New Seneca Village
A restorative,
nature centered, healing and visioning residency for global Black, Indigenous and women of color leaders dedicated to social justice.
New Seneca Village
New Seneca Village seeks to provide 10 to 30 day restorative healing residencies in nature, with opportunities for Villagers to explore multiple modalities for creating sustainable, trauma-informed self-care practices, as well as opportunities to connect and expand their visions for their work and their communities.
Creating space and time for women of color social justice leaders to explore
+ Healing and Restoration
+ Liberatory Practices
+ Connection
+ Collective Visioning
+ Creativity, Brilliance and Joy
in support of their sustainable leadership and through them, thriving sustained social movements.
NSV Values: Interconnectedness : Restoration : Self-Determination : Community : Visioning : Movements : Evolution
Why New Seneca Village : Why NOW?
​
Commitment to racial, social and economic justice is crucial to the evolution of our society. Women of color are leading the conversations, campaigns and movements that protect, defend and strengthen vulnerable communities, our moral consciousness and the earth.
Impacting the global systems that imperil women, children, seniors and communities of color is consistent, confronting and exhausting work. Having to continuously navigate white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal, homo and transphobic structures (within which care for women of color is not even a thought) exacerbates and compounds trauma. Fighting for one's intrinsic humanity and dignity is not a natural part of the human experience and intentional restoration is critical to right this imbalance.
New Seneca Village intends to support and connect women of color social justice leaders across issue areas and fields in service to the restoration of their mental health, spiritual psyches, creativity, visioning and joy.
Caring for myself is not self-indulgence,
it is self-preservation
and that is an act of political warfare.
​
- Audre Lorde
$145M Fundraising Goal
$25M Land, Design + Build
$108M Endowment
​
​
New Seneca Village is intentionally seeking a founding endowment in order to assert the right to self determination for the women who make up the Seneca Village community.
It is crucial that a space dedicated to actualizing healing, transformation and visioning for women of color is uncompromising in its vision and not beholden to the direction or whims of philanthropy.
Supporting social justice leaders and through them, social movements is a multi - generational mission. An endowment will allow for the existence of New Seneca Village in perpetuity. An endowment will mean that we can live our values including providing an equitable living wage to all staff, as well as covering residency costs for Seneca Villagers, including funds to cover travel and sabbatical costs back home, ie. childcare, elder care, petcare, rent payments for time away, so that socio-economic status is not a barrier.
Lastly, we intend to replicate the New Seneca Village model in different geographic locations to offer diverse healing environments and increased proximal access for a greater number of women. An endowment will allow us the resources to plan for and leverage this expansion over time.
​
Seneca Village is currently fundraising
For more information
​
New Seneca Village Provisions
New Seneca Village Residency Experience
The New Seneca Village Residency is designed to connect guests to themselves, to nature, to other leaders and to the healing power of spiritual, therapeutic and self-expression practices, so that they can vision from a place of restoration.
​
-
10 - 30 days of lodging in a small cabin in a beautiful natural setting
-
3 meals per day, plus snacks
-
Healing activities: Access to nature, meditation, movement, art therapy and studio, energy and body work, spiritual practices, etc.
-
Daily opportunities for accessing nature, healing, creativity, restoration, reflection, connection and joy.
-
Weekly opportunities for Villagers to interact, exchange ideas and vision together.
-
Access to Village bikes and cars to explore the nature in the area.
-
Opportunity to appear on the New Seneca Village podcast, highlighting residency guests and their work.
Access to New Seneca Village
New Seneca Village is open to cis and trans women of color social justice leaders internationally.
Social justice leaders are defined as those who commit their work and/or free time to the advancement of a just and inclusive society, including activists, organizers, movement builders, advocates, institutional and systems agitators, academics and artists.
Self Nomination: Leaders are able to nominate themselves for a residency.
Community Nomination: Peers, mentors and other community members can nominate leaders for residency.
​
New Seneca Village Invitational Retreats: NSV will host invitational retreats 6 times a year. Each invitational residency will host a cohort of up to 10 leaders for a 10 day stay. Invitational retreats will receive additional programming and a project support fund of $30,000 to support or seed projects resulting from the retreat.
Seneca Village Healing Initiative
​
New Seneca Village is invested in building the capacity of the healing and healing justice community by providing a semi-residency experience for teachers who come to share their offerings with New Seneca Villagers.
Teaching contracts include a stipend of $1,250, free room and board and minimal teaching hours, so that teachers can focus on integrating restoration into their own practices.
Founder/Designer: Ain Bailey
​
Seneca Village was born out of Ain Bailey's desire to prioritize the integration of nature, healing and visioning for the advancement of human evolution. Her deep love for black women drives her desire to provide transformative opportunities for Black, Indigenous and other women of color.
Ain Bailey has a background in community and real estate development and grantmaking and racial equity within both government and philanthropy. She is a graduate of Spelman College and received an MPA from Baruch College as a National Urban Fellow.
​
Add Pic here
