New Seneca Village : Our Offering
New Seneca Village (NSV) is a residency and social ecosystem space for women and non-binary leader of color working to advance justice.
We provide nature-based residencies centered on restoration, connection and visioning within an intentional community designed for justice oriented leaders from across a wide array of social movements.
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With this offering, we hope to contribute to both the personal and professional development of your restorative practices in order to support your long-term sustainability as a leader which we believe is critical to ensuring a just future for us all.
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We prioritize leaders who work in non-profit spaces, in particular frontline organizers and others whose work is about advancing collective progress.
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More on how we define leaders here.
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We are in awe of the love and commitment that you pour into your work and recognize it as a powerful calling in of new visions for our collective reality.
We are honored by the long legacy of women and non-binary folks upon whose foundations we build and who were afforded little opportunity to rest, to connect,
to be cared for, to dream together.
We wonder what is possible when leaders like us are holistically and abundantly resourced in this way?
And what happens when we take the time and space to re-connect to all of the resources - beyond money - that we already have access too?
This offering is an exploration.
Villagers Summer 2023
Villager Summer 2023
New Seneca Village is an invitation for justice focused leaders who are ready to
intentionally commit to exploring their own restorative practices and
willing to take on the elements of this Village experience
with a spirit of curiosity for what might unfold in their lives and their leadership.
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If this is you, please read on.
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In the spirit of artists residencies, New Seneca Villagers on residency have access to beautiful land and nature which we consider a partner in our restorative intention.
Villagers have the time and space to reconnect to self and to explore a range of restorative practices as offered by Village healers. They also have the opportunity to connect with others on a similar journey and opportunities to expand their vision for their purpose, their work and their communities.
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In-person residencies range from 6 to 7 nights long and are held in gorgeous natural settings, with offerings designed to lift up restorative and visioning practices. We host up to three residencies annually as we work to create a year round, adaptive retreat center space as part of our Big Vision.
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Accommodations and transportation from the nearest international airport are complimentary. We provide breakfast, lunch and dinner daily as well as access to daily group and individual restorative offerings.
To further support participation for all, we offer Travel grants as well as Back Home grants to cover costs like child, elder, pet care, etc., so that all Villagers are able to attend and can focus on the present moment.
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Villagers are not expected to produce anything while on retreat with New Seneca Village.
Throughout the residency, we encourage all to respond to their own rhythm and needs.
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New Seneca Village is an emergent project designed around many knowings and also wonderings about what our leadership looks like when grounded in restoration, connection and visioning and in relationship with land and nature.
We ask your intentional participation in the full breadth of offerings designed to support leaders in powerful
pre - engagement and whole self post - participation
in the New Seneca Village community.
Please see Our Village Ask below as you consider whether
this offering is right for you.
This experience was a precious GEM. Prepare to really rest, and to "be with" what comes with actually slowing down and feeling, to luxuriate in your pace, to let go of plans and allow for emergence of what is needed in the moment.
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Taraneh Sarrafzadeh, Healer, Artist, & Embodiment Guide, CA
New Seneca Village is interested in discovering the culture, approaches and futures that arise from leaders who intentionally explore and adapt their own patterns and practices.
We want to see how our individual shifts impact the collective change we are all seeking.
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New Seneca Village is an invitation to consider all of the resources you have access to
and to begin to center the sources of energy that feed your life force
while divesting from those that drain it.
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The New Seneca Village experience centers restoration, connection and visioning.
These are our definitions, what are yours?
An intentional focus on reconnecting with one’s Self, with nature, and with others out of a desire to contribute to life, work, and community from a resourced and sustainable place.
Recognition of one’s self in relation to and relationship with others, including community, nature, ancestors, and consciousness.
Connection to Self and purpose as a path to imagining and creating ways of Being and collective futures in a new way.
Villagers Spring 2023
2024 Residency Dates
Thank you for your interest!
Our 2024 residencies are closed
Any surveys completed will be considered for the wait list for 2024 residencies or for our 2025 residencies.
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Check back in August 2024 for 2025 residency dates.
Our Village Asks: Practices for Mutual Sustainability
New Seneca Village is a complimentary experience designed for intentional restoration.
We ask for the following three (3) commitments from all Villagers to ensure that we support leaders
who are able and ready to be engaged in the fullness of this offering,
and that all are in alignment with our intention to be a community stewarded ecosystem.
