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Women+ in Climate: Leading with Light

July 16 - 20, 2025
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The path forward requires both resilience and community.

Women+ in Climate is a space to gather in truth, strategy, and renewal. We come not only to rest, but to listen, grieve, organize, and build the connective tissue needed to meet the challenges ahead.

This is not a retreat from the world, but a return to what is most essential.

The gathering aims to offer a sanctuary for women+ in the climate and environmental movement to reconnect with themselves, each other, and the Earth. The emphasis is on nurturing resilience and solidarity to face climate, biodiversity, and political challenges together. Together we will tap into a collective energy and creativity that emerges when women gather.  

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

Sheila Watt-Cloutier

Citizen Advocate on Environmental, Cultural and Human Rights
Siila - Author and Speaker

Xiye Bastida

Founder and Executive Director
Re-Earth Initiative

Maya Penn

Founder, Filmmaker, Artist
Ideas 4 The Planet

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

Osprey Orielle Lake

Founder & Executive Director
Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN)
Pat Mitchell

Pat Mitchell

Co-founder and Managing Partner
Project Dandelion
Green forest and Sun

Program Outcomes

Program outcomes focus on strategic recalibration, community building, and personal rejuvination within the climate space.

The gathering will support women and gender-diverse leaders to:

  • Adapt strategically in response to the current political, ecological, and social moment
  • Cultivate emotional and energetic resilience to sustain long-term leadership
  • Share tools, strategies, and insights across sectors and geographies
  • Build cross-movement alliances and shared frameworks
  • Envision and begin to co-create bold collective responses to overlapping crises

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.

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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. 

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The Invitation

This is more than a meeting. Anchored by practices including meditation, movement, ritual, and land-based practices, 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.

 

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Our Commitments

  • Heart-Centered Leadership: Center care, compassion, connection, and vulnerability as powerful tools for change.
  • Community as Strength: Cultivate a lasting network of mutual support, inspiration, and courage.
  • Equity and Access: Funding is available to support equitable access to the gathering.
  • Responsive to the Times we are in: This is a historic moment of anxiety, fatigue, and rising authoritarianism. We make space for responsive (not reactive) emergent and co-created conversations.
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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

Embrace Ease in your Journey to Hollyhock

Take the stress out of travel and ride the Women+ in Climate Participant Charter. For your convenience, Hollyhock organizes a charter 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!

Limited seats available, reserve your spot here.

If you’d prefer to organise your own travel to and from Hollyhock, check out our Travel Itinerary for suggested options and costs.

Scholarships:

  • Hollyhock recognizes that economic opportunity is not currently equal. Our scholarship program is one of our key strategies to expand program access to underrepresented and marginalized communities. A limited number of scholarships are available with awards ranging from partial to full tuition
  • We encourage applicants from those whose identities intersect with, but are not limited to: Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, 2SLGBTQIA+, people with disabilities, newcomers, youth, and elders
  • Scholarship Applications are now closed for Women+ in Climate. We encourage you to explore other program opportunities, including Activate.

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