With this workshop, UCI Environment Institute aims to bring together a focused group of students, faculty, staff, and community members dedicated to creating a just and sustainable society here in Orange County.  Over the past couple of years, we have heard from students and community members alike a desire to increase our collective capacity to respond to sustainability challenges in our shared bioregion.  We are thrilled to partner with OzGREEN to host Sue Lennox, an internationally-recognized pioneer in environmental education and community building, to lead the workshop. 

We hope to use the workshop as a platform to spark and strengthen future sustainability-related collaborations here in Orange County.  Sue hopes to use the workshop to build urgently needed connections between US and Australian communities committed to creating a just and sustainable world.

This workshop aims to: 

• Strengthen your capacity to respond creatively to global ecological challenges;
• Harness inner wisdom to create new ways of living and reduce ecological footprint;
• Build rational, emotional, and spiritual intelligence;
• Learn how to listen deeply and question strategically; and
  
• Create communities of change with connectivity from local to global.

 Workshop modules include:

• State of the planet and ecological footprint assessment;
• Strategic questioning and deep listening skills training;
• Self awareness, lifestories, and personal development;
• Creative thinking, values, and visioning;
• Goal setting and planning for life changes and eco-social action.

• Orange County residents interested in strengthening bioregional responses to sustainability challenges
• Graduate and undergraduate students (UCI & surrounding OC colleges welcome)
  
• UCI faculty and staff

We also welcome a small number of sustainability practitioners from other locales. Registration is required. Please submit your registration request on this site.  Registration will be confirmed by April 1, 2013.  Participants should be able to attend both full days of the workshop.

Friday, April 5, 2013

8:45 AM        Registration

9:00 AM        Welcome and Introductions

10:30 AM      Morning Tea

10:50 AM      Pulse of the Planet

                      Ecological Footprint

                      Action Planning (1)

12:30 PM      Lunch

1:20 PM        Strategic Questioning Skills Training

3:50 PM        Afternoon Tea

4:10 PM        Participatory Leadership

                     Sustaining Ourselves

                     Action Planning (2)

6:00 PM       Shared meal at local restaurant (no host, optional)

Saturday, April 6, 2013

8:30 AM      Arrival and quick check-in

9:00 AM      Reflection in Nature

9:30 AM      Heart Circle

10:30 AM    Morning Tea

11:00 AM    Deep Relaxation and Guided Visioning

                   Creating Change Brainstorm

12:30 PM    Lunch

1:30 PM     Group and Personal Action Planning (3)

4:00 PM     Afternoon Tea

4:30 PM     Closing Circle; Feedback

5:30 PM     Close and Depart

Sue Lennox is co-founder and co-CEO of Australia's OzGREEN and a member of the Centre for Social Impact Advisory Council. She has 30 years of experience innovating in environmental education in urban, regional, remote, and Indigenous communities in Australia, India, Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and Pakistan.  In 2007, Sue was named as one of Sydney’s Top 100 Most Influential People by the Sydney Magazine.

OzGREEN’s mission is to build a movement of inspired leaders who are tackling sustainability challenges (such as climate change and water) and becoming leaders of positive social change. OzGREEN accomplishes this mission by focusing on youth, emerging leaders and “early adopters,” strengthening capacity for leadership and social innovation. Through collaboration and community driven change, OzGREEN helps build the critical mass of people needed to create sustainable, resilient and socially just communities.

For 20 years OzGREEN has been facilitating award-winning transformative learning and leadership programs. OzGREEN is an independent not-for-profit that operates nationally in Australia and overseas in India, East Timor and Central America. OzGREEN programs have involved hundreds of thousands of people who go on to take leadership roles in their schools, communities and workplaces and who shift their own lives to “one planet living.”

OzGREEN has won numerous awards, including the Eureka Prize, Banksia Awards, UN Media Peace Awards and Best Practice Case Study for the Australian Association for Environmental Education (NSW).

The workshop will convene in the Seminar Room at the Environment Institute on the campus of the University of California, Irvine.  Please see our campus map to the Environment Institute.

For sustainable transportation options, visit the UCI Sustainable Transportation webpage. For driving directions and parking information, please see below.

405 FREEWAY

From the North:
Exit 405-S at Jamboree and turn right onto Jamboree. Turn left onto Campus Drive. Turn right onto West Peltason Drive into UCI; at end of the road turn left to continue on West Peltason Drive. Turn left onto Bison Ave. and turn right into Parking Lot 16. Kiosk for parking permits is located near the entrance.

From the South:
Exit 405-N at Jamboree and turn left onto Jamboree. Turn left onto Campus Drive. Turn right onto West Peltason Drive into UCI; at end of the road turn left to continue on West Peltason Drive. Turn left onto Bison Ave. and turn right into Parking Lot 16. Kiosk for parking permits is located near the entrance.
 

73 FREEWAY (Corona Del Mar Freeway - Transportation Corridor)

From the North:
Exit 73-S at Bison (last exit before Toll Road begins) and turn left onto Bison. Continue on Bison across Peltason Drive and turn right into Parking Lot 16. Kiosk for parking permits is located near the entrance.

From the South:
Exit 73-N at Bison and turn right onto Bison Avenue. Continue on Bison across Peltason Drive and turn right into Parking Lot 16. Kiosk for parking permits is located near the entrance.
 

VISITOR PARKING
Purchase a permit and park in lot 16. Parking costs $10/day. For more visitor parking information, click here.

This workshop is sponsored and hosted by the UCI Environment Institute in collaboration with OzGREEN.  The workshop is offered free of charge and lunch is provided.

We are please to announce two related events in early April:

TEDxChange:

On Wednesday, April 3, 2013, we invite you to participate in a half-day session of TEDxChange Orange Coast.  The topic of the session is "Positive Disruption."  Hear from TEDx thought leaders followed by Sue Lennox and the UCI Environment Institute's Susan Coons. The afternoon will conclude with an interactive community building session on sustainability facilitated by Susan Coons and Women's Initiatives for a Sustainable Earth (WISE). For more information and registration, visit here.

Strategic Questioning Training:

On Sunday, April 7, 2013, from 9 AM-4 PM, Sue Lennox will also teach an in-depth training on the skill of Strategic Questioning.  Strategic Questioning is an inquiry-based organizing tool used to generate new information and ideas to support personal, organizational, and societal transformation to sustainability.  Participants in Leading with the Heart (April 5-6) will receive basic strategic questioning training; only those seeking more in depth exposure to this particular skill should register for both offerings.  For more information and registration, visit here.