Sisile’s project in Finland – Active Hope – Beyond Climate Fatalism. Deep Ecology Workshop

While being a volunteer of the European Solidarity Corps in Helsinki, Veronika put in place her own initiative of solidarity with “Active Hope – Beyond Climate Fatalism. Deep Ecology Workshop“

The project consisted in a day-long workshop on Deep Ecology inspired by the work of scholars and activists Joanna Macy and Molly Brown and it was facilitated by Sisile and a co-facilitator, Ying.

The purpose of the workshop was to bring together a group of young people to collectively explore our inner responses to the state of the world, with a particular focus on concerns related to the climate and ecological crisis. We co-created a space where vulnerability and mutual support were welcomed — recognizing that repressing unsettling emotions isn’t an effective or healthy coping mechanism. Avoiding these feelings can lead to apathy, hindering active citizenship, mutual care, and collective compassion. In short, a lack of supportive spaces contributes to climate (and broader social justice) inaction.

By facing difficult emotions together as a group, offering mutual support, and reminding those overwhelmed by climate anxiety or powerlessness that they’re not alone, we tried to break the emotional paralysis that can come from confronting such heavy realities and that leads to “inactive” citizenship.

The first part of the workshop focused on building a sense of trust and belonging within a group of people committed to social change.

After an introductory session, the first two activities consisted of active listening practices in pairs. In the first practice, participants were invited to pair up and were given some open-ended questions on the theme of gratitude — for example: “Some things I love about being alive on Earth are …” or “A person who helped me believe in myself is or was …” The second activity followed a similar structure, but the open-ended gratitude questions were replaced with introspective prompts about the participants’ identity and concerns: “Who are you?”, “What concerns you the most?”, “What emotions, feelings, thoughts, and sensations arise in you when facing this concern?”.

In the afternoon we facilitated other activities, such as the Council of All Beings — a communal ritual that allows participants to temporarily step beyond their human identity and speak on behalf of other life forms.

Thanks to activities like the Council of All Beings, the project also fostered a sense of solidarity with other-than-human beings. In the spirit of deep ecology, we worked on viewing human beings not as entities separate from nature but as part of it. Feeling this interconnectedness and solidarity with non-human beings allowed participants to experience an expanded sense of identity — an ecological self.

Later activities shifted towards exploring where each of us finds motivation to take action. Participants were invited to share their intentions for future action, with the hope that openly voicing these commitments in a supportive environment would reinforce their resolve.

This happened especially in the last activity, The Wheel. Macy and Brown identified three areas where it’s possible to take action toward systemic change (in particular regarding environmental and climate justice action), and we presented these areas to the group. Participants then gathered into smaller groups of four, where one person was invited to share their motivations and intentions for future action. The others listened silently and attentively, then responded in turn by speaking as the voice of doubt (offering constructive critiques of the speaker’s intentions), the voice of an ancestor, and the voice of a future generation living with the consequences of those choices. After some time, participants switched roles.

We followed this activity with a closing reflection, where participants were invited to share their thoughts on the question: “What supports you and gives you hope?”.

The earlier activities of the workshop helped create a non-judgmental, safe space for this kind of sharing. Sisile believes this environment encouraged participants to be honest — not to hide behind excuses, but to openly acknowledge the struggles currently holding them back from taking action. In this way, they feel the workshop successfully met its purpose and personally Sisile learned a great deal about how team building works in practice.

This initiative was supported along the CLIC project. C.L.I.C. for “Coordinating Locally in order to Increase More Changes with  the European solidarity Corps” is a cooperation partnership we participate  in with 9 other like-minded organisations from 9 European countries. Together, we want to increase the impact and the visibility of the European  Solidarity Corps in our communities, while providing young people with a  strong educational value along their volunteering projects.