Future Environmental Leaders

The world is crying out for real leadership, for people with the passion and the intelligence to understand long term global issues as well as the political cunning and business nous to tackle these problems once and for all. It seems we often have either the passion or the power, but rarely both in the same person.

Of course we’ve tried to get the powerful to care—with only small progress—but we’ve never tried to give power and influence to people who care. Until Now—until the Future Environmental Leaders program

The Future Environmental Leaders (FEL) program is an audacious experiment to grow and cultivate a whole new breed of world leader in time for a complex and fragile future.

The aim? To help people who care gain positions of power and influence. To train green minds in the ways of power and politics, and to equip them as effective leaders for the new century.

The Future Environmental Leaders (FEL) Program is an eight-month course during which a small number of high-achieving, young people learn many of the skills necessary to become our environmental leaders of the future. The program will be run in both Melbourne and Sydney in 2007 and applications are open to all students currently enrolled at university and recent graduates.

The FEL Program is scholarship based (no cost to participants except a small contribution to the retreat running costs) and includes four main aspects:

1. Skill Workshops

42 hours of formal training with the express goal of building the capacities of participants to enable them to help facilitate more environmentally sustainable behaviour. The workshops will improve and develop skills in using the media, project evaluation, teamwork, leadership, negotiation and influencing, relationship building, behaviour change, creative thinking and problem solving, presentation skills and public speaking, project planning and prioritisation and emotional intelligence. As well as improve understanding of environmental political structures, mentorship, the history and dynamics of social change, personal aspects of leadership, funding and environmental careers. Participants will meet every second Tuesday evening from 6pm to 9pm in Melbourne CBD for these workshops. Workshops start in April and end in November. Participants must attend every workshop and may need to do up to one hour's preparation for each workshop.

2. Residential retreat

A nine day residential retreat will be held from Saturday the 1st of July until Sunday the 9th of July. The retreat aims to further develop skills introduced in the workshops. During the retreat, participants will be intensive coached by experts on a range of skills relevant to the environmental leader. There will be a large emphasis on improving skills in the areas of personal and environmental communication as well as effective media use. Participants must attend the full retreat and will be asked to contribute $200 each toward accommodation and food costs for the nine days.

3. Sustainability Projects

Run concurrently with the workshops, program participants will develop and implement a 'sustainability project' in their local community. The twin aims of this project will be to help create more sustainable communities and to provide valuable community based environmental change management experience to the participants. The creation of each project proposal will be guided over the workshop's of 'just-in-time' learning where participants will be given skills for each stage of their project planning at such a time when each skill becomes necessary. Participants will meet every second Tuesday evening from 6pm to 9pm for a project meeting in their small project groups (3-4 people per group). Project meetings start in April and end in November. Participants must attend every group meeting and will need to spend up to four hours a week outside of the meetings doing project work.

4. Mentorship

Ongoing individual mentorship relationships with current social, business and environmental leaders will be arranged for program participants.

Applications to take part in this program open every year in February.