New Seneca Village :
Restorative Residency Experience for Leaders
Welcome
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The New Seneca Village Restorative Residency is an intentional experience designed to accompany leaders and healers on their restorative journey for the sake of their leadership in life and work.
This experience is an invitation to center restoration, connection and visioning as crucial leadership practices within an intentional community.
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With this offering, we hope to contribute to leaders’ personal and professional development of practices that support their ability to nourish and sustain their collective visioning for a just future.
We believe that sourcing our leadership in new ways is critical in a world that is increasing in complexity and urgency.
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Villager Summer 2023
New Seneca Village is an invitation for leaders who are ready to deepen their exploration of their own restorative journey, and who are willing to commit to each of the elements of the Village experience with a spirit of curiosity for what might unfold in their lives and their leadership.
The Village centers Black, Indigenous, women of color leaders and healers working toward justice and is intentionally
inclusive of trans, gender expansive, and queer folks of color within our broader community.
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If this is you, please read on.
Who is New Seneca Village?
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Why This Offering?
New Seneca Village is interested in discovering the strategies, approaches and futures that arise from leaders and healers who intentionally explore and adapt their own patterns and practices.
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We want to see how our individual shifts impact the collective change we all seek and are working to create.
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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 so that your leadership in life and work is intentionally grounded in the restorative practices that work best for you.
New Seneca Village is a liberation practice.
The Village holds many knowings, and also wonderings, about how our leadership transforms
when it is grounded in restoration, connection and visioning.
We are clear that being in loving and intentional relationship with ourselves,
with land/nature, with restorative practices and with/in community
are crucial elements to creating and inhabiting freedom.​​​​​
Restoration
An intentional focus on reconnecting with one’s Self, with nature and with other resources so as to contribute to life, work and community from a resourced and sustainable place.
Connection
Recognition of one’s self in relation to, and relationship with others including nature, community and higher consciousness.
Visioning
Connection to self and purpose as a path to imagining and creating our collective future in new ways.
New Seneca Village centers restoration, connection and visioning.
These are our definitions, what are yours?
The New Seneca Village offering is not something to be observed or consumed,
but an experience to be co-created.
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Being a New Seneca Villager means bringing
your active attention and intention
to the fullness of this restorative residency experience.
If you are ready to actively commit in this way, please read on.
The Village Restorative Residency Experience
​The Restorative Residency experience is made up of five gatherings including:
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3 online Restorative Vision Circles;
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1 week in person Restorative Connection Gathering; and
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1 online Restorative Integration Circle
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Restorative Vision
Circle Session #1
Restorative Vision
Circle Session #2
Restorative Vision
Circle Session #3
Restorative Connection Gathering (in-person)
Restorative Integration Circle
Upon completion of the restorative residency experience, Villagers become a part of the Village Ecosystem
which hosts ongoing opportunities to gather centering restoration, connection and visioning within our intentional community.
Restorative Vision Circle Series
We know that the duties of all of our various roles will always demand precedence in our lives and leadership.
The Restorative Vision Circle series is our first collective step into the Village experience. It is intentionally designed to create time and space to reflect on that demand, as we unearth our individual and collective patterns and practices and explore the restorative intentions we hold for our lives.
Each of the three sessions in this series allows our intentional community to presence and practice restoration, connection and visioning for the purposes of expanding our restorative practices in life and work.​
Villagers Summer 2023
Villagers Spring 2025
​Villagers Spring 2025
In - Person
Restorative Connection Gathering
Our fourth gathering is an in-person, week-long gathering where Villagers have access to expansive resources: spacious time, connection to nature, restorative practices, intentional community and opportunities to explore higher consciousness.
Together, we engage in self - reflection and practice liberation within our intentional community. This time offers the opportunity to renew our relationship with nature which we consider a partner and teacher. There is plenty of space to explore your questions and to expand your vision for your leadership in life and work.
At the heart of this experience is agency — the freedom to shape the restorative journey that best supports your needs and wants. With an emphasis on Being rather than Doing, you will have the space to slow down, listen inward and move at a rhythm that feels right for you.​​​​
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What Will This Cost?
Villagers Summer 2025
Integration Circle
An ongoing invitation of the Village restorative residency experience is the practice of pause and intentional time centering reflection and noticing as a way to implement restorative practices into our life and work.
During the ​Village Restorative Integration Circle, we will explore our integration of restoration, connection and visioning after the in-person Restorative Connection Gathering.
This session is an invitation to reground, reflect and connect on how you clear the path for yourself to intentionally show up in your life and work ongoingly and will also be an opportunity to meet Villagers beyond your residency.
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​What's the Catch?
New Seneca Village is a complimentary experience designed for intentional restoration.
Villagers are not expected to produce or create anything
while on residency with New Seneca Village.
We ask for the Following commitments from all Villagers.
Attention and Intention
The Village is a container within which Villagers can deepen and expand their own restorative journeys.
It is also a place for leaders, who are clear that restoration, connection and visioning are crucial to their leadership, to be connected in intentional community.
