches to Outdoor Programming
Songs as Survival Skills
Learn more…
Every single one of our ancestors used singing as a survival skill.
Together, they would sing to mourn, to celebrate, to grieve, to honour transitions, and to gather. They would sing to connect to their ancestors, the land, their community, the animals and the plants. They would sing to make food grow, and to open up the skies for rain during periods of drought. And – they would sing to heal, as if it were just as important as any other modality of healing, physically or emotionally.
But at some point something shifted. Humans started to identify who could sing, and who couldn’t. Shame and embarrassment started to grow around the idea of singing – especially for those who believed their voices to be unworthy of being heard. Because of this, some humans stopped singing altogether.
Through my background and experience, I’ve witnessed the power of song over and over again. I’ve seen it spark beautiful transformations, inspire growth and learning, and make communities stronger.
And I know that if you can speak, you can sing.
And if you can sing, you’re a singer.
And whether or not you think you’re good at it, you should sing anyway.
I also understand that through the challenging times we are currently facing, the medicine of song has never been more important.
In this session we will talk about the importance of singing, how to connect and inspire people with song, how to use song as a teaching tool and how to keep the magic of song alive while we cannot gather together. The session will also have an interactive component where we channel our creativity and naturalist skills, and collaborate on a few songs. Song resources will also be shared for anyone who attends.
Urban Blight to BLISS:
Shaping “Little” Ecological Worldviews in Baltimore
Learn more…
Learn about BLISS Meadows, a 10-acre land reclamation project in northeast Baltimore.
Then, the Environmental Education Programs Specialist will share the results of her 2019 case study describing how children enrolled in forest school display indicators of a developing ecological identity.
Rethink the importance of why urban children need to be connected to nature, and be inspired by how the BLISS Meadows Fox and Heron program will provide nature experiences for the children in Frankford.
Indigenous Perspectives and Teachings (Part 2)
The Time of the Lone Wolf is Over:
Community Practices for Honoring Grief
Learn more…
As we live and work as vulnerable humans and brave leaders within the swirling seas of change, loss, and upheaval that characterize these wild times, there is an increasing awareness of and longing for old-time practices of honoring and transforming grief as it arises within and around us.
What are some seeds of culturally appropriate grief tending that we can weave into deep nature connection practice in order to allow our pains and struggles to be fertile compost from which new futures can grow forth– rather than burying us with the weight of unprocessed emotions.
Join Sangoma and Trevanna for an exploration of ways you can tap into the potential that comes from offering grief for the sake of healing. If possible please have with you a journal and pen, small bowl of water, and a crack in your beautiful heart through which light and life can travel in and out.
Supporting Our Communities:
Leveraging Partnerships for Nature Connection Programming
Learn more…
COVID-19 has undoubtedly created a renewed interest in spending time outdoors.
How, as nature connection schools, can we harness this energy to directly support our community?
During this session, you’ll have the opportunity to hear about White Pine’s journey to establish and fund community-based programming.
White Pine’s team will share the business, operational and relationship lessons learned as well their long-term vision for community-based programming.
After the case study, the moderator will open the floor to hear others’ experiences and further the discussion.
When designing collaborative programs, what practices have to change?
What elements can stay the same?
How do truly reciprocal partnerships work and what is the long-term organizational benefit?
How can programs be shared and still hold the integrity of the mission and vision of the organization?
Friday, February 26
From Expression to Connection to Liberation:
A Conversation
Learn more…
Join an Executive Director and a queer afro indigenous Parent as they share their story of expression, connection and ultimately liberation from old ideas/paradigms about what it looks like to be a predominantly “white” space/school and commits to being antiracist/equitable.
There will be discussion with participants about the ideas and concepts shared, as we explore what it means to develop a positive racial identity as an organization serving a majority-white population.
Naturally Fostering Diversity for Collective Liberation
Learn more…
Critical explorations of effective tools and structures for naturally encouraging diversity & the evolving challenges that well-intentioned white people in leadership positions face.
Two Row on the Grand
Learn more…
Two Row on the Grand is an annual nine day family-oriented camping and paddling excursion on The Grand River, starting in Cambridge and ending at Port Maitland, Lake Erie.
