We will offer this fully virtual daylong retreat three times in 2025. Participants are invited to register for this retreat on either Friday January 31st, Friday August 8th, or Friday Friday November 7th from 9:30am-4:30pm PST / 11:30am-5:30pm CT / 12:30pm-6:30pm EST with a 1 hour break from 12:00pm-1:00pm PST/ 2:00pm-3:00pm CT / 3:00pm-4:00pm EST. 

Join the Spring Up Collective and peer practitioners in learning from our organizational accountability wheel.

This if for you if: 

• You have been told that your organization or people within it have harmed folks in the community, their colleagues, or program participants
• The system designed to respond to a harm you've experienced did not comprehensively meet your needs
• Your organization keeps being pulled into controversies and conflicts in community and you are unsure how to set boundaries around what is your place to address
• You have heard about transformative justice and are curious how those philosophies and principles could be applied in your organization
• You want to think about accountability beyond task completion and deadlines
• You want to think about harm response beyond legal liability and HR
• People on your team are burnt out and overwhelmed
• Your team or community have experienced “incidents,” “DEI breaches,” microaggressions, anonymous social media accounts, or public call outs
• Feedback on your team tends to be either only positive or quite harsh
• Your organization's values conflict with your HR protocols

The daylong retreat is great for organizational leaders, people from Human Resources or community accountability teams or entrepreneurs thinking about how to create systems in their endeavors. Through an examination of Organizational Accountability, what harm looks like in the participants’ context, and consideration of the legal liability requirements of organizations, participants will leave with examples and inspirations of how they can respond to harm given their unique context.

How We Approach Organizational Accountability

Our curriculum reframes traditional diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) frameworks and practices, standard professional best practices, and accountability in an institutional setting to create a shared understanding of Organizational Accountability. We found that when people wanted to learn about DEI, they were often actually wondering how to understand, prevent, and respond to harm. The core issues people face in relation to diversity, equity, and inclusion are microaggressions, harm, and structural inequity. 

Our practice of organizational accountability grounds itself in the knowledge of who the organization is designed to be accountable to, and what it is accountable for by implementing governance and feedback systems that center those directly impacted by the organization's mission and vision. Organizational accountability is about translating values into practice, practicing generative conflict, preventing and responding to harm without centering liability or the state, and responding to patterns of harm and conflict through emergent and adaptive organizational strategy. Spring Up’s frameworks of accountability and the Organizational Accountability Wheel are informed by grassroots transformative justice and community accountability practice, and draw on the wisdom of the Indigenous Medicine Wheel, as expressed by the People of Standing Rock / Lakota, and integral theory by Ken Wilber. 

This daylong retreat is an overview of the Organizational Accountability Wheel, including core tools, policies, and frameworks to have holistic harm prevention and response mechanisms. Participants are expected to complete two reflection worksheets before the retreat itself, and then continue the work of translating what they learned into their organization beyond the retreat itself. Organizations also have the option to book the two day version of this experience for their private group, in which we go beyond overviewing the core concepts into self-auditing where your organizations systems currently are and co-designing next steps to implement these best practices in your community. If you are interested in the extended version of this experience for your organization, please email [email protected] with the subject “OAW retreat” including the size of your group. 

When you sign up for this retreat, you will get access to the accompanying online learning portal. On that portal you will be invited to introduce yourself and share a bit about what you are hoping to learn - this introduction will be used to help us sort you into aligned breakout spaces, so please do so as soon as you are able. You will also see the agenda for the day, an introduction to your facilitators, as well as an overview of our community agreements and harm response process. 

During the retreat itself:

• There will be plenty of space for you to ask questions or guide the learning based on what you need support in
• We encourage you to take care of yourself and do what will make you feel most comfortable including standing up, sitting down, laying down, stimming, turning your camera off, eating, moving around, stepping in and out of the room as needed
• Closed captions will be on for the entire retreat and all text on slides will be read aloud. There is also space for you to let your facilitator and breakout group peers know if there are other requests that could support you
• Most slides have accompanying visuals to support you in digesting information through text and imagery
• There are consistent breaks and pauses throughout the retreat in addition to the 1 hour break in the middle of the day
• Some breakout prompts include the option to journal independently instead of having conversation which allows you to choose how you prefer to digest and integrate what you are learning
• There are optional prompts throughout the day for somatic and embodied activities to get you into your body or to play a game. It is totally up to you if that is something that feels right, or if you would prefer to opt out. 

Before the retreat, we encourage you to let us know if you have specific accessibility needs that you would like us to meet. You can request live ASL interpretation, Spanish interpretation, visual descriptions, or other needs. Please try to give us at least 2 weeks notice for ASL or Spanish access. 

Once the retreat is complete, you will get access to the slides from the day as well as suggestions for how you can learn more about the topics explored within the retreat. We will also share a feedback form for you to tell us how the experience was for you or if you have any suggestions to make it a better experience in the future. 

Can my organization or workplace pay for me to register for the retreat?

• Yes, email us if you need an invoice for your group
• You can also register yourself and you will receive a receipt for reimbursement
•  Email [email protected] with any other questions 
• 2-10 people from an organization can register for this retreat. If you have more than 10 people who want to take this, we encourage you to reach out and schedule a private version of the retreat just for your organization. 

Who else will be there? 

We are excited that these spaces are a place for folks to connect across the ecosystem of liberation work. Many of our participants are leaders in nonprofits, education, grassroots community organizations, therapy or social work, intentional communities and philanthropy. We encourage you to make new connections or attend with your colleagues and focus on your own community. We do not have participation requirements: we trust that if this seems like a good fit for you, you are welcome. 

How long do I have access to the online portal with the slides and resources?

Forever! Access to the online content associated with this retreat does not expire. 

Can you share more guidance on how to choose the right price out of the sliding scale?

If you are a resourced formal institution, like a school, foundation, business, or nonprofit with a budget of over $1M, we ask that you pay at the top of our sliding scale options. This helps to subsidize our ability to provide at cost services to informal community based organizations and student groups with small budgets, who we invite to pay at the lower end of our sliding scale. Somewhere in the middle lie small and medium nonprofits, conferences and events, advocacy groups, etc, where we will follow your lead on the budget you have available for professional development, continuing education, and/or community engagement.

Does this retreat work for folks outside of the US?

Each individual can choose if the timing of the retreat works for them based on their time zone. If the time zone differences would make it difficult to attend, we would encourage you to sign up for one of our 6 week courses instead. 

Is this retreat only in English? 

We can offer live translation to Spanish and ASL interpretation with at least 2 weeks notice.