Weaving the Village through Nature Connection and Permaculture Design
An exciting new workshop series in collaboration with Jon Young

Weaving our new dream through the Ecology of Leadership and inner permaculture

Offered: Spring 2010

This 1-day workshop offers you a high-value gateway to the essence of the unique and transformative Ecology of Leadership model.  Throughout this rich day, you will have opportunities to explore the core principles and practices of the EOL approach for yourself – engaging leadership development through the integration of deepened self-awareness and connection to the natural world, coupled with principles of regenerative systems thinking and permaculture design. This workshop is for you if you want to step more powerfully into your gifts and passions and onto your path of service in the world.

Tammy is the farm manager at the Regenerative Design Instititute, coordinating food production and teaching and facilitating the 6-8 farm crew staff work-traders.

Cultural Mentoring Series
with Jon Young, Mark Morey and the 8 Shields Team

C O U R S E   I S   F U L L

In response to many requests from you, the people who make this work happen, we have decided to consolidate Mind of Mentoring and Mentoring Nature Connection into one.

It has become clear that the information from both these weeks is valuable and that many people were having a hard time deciding which program to attend. We also were feeling the need to bring these two programs together as they weave so beautifully with one another.

We will still offer all the nuts and bolts behind the 8 shields model. In addition, for those of you who are wanting more depth of experience in actually mentoring nature connection with young people, there will be break out sessions offering just that with experienced nature mentors.

Thank you to everyone who shared their needs whether financial, energetic, or timely. We hope to see you August 29-September 4.

Read more about Mind of Mentoring and Nature Connection!

View a photo show of previous cultural mentoring villages.

Offered: August 1-6, 2010 – residential program
Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, CA
Instructors: James Stark and Christopher Kuntzsch

The Ecology of Leadership Immersion provides a focused and powerful experience of the core EOL curriculum in a dynamic, 5-day, in-residence format. This program is ideal for people living out of the area, unable to commit to being in either Bolinas or Santa Barbara one weekend each month, or those simply drawn to an intensive 5-day course flow. This format provides the benefits of consistent, daily nature immersion at Commonweal Garden – a vibrant permaculture demonstration site surrounded by the wildlands of Point Reyes National Seashore – empowering our exploration of leadership as sourced from our relationship with the natural world.

The only way to predict the future is to create it.        

–Peter Drucker

Many of us are searching for ways to make a difference, to transform our families, communities and the world we live in. And each of us can make a difference - we all have the seeds of leadership and service within us. We can nurture these seeds, learning the skills and tools we need to transform ourselves and embody our highest potential.

Whether you have prior experience and training, or you have recently felt called to step onto a path of leadership for the first time, this program is a unique opportunity to deeply explore who you are, who you wish to be, and what your specific offering is to others. 

Through the Ecology of Leadership courses, you can learn to articulate your vision, get in deeper touch with your gifts, and develop new tools, routines, mindsets and skills to be more effective in manifesting what you see for yourself and the world.

Hear Ecology of Leadership directors James Stark and Christopher Kuntzsch talk about the Ecology of Leadership program on a Sustainable World Radio podcast.

Offered: To be announced
Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, CA
Instructors: Larissa Conte, Ian MacLaird, James Stark

Being the Change We Wish to See in the World

The Regenerative Youth Project (RYP) is a nature-based leadership and rites of passage program for teens and young adults in the Bay Area. This mentored experience expands participants’ awareness, empowers them with holistic skills for sustainable living, and deepens their connections to nature, self, and community over the span of 8 months.

We believe that when young people are opened to living as a part of nature and living purposefully, they act on inspiration and become leaders of change. RYP is an invitation to young people to find firm roots in themselves, deeply connect to the life around them, and offer their gifts to the world.

RYP is a three-part journey of expanding further outward into the world and further into oneself. Cumulatively, the program is intended to serve as a rites of passage experience, where students may hear the call of their higher self, face challenges on the journey, and ultimately return home with greater understanding of their gifts and true power.

The Regenerative Design Institute is excited to announce a growing relationship with Gaia University International!



Gaia University focuses on the relocalization of higher education and offers accredited degree programs for real-world action in self and planetary transformation. These programs cultivate world changers working for local and global sustainability, justice, and peace. Associates have access to a powerful global network of leaders, advisors and peers offering support and guidance in the development, implementation and documentation of their self-directed project work.

Orientation Workshop: next offered in 2010
Extension Workshop: next offered in 2010

Location: Commonweal Garden, Bolinas, California
Instructors: Andy Langford and Liora Adler