Happy New Year! We at the Ayni Institute hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are feeling excited about the year ahead. As we step into 2025, we’re thrilled to share a lineup of free workshops and trainings and retreats you can apply for in the first half of the year. We hope you’ll join us!
Our Next Trainings and Retreats
There are two main offerings that are already open of for this year:
The Seasons of Leadership Retreat
April 10-12, 2025
This will be a deeper dive into the framework of Seasonality, or the ebbs and flows within your leadership. We will be gathering in-person at the Watershed Center to explore strategies and techniques to deal with the anxiety, stress, frustration, and the rollercoaster of emotions that we face while doing social change work.
Whether you’re just starting or have many years of experience, we hope you can get an understanding or perspective that is based on psychotherapy, neuroscience, Indigenous wisdom, and community work. This training will help you navigate the ups and downs of your time in social change and leadership, so if you are traversing a difficult moment and need more support, or just want intentional time to reflect, build resilience, and create connections with others, join us!
The Movement Strategy Advanced Training June 2-7, 2025
The Movement Strategy Advanced Training is an intensive, weeklong experience that will explore the frameworks of Movement Ecology, Seasonality, strategies for Civil Resistance, Decentralized Organization and much, much more. Together in community with other social change leaders, the Movement Strategy Advanced Training will take a closer look into how to get social movements to think more strategically, collaborate, and harness power to win on the issues our world so desperately needs.
Along with the two more intensive trainings we are offering this year, we are also offering free 2 hour workshops online for some mainstay topics of the Institute. These sessions cover topics designed to support your growth in leadership, emotional resilience, effectiveness within your organizations, and fundamentals of coordination.
Seasons of Leadership
Date: Wednesday, February 5th, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST Register Here:Link
This workshop explores the cyclical patterns present in leadership and social movement organizations. Understanding these cycles can help us navigate the ebbs and flows to focus our work and efforts more strategically.
We’ll focus on:
Recognizing the distinct seasons in leadership and what they mean.
Practical ways to integrate seasonality into your life and work.
Managing when your season differs from that of your organization.
Each stage in the cycle has its own purpose, challenges, and strengths. Join us for this free 2-hour session to explore your leadership season and learn how to thrive within it.
Emotional Resiliency
Date: Sunday, March 10th, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST Register Here:Link
Transitions challenge our emotional capacity, and many of us are still adapting to the shifts caused by the moment that we are in. The strategies that once supported us may need to be refreshed or reimagined.
This workshop addresses:
The emotional dynamics of transitions and how to navigate them.
Practices and traditions that build emotional resilience.
What hinders emotional capacity and how to overcome those barriers.
By strengthening our emotional resilience, we can better support ourselves and those around us. This free session is open to all, with optional donations welcomed.
Movement Ecology
Date: Thursday, April 24th, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST Register Here:Link
Movement Ecology provides a framework for understanding five key strategies that emerge when driving social change. Collaboration across movements begins with recognizing these distinct strategies and how they interrelate.
During this workshop, we’ll discuss:
Theories of Change and how they shape your work.
The role of each strategy within larger movements.
Building a culture of interdependence for multi-strategic collaboration.
This free 2-hour session will provide practical insights into fostering collaboration and clarity within social movements.
Organizational Seasons
Date: Tuesday, May 27th, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST Register Here:Link
Organizations, like individuals, experience cycles of action and reflection. Understanding these organizational seasons allows us to plan strategically and navigate transitions more effectively.
This workshop will explore:
The value of honoring organizational cycles and avoiding pitfalls.
Practical steps to align organizational strategies with natural rhythms.
Managing misalignment between individual and organizational seasons.
Join us for this free session to learn how to work with, not against, your organization’s natural cycles.
Coordination Fundamentals
Date: Sunday, June 23rd, 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM EST Register Here:Link
Coordination is a vital skill for turning ideas into reality. This workshop introduces the basics of effective coordination for local projects, events, or campaigns.
We’ll cover:
Foundational coordination practices to help you get started.
Tools and techniques for managing small projects effectively.
How to build confidence in organizing efforts.
Whether you’re new to coordination or seeking to improve, this free workshop is a great starting point. Donations are appreciated but not required.
We’d love to see you at one or more of these workshops! Feel free to reach out with questions or share this invitation with others who might benefit.
In reciprocity,
The Ayni Team
Ayni Institute, 240 Harris Street, Revere, MA 02151
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