New Seneca Village :
Restorative Journey Residencies for Leaders
New Seneca Village (the Village) is a restorative residency experience that invites leaders and healers to access expansive resources (time, space, access to nature, restorative practices, intentional community and higher consciousness) for the sake of nourishing and sustaining their collective visioning for a just future.
The Village offering is designed for leaders working to advance justice in the world and is an invitation to center restoration, connection and visioning as 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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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.
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We are in awe of the love, intention 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, trans and non-binary folks upon whose foundations we build and who were afforded little opportunity to rest, to connect, to be cared for and to simply Be together.
We wonder what is possible when leaders like us are holistically and abundantly resourced in new ways.
We wonder what happens when we take the time and space to reconnect to an expansive understanding of resources beyond money.
This offering is an intentional exploration
of these wonderings.
Villagers Summer 2023
Villager Summer 2023
New Seneca Village is an invitation for leaders and healers who are ready to intentionally explore or deepen their exploration of their own restorative journey and who are willing to commit to the elements of this 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.
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The New Seneca Village restorative journey experience is designed to connect leaders and healers to the expansive resources of time and space, access to gorgeous nature, intentional community and restorative practices. Villagers have the opportunity to reconnect with themselves, their higher consciousness and others on a similar journey with the intention to expand their visions for their purpose, their work and their communities.
Villagers participate in a series of Restorative Vision Circles which create the opportunity for reflection, intention setting and connection. The Circle series is followed by an in-person residency held in a gorgeous natural setting, full of healer offerings designed to lift up restoration, connection and visioning practices.
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Accommodations and transportation from the residency venue nearest international airport are complimentary. We provide daily breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks as well as access to group and individual restorative practice offerings.Villagers have access to beautiful land and nature which we consider a partner in our restorative intention.
To further support participation for all, we offer Travel grants and 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 or create anything while on residency with New Seneca Village.
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New Seneca Village is an emergent project which hosts many knowings and also wonderings about what our leadership looks like when it is grounded in restoration, connection and visioning and in relationship with land, nature and intentional community.
Being a New Seneca Villager means participating in the full residency experience.
Please review Our Village Agreements 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 so that your leadership in life and work is intentionally grounded
in the restorative practices that work best for you
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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 other resources so as 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 nature, community and higher consciousness.
Connection to self and purpose as a path to imagining and creating our collective future in new ways.
Villagers Spring 2023
2025 In-Person Residency Dates
All in-person residencies are preceded by three Restorative Vision Circle series sessions. Dates below are subject to change, but will be finalized by survey close.
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Early Spring Residency: Friday, March 28, 2025 - Friday, April 4, 2025
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Late Spring Residency: Friday, May 23, 2025 - Friday, May 30, 2025
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Summer Residency: Friday, July 25, 2025 - Friday, August 1, 2025
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Intake surveys for 2025 residencies are open until October 30th, 2024.
Please note: Completed intake surveys will be considered for 2025 residencies or for our residency waitlist. Completed applications are not a guarantee of residency invitation.
Our Village Agreements: 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.
Restorative Vision Circles
Pre - Residency Connection
New Seneca Villagers come together in advance of their respective residency for three sessions of reflection, intention setting and connection.
The Restorative Vision Circle Series is designed to allow Villagers to prepare for the residency and the longer-term practice of integrating restorative practices into their lives and work, while also building relationships with others in our intentional community.
The Circle series support Villagers' ability to be present and grounded when we gather in person so that all are able to more openly access restoration, connection and visioning during the residency. ​
Time Commitment:
6 hours (3 2-hour sessions)
in the 1-2 months before the
in-person 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 stewarding this
intentional community
Village Exchange
Participation in New Seneca Village is complementary 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.
We know how much wisdom and 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 and what are your wonderings, in addition to your work and professional expertise. In this way we will build a strong community of sustained leaders who are uniquely interconnected with one another over time.
What Comes Next?
Intake Survey
Village Invitation Process
Villagers Summer 2023
If you are interested in being a New Seneca Village leader,
please review our Living Values and if you align with all of the elements of our offering, complete the survey.
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Please note: The intake survey for 2025 residencies will be open from August 1st until October 30th, 2024.
Any surveys completed will be considered for 2025 residencies.
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 restorative journey experience and commitments and to answer any questions.
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Please note: Only those who are invited to and who actually attend a Village Residency Open House will be considered for a Village residency invitation.
After the open house, leaders chosen for a 2025 residency will receive confirmation invitations in late 2024.
As leaders confirm or pass on 2025 residencies, additional invitations will be extended throughout the early weeks of 2025.
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
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 restorative journey 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.