Leadership at the Edge

Are you leading a non-profit, running a campaign to restore democracy to your community? Or are you dealing with the pressures of partisanship in your country? Working to slow down climate change and environmental degradation? Advocating for indigenous rights? Fighting on the front lines of some of the most desperate humanitarian tragedies? Or volunteering at a food bank? Working with disadvantaged groups?

Make it

You deserve to be supported in your leadership journey!

Leading on the Edge

Our world has been especially brutal in recent times towards all those working for restorative justice in civil society. Our founder, Caroline Watson, is a seasoned social entrepreneur who knows first hand what it is like to work in situations of oppression and social justice contexts. She has worked all over the world using participatory theatre and the arts to develop the leadership skills of grassroots leaders and community activists and brings passion and depth to her understanding of the challenges those working at the coal face of humanity’s biggest challenges.

Using the theatre-based approach of Augusto Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed work, Caroline and her team work alongside leaders like you, to support your interior journey, giving you the courage and confidence to overcome your own fears about managing the challenges of humanitarian work, and to bring new views about your leadership capabilities and how to prepare yourself for the long haul.

Caroline builds on the initial work that needs to be done on your own personal journey to encompass thinking about the ‘concentric circles’ of what happens when leadership radiates out from your own interior journey to the lives of your beneficiaries, their communities and the world at large. She believes in the power of individuals to affect change and is a passionate advocate for the idea that we all have a role to play.

In both year-long Masterclass programmes, and on-site retreats at The Centre’s retreat space, Clos de Gaye, in south west France, Caroline brings her energy, warmth and wisdom to put you at the centre of your leadership journey, bringing you into community with others and supporting you in your own transformations.

Those working at the coal face of some of our world’s biggest social, environmental and humanitarian problems need our support to grow and sustain their leadership.

We need to take the time as artists, activists, humanitarians, and grassroots leaders, to invest in our journey, taking time to rest, restore and revive and build stronger to keep ‘fighting the good fight’

You will come away with

A rested and revived spirit

Ready and able to continue to take on the challenges you have been facing, but with a larger respect and care for your own individual journey and how to ‘stay the course’ for the long haul.

Communication tools

To take your leadership to the next level and ensure you can inspire and compel others to follow you in a movement for a better world, listening and engaging with those at the coal face of the problems we are trying to solve, and being a true ‘influencer’ in advocating for solutions.

Building partnerships and community

Coming together with others on a similar journey, drawing strength and sustenance from shared experience, whilst boosting partnership possibilities and the capacity to work together.

Renewal

New ways of thinking about social justice and standing up for disenfranchised communities, you will come together with others, and your local community, to explore new visions for future possibilities

Improved leadership

A greater understanding of what great leadership is, through learning about the stories and inspiration of leaders that have gone before and, critically, ‘rehearsing for real’ life the very skills you will need on your future journey.

Practical tools

Support with the everyday tools need to manage stress, be more resilient, empower others and work across division and conflict, with courage, conviction and compassion.

As with all of our programmes, we bring creative and participatory tools to develop a more empathetic understanding of the situation, rather than a purely intellectual approach, particularly tools that have historically been used in social justice settings.  This might mean using Augusto Boal’s ‘Frozen Pictures’ to look more deeply at an ‘oppression’ that needs to be eradicated, engaging in a ‘Forum Theatre’ intervention with a local community to explore macro solutions to the most intractable problems we face; or taking time to dig deep into The Artist’s Way, a revolutionary way of thinking about personal growth and creative development.

Leadership At The Edge

Purpose-driven leadership at the grassroots for those serving humanity

Programme Description

An opportunity for grassroots and purpose driven leaders to come together in fellowship with others either through an online ‘Masterclass’ programme or in an extraordinary retreat location in the south of France. A transformational personal journey providing the skills and qualities needed to progress initiatives and tackle complex local, environmental, political, economic and social challenges.

Includes

• Monthly Masterclass seminars “Leadership at the edge” on a range of topics from our ‘Mosaic’ modules to include support for your individual learning journey, communication skills, participatory leadership and facilitation techniques, storytelling and self-care

• Membership to our exclusive network of ‘higher order’ leaders who have also been through the programme.

• Awarded Clos de Gaye fellow status

• Access to online learning programmes for the duration

• Pre- and post-programme design and support for implementation

• One week retreat at Clos de Gaye (optional)

Key Outcomes

- The opportunity to rest and revive and restore our leadership to be ready for the long haul

- Connection with a community of leaders going through similar challenges to yourself

- Enhanced communication and storytelling skills to get your message out there

- Development of new leadership and facilitation skills to galvanise followers and supporters to your movement

Time Commitment

  • 36 hours of Masterclass over 12 months

  • over 40 hours of online learning

  • 5 days retreat (optional)

  • 12 hrs small group or one-2-one coaching

Participant Profile

Social entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs of colour (BIPOC), women leaders, leaders of grassroots and from non-profit civil society

Type of Delivery / Location

Online or on retreat at Clos de Gaye, south west France

Group Size

5 -20

Start your leadership journey with us now