The concept is based on the four hundred year old two row wampum, which is explained in this presentation.
Truth and Reconciliation and Indigenous cultural teachings of The Haudenosaunee- People of the Longhouse who inhabit this area of Ontario- are just a few of the take-aways of this nature connection.
Indigenous Land
Learn more…
This presentation is geared towards non-indigenous people; all land on Turtle Island has been stolen and now what?
We will begin by sharing some uncomfortable truths of how we got here. We will talk about land as an indigenous identity, about the practice of land acknowledgment, and what could be next.
We like to unpack what land and land rematriation means to Sassafras and the Native Land Conservancy and describe some of the projects we are working on.
We hope to inspire other organizations and communities with these ideas, and point out the responsibility of nature mentoring organizations in educating the next generations in what it means to live on indigenous territory. We will close with Q&A and action suggestions.
The 2021 NCLC is hosted by the Nature Connection Network in conjunction with the Earth Skills Alliance. The conference organizing is a collaboration with 4 Elements Earth Education, Coyote Programs, ERAFANS, Everyone Outside, Guelph Outdoor School, Kindred of Sangoma, Living Earth School, Lynn Trotta Mentoring, Trackers Earth, Two Coyotes Wilderness School, Vermont Wilderness School, Vilda, and Village Hearth Initiative.
The Nature Connection Leadership Conference is hosted by the Nature Connection Network.
The Nature Connection Network’s mission is to encourage and support the healthy growth of nature connection organizations and their leaders in building resilient, regenerative, and just communities.
Throughout the year, the Nature Connection Network provides a listserve, webinars, and other modes of connecting to uplift the work of our members. Interested in joining? Learn more.
Connecting Peers
Strengthen your organization and prevent burnout through supportive relationships with your fellow leaders.
Access Experience
Learn from the seasoned know-how of other organizations. The experience of other teams is an invaluable resource.
Build on Resources
Address challenges and build capacity quickly by not starting from scratch. Stop re-inventing the wheel.
Collaborate and Lead
Share your expertise and support nature connection beyond your organization. A rising tide lifts all ships.
History of the Nature Connection Leadership Conference
The NCLC is a collaborative event with participants presenting on a variety of topics. Presentations range from didactic powerpoints to interactive discussions and –when we’re in person– outdoor adventure.
Reconnect with a community of nature connection leaders.
Remember our original visions for our school, and reflect on our triumphs and challenges.
Reenergize ourselves, sharing inspiring stories, uplifting songs, and time outdoors.
Renew our commitment to nature connection and to sustaining vibrant, healthy organizations that make our work possible.
The conference has filled every year, register early to reserve your space.
2022: Year Seven – Re-Root & Rise
In 2022, the conference will include hundreds of leaders from nature connection organizations throughout North America and throughout the world. Together, we will make history as we explore the future of our field.
2021: Year Six – What is Our Evolving Role?
In 2021, the conference included 275 leaders from more than 100 nature connection organizations throughout North America. Presentations covered a wide breadth of topics, with a focus on ways our organizations can respond to the unique challenges and opportunities of this time.
2020: Year Five
In 2020, the conference included 90 leaders from 43 nature connection organizations throughout North America. We continued our focus on cultural appropriation and expanded the conversation to look at inclusivity and equity.
2019: Year Four
In 2019, the conference included 49 leaders from 28 nature connection schools throughout North America. We were honored to hear Native perspectives on cultural appropriation and together, we began to outline practical ways we can incorporate Native views and recommendations into our nature connection work.
2018: Year Three
In 2018, the conference grew to include 49 leaders from 25 nature connection schools throughout North America (including three schools from Canada). At the 2018 conference, Native leaders and wilderness school directors took a deep dive into conversations about what it means for nature connection organizations to be allies to Native peoples.
2017: Year Two
In 2017, the conference grew to include 46 leaders from 23 nature connection schools throughout North America. Topics included best practices around core topics such as fundraising & budgeting and expanded conversations about decolonization and what it means for us to be allies to other communities.
