Better selves fellowship brochure 2018

Better Selves Fellowship

at knoll farm

Focus • Reflection • Remembering

a place of refuge for leaders

“grounding - powerfully resorative time - community - radical hospitality” Dear Friend,

The challenges facing our nation and our communities are so vast that more work, more information,

faster and longer hours cannot be the only answer; what’s also needed is for us to be our better selves: clear-headed, compassionate, courageous, wise, determined. Every leader, activist and community member needs time to pause and remember, to refill their well, to return to a personal practice, and to make sense of things in order to be their better selves.

Building upon a long history as a refuge in the mountains and a place of learning and transformation, Knoll Farm created the Better Selves Fellowships to work on a personal or professional project of their choosing. To date, 68 fellowships have been awarded to leaders from 21 states. We award fellowships in a competitive basis to those who stand to benefit the most from the chance to focus, to read, to write, to work on a particular problem, or simply to get their heads back on straight by the experience of living on a healthy working farm.

Each fellow arrives with certain goals and intentions for the self-directed experience, which they pursue alone on the hill, in a conference room, on walks in the woods, over a meal at the long table in the barn.

What emerges naturally every week is a transformational group experience as energy forms around discussing the issues facing our country, taking breaks together, and asking each other the most important questions.

Everyone benefits tremendously from The Better Selves Fellowships. We practice radical hospitality by opening our farm and our lives here to these fellows, and they enrich this land and us with their stories and presence. Our larger community benefits from the example of their lives of service. I sat knee-toknee with almost every fellow for a few hours each morning helping them to consider this moment in their lives and what their work asks of them. I, in turn, connected to people and efforts for change all over our country. At a time when the nation’s narrative seems to be about walls and divi¬sions, together we practiced reciprocity, connection, and relationship. Everyone involved knows how different that tastes.

Here are some of their words.

Warmly,

Peter Forbes

“I left with more clarity for the next year as well as a new found interest in the intersectionality of race, environment and food”

Xochilth Franklin, 2017 Fellow, Operations Manager at the Center for Equity and Inclusion “The expanse of the land, the distance between the yurt village and the barn/office, the nooks around the property and stone slabs with quotes and paintings on them…all of these contributed to a sense of spaciousness and gentle magic. I didn’t feel pressed for time once all week, which is kind of miraculous considering how I feel most of the time at home! I got to remember how it feels to have time.”

“Wonderful people, open hearts and minds. Amazing food! The safety and beauty of feeling cared for.“ -Samantha Harvey, Fellow with EDGE Funders Alliance

“I walk away with focusing on the journey and the work.

Refuge is good for all people. Place matters.”

-Justice Rajee, CHI Elevate Program Manager for the Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center

“This is an opportunity to create circles of empowerment and holistic training, programming, supporting new friendships” – -Robin White, Parks Superintendent in Little Rock, Arkansas Photography Credit: Peter Forbes, Molly Messenger and Justice Rajee

700 Bragg Hill Fayston, VT 05673 802.595.0220 www.knollfarm.org