Participant Outcomes
Through this learning experience, participants can expect to:
- Solidify contextual and fundamental understandings of equity, justice, and access for organizations operating in relationship with land.
- Identify levers for organizational change within their organization and mobilize learnings to shift practices and mindsets
- Co-create containers for their learning and identify an organizational experiment that they will undertake, monitor, and assess throughout the cohort.
Timeline
Interest Form Opens: September 5, 2025
Interest Form Closes: November 28, 2025
Connection Calls: November and December
Who is the Relearning Cohort for?
The Relearning Cohort is for organizations engaging work related to building community relationships to place, where place is the intersection between physical space and culture (“space + culture = place”, Yi-Fu Tuan).
This includes land trusts, conservation organizations, community cultural organizations or non-profits working with land, or with programming that enages with land, water, or non-human communities.
This cohort is for people looking to experiment and problem solve alongside peers. As part of the cohort design, and to foster learning and metabolizing, we expect participants to apply in pairs. These pairs could include:
- A staff member and a board member looking to make some unilateral changes
- Two staff members at the same non-profit or organization
- Two unaffiliated staff at small non-profits or organizations who often collaborate and share learnings
- A land trust staff member and a highly engaged volunteer
You are not required to have the other member of your pair confirmed before submitting your interest form.
Why Now?
In the shifting landscape of the country’s and Maine’s environmental, conservation, and land-based sectors, Momentum continues to be in service of connection to the land and justice for people, advancing the growth edge of the modern conservation movement. This program seeks to be both proactive and responsive to the need to move organizations and people towards strategic action and change. Through sector sensing, our grant program, and input from program participants, we see that organizations have an appetite for the “what now” of equity and justice work. Momentum also recognizes that many organizations in the sector have been doing DEIJ-related learning, reading, and reflecting, and are looking for the next step in the journey. This learning experience is a space where organizations can talk about these questions of operationalizing equity that might not be welcome in other places.
Momentum also recognizes that participating in a cohort engages with equity, in a time when there’s increased hostility towards DEIJ subjects, comes with inherent risk. As we navigate this new landscape, Momentum recognizes the responsibility we have to mitigate the harms of our current moment both as a funder and a non-profit.
Cohort Programming - January 2026 - February 2027
Specific topics covered during cohort programming may change based on cohort participant input during the first four months.
Virtual cohort sessions are once a month for two hours with up to an hour of pre/post work in-between sessions. There will be three in-person meetings (noted below), locations TBD, and will be based on the geographic spread of participants.
Session 1 - January 15 from 10 AM -12 PM - Establishing Line of Sight and Foundations of Equity
Session 2 - February 12 (in-person) from 10 AM - 1 PM - Naming Values and Purpose
Session 3 - March 19 from 10 AM -12 PM - Abundance Panel (panelist TBA)
Session 4 - April 16 from 10 AM -12 PM - Designing and Experimenting with Change
Session 5 - May 21 from 10 AM -12 PM - Architecture of Organizational Change
Session 6 - June 11 from 10 AM -12 PM - Weaving Partnerships and Cultivating Engagement
Session 7 - July 16 from 10 AM -12 PM - On Land Justice
Session 8 - August 20 from 10 AM - 1 PM (in-person) - Decision-Making and Group Processes
Session 9 - September 17 from 10 AM -12 PM - Evaluating and Communicating Impact
Session 10 - October 15 from 10 AM -12 PM - Building Containers for Dissent & Repair
November - December - Implementation & Self-Evaluation Break
Session 11 - January 21 from 10 AM - 12 PM - Self-Assessments and Harvesting
Session 12 - February 11 from 1 PM - 5:30 PM (in-person) - Maintaining Momentum
The Team
Red Fong (he/they), facilitator and creator, has worked with Momentum Conservation since 2019, helping to develop and implement the Relearning Place Program in collaboration with the Maine Environmental Education Association. They bring experience facilitating cross-cultural dialogues, mobilizing organizational change in non-profit leadership, and weaving containers for participant learning and reflection. Red will be facilitating most of the sessions with support from other Momentum staff members.
Lindy Magness (she/her) serves as the Momentum staff member most closely supporting the administration and facilitation of the Relearning Cohort. With a background in non-profit programing design and a master’s degree focused on conflict transformation, Lindy cares most about helping people connect – to themselves, to each other, and to the natural world around them. This has looked like leading backpacking trips in British Columbia, growing food and community in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and more recently exploring the waters of Casco Bay any way she can.
External Facilitators and Workshop Leaders
To Be Announced
Acknowledgements
The learnings shared in this program are built on experiences and teachings from many individuals and organizations who have engaged with Momentum’s work over the years. We would like to recognize the contributions from community members and experts who provided feedback to help shape this learning experience including, estephanie guaregua maroáll, the Relearning Place Program design team, the participants of the Relearning Place Program, Brave Spaces, and other Momentum programming.
.png)