2016: Year One
In 2016, leaders from Wild Earth, Two Coyotes, Sassafras Earth Education, and EarthWalk Vermont invited nature connection schools throughout the northeast to come together and focus on strengthening their organizations. The 3-day conference was a big success, 42 leaders from 19 Northeast schools delved into best practices around fundraising, budgeting, marketing, and more.
Want to know what you’ve missed?
Below are some of our past conference offerings. Sign up for the upcoming conference and join us as we level-up our nature connection work together.
2021 Workshops
Hosted by: the Nature Connection Network in conjunction with the Earth Skills Alliance
Centering Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Nature-Based Education Programs with Ashley Brailsford & Denisha Jones
Five Nation Council Process to Decolonize Ourselves with Chief Kawisente Carol McGregor
Indigenous Approaches to Outdoor Programming with Kapi’olani Laronal
Indigenous Land with David & Saskia Vanderhoop
Indigenous Perspectives and Teachings with Donna Augustine “Thunderbird Turtle Woman”, Ilarion “Kuuyux” Merculieff, Fred “Coyote” Downie, Don Ryberg Hutapim Huskim, Curtis Zunigha, Sangoma Olodoye, Carrie Barrios Franco, Johnny Franco, Honor Keeler, Kawisente Carol McGregor, David Vanderhoop, Tony Cervantes, Melody Talcott, Rick Berry, & Dani Curlin
Naturally Fostering Diversity for Collective Liberation with Estephanie Martinez-Alfonzo
Nature Connection as Full-Time Curriculum with Kathleen Lockyer
Relationships, Hip Hop, and Forestry: Thinking about Diversity & Inclusion in the Environment with Dr Thomas RaShad Easley
Right Relations & Product Innovations with Devin Franklin
Sacred Activism with Sangoma Oludoye & Amy Hyatt
Seeing Through (Actual) Native Eyes with Pınar Sinopoulos Lloyd & J Miakoda Taylor
Songs as Survival Skills with Nikki Satira
Supporting Our Communities: Leveraging Partnerships for Nature Connection Programming with Heather Campbell, Amy Martinez Beal, & Ryan Busby
The Snowshoe Path: Akomawt’s Recommendations for VWS’s Decolonization Path with endawnis Spears, Sam Stegeman, & Ingrid Burrows
The Time of the Lone Wolf is Over: Community Practices for Honoring Grief with Sangoma Oludoye & Trevanna Grenfell
Two Row on the Grand with Ellie Joseph & Jay Bailey
Urban Blight to BLISS: Shaping “Little” Ecological Worldviews in Baltimore with Atiya Wells & Dr. V. Rose Brusaferro
Centering Diversity, Equity, and Justice in Nature-Based Education Programs with Ashley Brailsford & Denisha Jones
2020 Workshops
Hosted by: the Nature Connection Network in collaboration with Wild Earth, 8 Shields Institute, Guelph Outdoor School, Vermont Wilderness School, Sagefire Institute, Two Coyotes Wilderness School, Sassafras Earth Education, Vashon Wilderness Program, and The Wildwood Path.
