Environmental Leadership Program

Goals of retreat:

• Building Community
• Embracing Diversity

Orientation Retreat focuses on the two cornerstones of the organization: building community and embracing diversity. These two goals are accomplished over the course of a four-day retreat.

Outcomes:

• A stronger sense of their classmates and create a shared, safe space that allows them to have deeper conversations about complex issues.
• Following this training, participants have greater awareness of their own lenses for approaching the world, and the many different aspects of their own identity.
• Fellows have language for talking about diversity and a framework for understanding how groups interact and relate in society and institutional settings.
• The skills developed during this training allow Fellows to have more effective conversations across difference due to a greater awareness of the many dynamics at play.
• Often as a result of this training, participants return home energized to become leaders on diversity in their personal lives and in their work.
• Having broached issues related to diversity at the first retreat, the fellows are better able to address diversity-related conflicts that occur during their fellowship experience.  They also are better able to discuss issues of diversity, equity, and conflict as they relate to environmental issues and problem-solving.
• Each Fellow has a small group of peers to work with on his/her personal leadership plan (PLP).
• Each Fellow has made a start on the personal leadership plan and clearly understands what is involved in developing the plan and what the timeline is.
• Each Fellow understands ELP’s mission and vision, and how they can contribute to the ELP community.