Hope in a Time of Precarity: Being, Thinking, and Acting for a Hopeful Future

Hope in a Time of Precarity is an energizing gathering that will convene a diverse group of thought leaders and culture shapers who are interested in doing both hospicing and hopeful work. The purpose of convening this dynamic collective is to strengthen mental, emotional, and spiritual stamina for responding to climate change and other symptoms of planetary distress; identify tools and build skills for engaging messiness, complexity, pain, grief, uncertainty, curiosity, joy and more; and ultimately grow capacities for care and transformational change across respective spheres of influence.

Guided by curiosity, courage, and compassion, the five-day retreat will weave a rich tapestry from multiple modalities, offering abundant space for:

• Being: so we can be fully present in this moment and in our bodies, which are grounded in relationships with other humans and the more-than-human world. Together, we’ll feel into deeper forms of self, community, and planetary care. We will spend time in the forest, on the land, and on the beach, to replenish directly from source.
• Thinking: to deepen understanding of systemic challenges and their roots. We’ll explore language and tools for engaging messiness, complexity, pain, grief, uncertainty, curiosity, joy and more.
• Acting: our energies, practices, and relationships for transformational change. We’ll identify approaches for amplifying agency within our spheres of influence, scaling action, and carving pathways to a just, low carbon world.

You can expect conversations that engage questions like:

• How can we navigate these troubled times and uncertain tomorrows?
• How can we remain awake and responsive to the climate crisis unfolding, yet alive to the possibility of a hopeful future?
• How might we experience radical joy in this very moment?
• What lessons might be learned from unheard voices and the more-than-human world for surviving and thriving in precarity?
• What exiled senses and sensibilities might be summoned to remember and re-imagine a world in which humans are agents of creativity, care, and connection?

We will identify approaches shaped by Indigenous, Black, ecological, feminist, and Indigenous wisdoms  for amplifying agency within our spheres of influence, scaling action, and carving pathways to a just, low carbon world.

Who Should Attend?

This gathering is for you if you are interested in healing and depth work; salvaging and composting lessons from today; igniting and stoking your creative fires; conspiring and co-creating change; and strengthening ecologies of care to ensure hopeful futures bloom.

Whether you’re someone who can’t sleep at night worrying about a treacherous future or have signs of burnout today; whether you are tackling climate change on the front lines or in the boardroom; whether you’re holding the sign, the pen, or someone’s hand; this gathering will help strengthen your mental, emotional, and spiritual stamina for responding to climate change and other symptoms of planetary distress and seed possibilities for hopeful futures.

Together, we’ll centre relational ways of being and sharpen our senses, tools, and creativity for more impactful change work and collective action. As we deepen our capacities for care and action, we’ll replenish our energy and spirits in a spectacular West Coast rainforest setting.

Schedule & Presenters

Please check back for a full program schedule and presenters.

Terms & Conditions

You may find our terms & conditions here.

Steering Committee

Lisa Richardson is a newspaper columnist, essayist and a community resilience advocate, who has written for a wide variety of publications, and spearheaded numerous events and gatherings designed to empower people on their path to deeper connection. Founder of globally-renowned farm tourism festival, the Slow Food Cycle Sunday, writer of sustainability and circularity copy for outdoor gear brand Arc’teryx, developer of a reconciliation and community hub The Wellness Almanac, instigator and co-facilitator of the Active Hope Climate Squad, she has led many small groups in the practice of journalling for self-care, social media for brand development, skiing for fun, and the Spiral of the Work that Reconnects for deepening our sense of aliveness and attention to the world. She’s a member of a Thrutopia writing community working to craft narrative throughlines to imagine and propagate visions of what the world could be and how we might get there. She is mother to a ten year old, to whom she longs to be able to say, “You were at the heart of everything we did.”

Randi Kruse is a BC-based corporate sustainability and communications leader. For the past two decades, she has supported programs and policies to advance climate change solutions within the public and private sectors, working with well known organizations including the David Suzuki Foundation, TELUS, the Metro Vancouver Regional District, Climate Smart, and more. Randi has training in the science and psychology of climate change, public dialogue and negotiation, and experience facilitating diverse groups to find common ground. She supports the teams she works with to integrate diverse perspectives and unconventional partnerships – both essential to the lasting success of all major social transformations. Randi lives in Whistler with her family and plays in the mountains daily to strengthen her resilience as an advocate for social and environmental justice.

LaUra Schmidt(she/her) is a truth-seeker, community-builder, cultural critic, and grief worker. She is also the granddaughter of a holocaust survivor. Inspiration finds her in natural landscapes and honest, open-hearted dialogue.

LaUra graduated with a BS in Environmental Studies, Biology, and Religious Studies. Her MS is in Environmental Humanities. LaUra has been studying and cultivating personal and collective resilience strategies for nearly a decade. She is trained in nonviolent civil disobedience, and is a Climate Reality Leadership Corps member & mentor. She recently earned an “Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy” Certificate through The Embody Lab.

LaUra & Aimee Lewis-Reau have written a book on their unique 10-Step program they run through Good Grief Network, which is expected out Spring 2023, through Shambhala Publications.

Advisors

Britt Wray