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The Village experience is a practice of giving and receiving, with folks receiving in alignment with the attention and intention with which they show up to each Village opportunity.
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We commit to Villagers who intend to show up to this experience with a deep sense of commitment.
Village Exchange
Participation in New Seneca Village is complementary and we believe in energetic exchange.
Our request is that each Villager exchanges at least 12 hours of their time - within the year following your residency - to connect with, learn from and share with others within the Village community.
We know how much wisdom and brilliance lies in our collective community. And that this brilliance shows up beyond our work in the world.
In this way we build a strong community of sustained leaders who are uniquely interconnected with one another over time.
We ask all Villagers to complete two reflection surveys during their restorative residency experience.
These reflection surveys allow us to learn and iterate our offering in real time, while also supporting our ability to communicate about this work to future Villagers and potential funders. ​
What are the dates for 2026?
Villagers Spring 2023
Villagers Summer I 2025
Villagers Summer I 2025
2026 Restorative Residency Dates
The following dates highlight when each restorative residency experience begins and ends. Villagers will receive specific dates for each of the five elements once they are invited.
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Spring I Restorative Residency Experience: February 18, 2026 - April 22, 2026
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In-person Gathering [Washington] : Friday, March 27, 2026 - Friday, April 3, 2026
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Spring II Restorative Residency Experience: April 15, 2026 - June 17, 2026
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In-person Gathering [Washington] : Friday, May 22, 2026 - Saturday, May 30, 2026
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Summer I Restorative Residency Experience: June 10, 2026 - August 19, 2026
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In-person Gathering [Tennessee]: Thursday, July 23, 2026 - Friday, July 31, 2026
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Fall Restorative Residency Experience: August 12, 2026 - October 21, 2026
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In-person Gathering [California] : Thursday, September 24, 2026 - Friday, October 2, 2026
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What Comes Next?
Interest Survey
You deserve this space and the opportunity to align with yourself and your purpose. Take it seriously, as in be sure to guard the times and your energy surrounding this gathering and space. It's a deeply sacred and joyful blessing. It can be as intense or as light as you need it to be,trust the process and trust your inner knowing . Honestly best decision I made in 2025 to step outside of my fear of rejection and apply.
— Tia Smith, Full Well Fitness
Village Invitation Process
Open Houses
Invitations
Villagers Summer 2023
If you are interested in being a 2026 New Seneca Village leader,
please review our Living Values and each of the five elements of the restorative residency experience.
If you align with each of the elements of our offering and intend to show up fully present for this experience, we invite you to complete our Village interest survey.
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The interest survey for 2026 residencies will close on Friday, October 3, 2025.
Please note: Completed interest surveys are not a guarantee of a restorative residency invitation.​
​The Village will host a series of Open Houses for potential Villagers in advance of a restorative residency invitation. ​​
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These Open Houses - offered from January 6 - 15 - allow the opportunity for us to get to know you and for you to meet us and learn more about the Village restorative residency experience and commitments.
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Please note: Only those who are invited to, and who actually attend an Open House will be considered for a Village restorative residency invitation.
After the open house, leaders chosen for a 2026 residency will receive confirmation invitations by January 22nd.
As leaders confirm or pass on 2026 residencies, additional invitations may be extended throughout the early weeks of February.
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We determine Villagers in alignment with our Founding Commitments.
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We prioritize leaders who work in non-profit spaces, in particular frontline movement organizers, elders, low-income folks and others to whom resources are not traditionally extended and whose work is about advancing collective progress.
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More on how we define leaders here. ​​
I’d love for people to know that the residency experience is like a portal, a pathway, into the possibility of renewal in every dimension of our lives. Entering the experience was a series of moments for deliberate decision-making around ways we wanted to restore, with full autonomy and agency. That kind of choice—alongside carefully held containers and facilitation—is one of the beginning seeds for learning how to lead a more liberated life.
— Denise Shanté Brown (she/her),
Creative Co-conspirator
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I'm literally telling everyone I know about this experience and encouraging folks to apply. It such a unique and important experience, the concept of resting and restoring is actually controversial and I appreciate the centering those of these concepts as something that we all deserve. It's a moment to again center yourself and talk to yourself and know yourself in a deeper, spiritual, life-changing way.
— Susana Cáceres, CipotaVoz Strategies, Oakland, CA
I was hesitant to apply for this residency and to accept the experience. I am the kind of person who seeks hyperproductivity as a way to avoid being with myself. I was scared.
But during my time at the residency, I learned valuable insights about myself and my needs, and developed a new community that supports each other in our healing and growth.
I am so thankful.
— Lan Nguyen, Educator, Bay Area, CA
We invite you to pause and reflect on this offering. Consider whether you have the interest
and willingness to make space for the entirety
of the New Seneca Village restorative residency experience.
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Invitations are for leaders to apply and not a guarantee.
New Seneca Village will review and choose Villagers
in alignment with our intentions as defined in our
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.