Facilitation skills training for the climate movement

One of our most powerful tools for building the climate justice movement is our ability to work well together, in ways that enhance collaboration, harness group wisdom, and ensure that all voices are heard and respected.

This training is for those who are committed to building the climate movement through empowering groups and communities to work together effectively and meaningfully. If you regularly run group meetings, facilitate team decision-making or planning processes, or engage in difficult conversations or challenging group dynamics, this training is for you.

Effective facilitation is the key to unlocking the potential of diverse groups. Skilled facilitators make complex processes easier and support the participation and emotional resilience of those around them.

This heavily subsidised training is designed for people actively engaged in the climate justice movement, particularly those who regularly work with groups or communities to achieve shared campaign goals. 

What you'll learn

During this two day course, we will cover:

• Practical facilitation: group processes and the skills required to apply them
• Understanding the essential principles of facilitation
• Creating safety and welcoming difference to harness group wisdom
• Gathering and pooling the wisdom of the group
• Maximising participation
• Developing greater self-awareness and emotional resilience in groups
• Skills to make meetings work well
• Capacity to manage hotspots and challenging conversations
• Confidence to facilitate challenging group dynamics

This training is versatile and can be applied to a range of settings in the climate movement (and beyond!), including leading volunteer groups, hosting decision-making and strategy sessions, handling challenging conversations, and building emotional resilience. 

This training is suitable for those new to facilitation as well as those who want to refresh their existing facilitation skills or learn new approaches. 

Am I eligible for this training?

This heavily subsidised training is designed for people actively engaged in the climate justice movement, particularly those who regularly work with groups, networks, or communities to achieve shared campaign goals. 

This training is suitable for:

• grassroots activists, community group leaders, and volunteers; 
• employed staff in not-for-profit climate advocacy organisations, in roles such as community organisers, mobilisers, and campaigners; 
• climate movement facilitators, educators, and trainers; 
• participants who are already connected or affiliated with a community group, organisation or campaign working towards climate justice. 

Dates & times

• Sunday 22 June 2025, 9:30am - 5:00pm
• Sunday 29 June 2025, 9.30am - 5:00pm

Note: attendees must attend both days.

Pricing

1. Staff member of a climate justice organisation - $200
2. Volunteer - $75
3. Scholarship - $0 (to apply for a scholarship fill out this form)

Who is hosting the training?

This two day facilitation training is a partnership between The Sunrise Project and Groupwork Centre. 

The Sunrise Project is a network of changemakers who believe in the power of social movements to change the world. Now, more than ever, we need to nurture and scale powerful movements to solve the climate crisis. Sitting at the intersection of social movements and philanthropy, we’ve developed a ‘directed network’ model that supports networks of people and organisations to work together to achieve large-scale change that wouldn’t have been possible by individual organisations acting alone.

Groupwork Centre has been a leader in the field of facilitation and group work for four decades. The organisation is driven by a belief in the power of conscious collaboration as a means to create sustained and systemic transformation. Since 1984 Groupwork Centre has been working with social and environmental justice groups, not-for-profit organisations, government and business. Through its training programs the organisation supports leaders and facilitators to listen deeply across difference, pool collective wisdom and harness the power of collaboration.