Awakening to the Realities of Our Uncomfortable Future with Aviva Argote, Trevanna Grenfell, and Mark Morey
Doing The Work: Equity in Nature Connection Organizations – A Guided Discussion with Andy Franjevic, and Shivani Gogna, and Christine Larsen
Open Game Slam with the Acorn
Native Panel with Ramona Nosapocket Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag Nation), Stephanie Morning Star (Oneida Nation), Carol Kawisente McGreggor (Bear Clan Chief, from the Kanien’kehá:ka nation [5 Nations Confederacy]), David Two Arrows Vanderhoop (Aquinnah Wampanoag Nation)
Nature Connection For ALL: Programs In Public Schools & Marginalized Communities with David Brownstein, Jonathan Gonzalez and Ana Jimenez
The Nature-Connected Office: Applying principles from the field to liberate time, tasks and relationships in the workplace with Kai Northcott and Ash Young
New Relationships with Native Land, Empowering Reparation with Ramona Nosapocket Peters (Mashpee Wampanoag) and Stephanie Morning Star (Oneida)
Interconnectedness Through Cultural Understanding with Kawisente McGreggor
Nourishing (Extended) Family Nature Connection with Aviva Argote, Robert Riman, and Aya Argote-Riman
Them, Us, and We: Conversations Waiting to Be Had about Racism in Nature Connection with Sangoma Oludoye
Strategic Planning Skills for Healthy Organizational Development with Trevanna Grenfell, Maggie Gotterer, and Stacey Hinden
Infant, Toddler, and Kinder Forest Tactics with Bessie Jones
2019 Workshops
Hosted by:Wild Earth, Sassafras Earth Education, Vermont Wilderness School, Sagefire Institute
A Discussion on Compensation and Benefits
Peacemaker Principles
Kawisente McGregor
Decolonization Panel
David & Saskia Vanderhoop, Kawisente, Sachem HawkStorm, & Evan Mitak
Cultural Appropriation & Decolonization: Strategies for Your Programs and Approaches
Financial Aid: Strategies for Equity & Inclusion
Simon Abramson & Sarah Nason
Fundraising: Asking for Money (Not for Spectators)
David Brownstein
Nature Connection Network
Developing New Qualified Field Staff: A Dialogue of Approaches
Amy Hyatt
Nature Connection & Mentoring in Public Schools
Atiya Wells and David Brownstein
2018 Workshops
Hosted by: Wild Earth, Sassafras Earth Education, Vermont Wilderness School, Eartharts Ithaca
Board Basics & Beyond
Dan Gardoqui
Building Capacity through Community Partnerships
David Brownstein & Anika Klem
Building Reciprocity with Native Communities: Towards Decolonizing Nature Education
Trevanna Grenfell, Daniel Vargas, & Connor Stedman
Data Tracking for Effective Storytelling
Simon Abramson & Sam Stegeman
Decolonizing Panel Presentation & Discussion
David Vanderhoop, Kawisente McGregor, & Vincent Mann
Matrilineal Societies: Cross Referencing the Peacemaking Principles From a Female Perspective
Kawisente McGregor
Raising Bigger Money from Individual Donors and Foundations
David Brownstein & Rovika Rajkishun
The Nature Connection Leadership Network
What About The Parents?
Arlene Slocombe & Chris Green
2017 Workshops
Hosted by: Wild Earth, Sassafras Earth Education, Vermont Wilderness School, EarthWalk Vermont
Culture of Mentoring & Apprenticeship: Developing Future Staff From Past Participants
Angella Gibbons & John Chiltowski
Getting Serious about Fundraising
David Brownstein
Growing Awareness & Opening Conversations around Racial & Social Injustice
David Vanderhoop & Saskia Vanderhoop
Nature Connection and Peacemaking in a Post-2016 Election Environment
Amy Hyatt & Connor Stedman
Organizational & Program Budgeting
David Brownstein& Kate Yoemans
Program Design Workshop
Julie Kulik & Amy Hyatt
Reaching Under-Served & Urban Youth, Schools & Community Groups
David Brownstein & Justin Pegnataro
Strategies for Strong Enrollment, Retention, & Customer Relations
John Chiltowski & Simon Abramson
The NCL Network: Let’s Work Together!
Angella Gibbons & Sam Stegeman
Using Mentoring Principles to Run Your Organization
Dan Gardoqui
We Are Nature Rising
Mark Morey
2016 Workshops
Hosted by: Wild Earth, Two Coyotes, Sassafras Earth Education, EarthWalk Vermont
Accessible to All: Nature Connection for Everyone
Bringing the Vision to Life: Organizational Storytelling
Budgeting, Achieving & Reporting Your Financial Results to Your Board and the Public
Creating an Active & Engaged Support Team, Board, Council of Advisors
Fundraising Success: Expanding Sources of Financial Abundance
Integrating Technology into Your Organization
Leadership Self Care
Program Development & Design
Regenerative Governance & Decision Making
Regenerative Staffing: Hiring, Compensating, Evaluating & Promoting Staff
Success & Sustainability through the Power of Relationship Marketing