Restorative Vision Circles
Pre - Residency Connection
All members of each New Seneca Village residency cohort will come together in advance of their respective residency for
three sessions of exploration, connection and sharing related to restorative practices.
The Restorative Vision Circle Series is an opportunity for Villagers to prepare for the residency and the longer-term practice of integrating restorative practices into their work and life while also building relationship.
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Restorative Vision Circles support Villagers ability to be present and grounded when we gather in person, so that all are able to more quickly access restoration, connection and visioning during the residency. ​
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Time Commitment:
6 hours (3 2hour meetings) in the 1-2 months before residency
Feedback
In order to co-create tailored residency experiences, evolve our offerings and further define (and fundraise for) the intentional community of New Seneca Village,
we rely on Villager feedback.
We anticipate asking for 4 - 6 hours of your time providing feedback via surveys
over a 6 - 8 month time period.
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Your participation in this feedback process during the NSV pilot years will enable opt-in
feedback for future Villagers.
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It will also support our ability to fundraise if we can gather and share about the impact of this offering.
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Meet the folks opening up this
intentional community
Village Exchange
Participation in New Seneca Village is complimentary and we believe in energetic exchange.
Our request is that you exchange at least 12 hours of your time - within the year following your residency - to connect with, learn from, share with and support others
within the Village community.
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We know how much brilliance lies in our collective community. And that brilliance shows up beyond your work in the world.
We encourage you to bring your full self to this exchange - what delights and intrigues you, in addition to your areas of professional expertise. In this way, we intend to build a strong community of sustained leaders who are uniquely interconnected with one another over time
What Comes Next?
Intake Survey
Open Houses
Everybody is going through their own process in their own way and allowing that to happen in abundance is magical.
Being open and present also allowed unexpected things to emerge.
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Naomi Yu, Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, CA
Invitation Process
If you are interested in being a New Seneca Village leader,
please review our Living Values and if you align complete the survey below.
Please note: Our 2024 residencies are closed. Any surveys completed will be considered for the wait list for 2024 residencies or for our 2025 residencies.
We will host open houses for those who have completed intake surveys to connect, discuss the New Seneca Village experience, provide clarity and answer your questions.
We determine Villagers in alignment with our Founding Commitments.
Potential Villagers will be invited to attend an Open House to learn more about the New Seneca Village experience and mutual asks for sustainability.
After the open house, leaders chosen for a 2024 residency will receive confirmation invitations in late 2023.
As leaders confirm or pass on 2024 residencies, additional invitations will be extended throughout the early part of 2024.
I want future Villagers to know that an invitation to NSV is an invitation to leadership, modeling and practice. As we deepen the relationship to our inherent Knowing and practice that wisdom, we begin to model right relationship with our Selves and Others.
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We are given the gift of time to Be in our many Selves, and we are given new tools to maintain our resolve. Accepting the invitation to an NSV residency is accepting an invitation to time travel into the future that we are manifesting together.
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Taylor Mary / True Heart Consulting, LLC / Community Care / Durham, NC
Villagers Summer 2023
We invite you to pause and reflect on this offering and whether you have the interest and willingness to make space for the entirety of the New Seneca Village experience.
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Invitations are for leaders to apply and not a guarantee.
New Seneca Village will review and choose Villager cohorts in alignment with our intentions as defined in our Founding Commitments.
New Seneca Village
This was different than any other retreat space that I had been to. The fact that it was cultivated intentionally and dedicated to WOC, nonbinary people of color and intergenerational exchange - all amongst people whose lives are working for racial justice and liberation - is a powerful combination.
I was surprised at what is possible when we create flexible and open containers for play and rest. I was surprised that we were encouraged not to center talking about work! What a relief. I was delighted at the moments of laughter and the ways that folks were drawn into rites of passage and letting go in many ways.
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Anisha Desai, AORTA, transformative coach + strategist, Bay Area -CA
Invite to Pause
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As You Consider This Invitation for Your Self
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Sit quietly and comfortably with your feet on the ground.
Take 8 cleansing breaths. [In through the nose. Out through the mouth.]
Imagine the feels, smells, tastes and sounds of intentional community. Sense the energy of those around you as you gather virtually and physically to co-create spaces centered on restoration, connection and visioning.
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~ Is this experience an invitation I want to say yes to?
~ Do I have or am I willing to make the space for this opportunity to shift the ways I resource myself?
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~ Am I a (joy)full yes to the whole of this offering?
Close with 3 deep breaths.