Women+ in Climate: Leading with Light

July 16 - 20, 2025

The path forward requires both resilience and community.

Women+ in Climate is a gathering for women and gender-diverse leaders in climate and nature to align to their deepest wisdom in a heart-centered space, guided by love, connection, and justice.

Anchored by practices including meditation, dance, movement, ritual, and land-based practices, the gathering aims to offer a sanctuary for women+ in the climate movement to reconnect with themselves, each other, and the Earth. The emphasis is on nurturing resilience and solidarity to face climate and biodiversity challenges together, and tapping into a collective energy and creativity that emerges when women gather.

The goal is to share and learn from each other, dream together, and look into energizing a movement to protect and restore the earth.

Through sharing space across diverse perspectives, the emergent agenda facilitates fresh perspectives and deepened relationships, opening the door to the strategies we need to address the crisis facing our planet.

This 5-day gathering will take place at Hollyhock Retreat Centre, Cortes Island, BC
Traditional ancestral unceded territories of the Klahoose, Tla’amin, and Homalco Nations

Speakers

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Meet Your Team

Meet your 2025 co-hosts and planning team

Tzeporah Berman

International Program Director, Stand.Earth

Chair, Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative

Osprey Orielle Lake

Founder & Executive Director

Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)

Pat Mitchell

Co-founder and Managing Partner

Project Dandelion

Zainab Salbi

Co-Founder

Daughters for Earth

Orane Cheung

Operations Lead

Hollyhock Leadership Institute

Laurel Dault

Director

Hollyhock Leadership Institute

Heather Deeth

Interim CEO

Hollyhock

Program Outcomes

Key outcomes focus on personal rejuvenation, strategic recalibration, and community building within the climate space. The program provides a platform for women and gender-diverse leaders to:

Engage in practices of healing, grieving, and self-care, nurturing both individual and collective well-being
Share strategies, skills, and tools to advance climate work across diverse perspectives.
Foster cross-sector collaboration, encouraging participants to step beyond their silos and weave together insights, surfacing core challenges and core solutions across fields.
Plant seeds for united strategies and coalitions, bolstered by mutual support and resource-sharing

This gathering is ultimately intended to inspire and equip women and gender-diverse leaders to return to their climate work with renewed vision, strength, and an interconnected approach that goes beyond conventional strategy, embracing collective wisdom and action.

Our Vision

We envision a world where women are the light in the darkness, guiding humanity toward a future of belonging, equity, and care for the Earth. This gathering will create a nurturing space for connection, reflection, and collaboration among climate scientists, poets, artists, Indigenous leaders, policy-makers, philanthropists, and activists.

The Invitation

This is more than a meeting. It is a sanctuary for those who labour for a just and sustainable world—a place to return to the womb of collective wisdom, to inhale deeply, and to find strength to stay in the work.

Our Commitments

Heart-Centered Leadership: Moving beyond strategy to center care, compassion, connection, and vulnerability as powerful tools for change.
Community as Strength: We cultivate a lasting network of mutual support, inspiration, and courage.
Equity and access: Funding available to support equitable access to the gathering.

Audience

The Women+ in Climate Gathering brings together a carefully curated cohort of women and gender-diverse leaders and changemakers, united by a commitment to climate justice and sustainable solutions. Participants are invited from across sectors to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and representation.

Substantial scholarships and travel bursaries ensure program accessibility.

Audience Composition:

Sectors Represented: Philanthropists, scientists, artists, poets, reporters, lobbyists, policy analysts, organizers, communicators, movement builders, academics, and lawyers.
Diversity and Lived Experience: A priority on 40% representation from Indigenous, racialized, and minoritized communities.
Region: We aim to balance a commitment to equity and sustainability, minimizing the event’s carbon footprint while fostering meaningful collaboration. This gathering embraces a global perspective while remaining intentionally focusing on North America, recognizing the Global North’s outsized wealth and responsibility in addressing the climate crisis. 20% of participants will travel from outside of North America to represent global voices.

Pricing

Tuition: $1200 CAD

Meals & Accommodation:

Campus stay rates are in addition to tuition, and range from $750-2000 depending on your accommodation choice. Campus rates include:
- Accommodation
- 3 gourmet meals a day
- Unlimited coffee & tea
- Daily movement activities
- Hot tubs, sauna, and campus facilities

Scholarships: Scholarships and travel bursaries are available to ensure program accessibility. Learn more about the scholarship process here.

Getting to Hollyhock is easy! Take the stress out of travel and ride the Hollyhock-mobile. For your convenience, Hollyhock organizes a charter with with Indigenous-owned company Two Worlds Transportation to take you directly to Cortes Island with pickups in Vancouver and Nanaimo. Enjoy comfortable air conditioning, and an extra opportunity to connect with your fellow participants on board. Top your trip off with a 30-minute boat ride across the Salish Sea, keeping an eye out for whales, seals, and eagles! Sign up opens early 2025.

Our Partners

Thank you to our community partners for helping support, uplift, and work together to eliminate barriers to equity and economic access!

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Community Amplifiers

Thank you to our community amplifiers for helping support, uplift, and work together to eliminate barriers to equity and economic access!

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