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Session 1: Settler Colonialism 101
Introduce ENGO representatives to the fact that colonization is a structure and not an event. Identifies key ways that colonialism moves through individuals and organizations.
Session 2: Positionality
ENGO representatives learn how to articulate their social location within a settler colonial state, and in relation to potential Indigenous partners.
Session 3: Inherent Indigenous Governance 101
Introduce the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues. Examples provided.
Session 4: Building Better Relations
ENGO representatives will road test ways they can implement previous workshop key points to re-imagine partnerships with Indigenous nations.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
Session 1: Diagnosing Settler Colonialism in the Enviro Sector
Participants will be asked to share ways in which they have diagnosed and traced power in social justice movements and/or in the ENGO sector. This workshop will make space for discomfort as part of promoting decolonization.
Session 2: Inherent Indigenous Governance
A mix of advanced and introductory theory, this workshop delves into legal and political pluralism, naming the fact that Indigenous nations have their own sources of political authority that they can (and do) draw on when addressing environmental issues.
Session 3: The Nonprofit Industrial Complex
ENGO participants are introduced to theories and examples describing the Nonprofit Industrial Complex and the “Shadow State.” Purpose is to show how settler colonialism structures civil society.
Session 4: Decolonizing ENGO-First Nation Partnerships
This workshop delves deep into how ENGOs can partner with Indigenous nations beyond the Nonprofit Industrial Complex while promoting deference to inherent Indigenous political leaders.
Cost: $100 (or register 4 staff from the same organization for one stream and get the 5th registration free)
All registrants will be provided with a link to access the recordings and presentation slides for 60 days following each session.
The Indigenous only space will be collaborative in nature but critical in approach. This track is a space for Indigenous folks within the ENGO sector to come together to discuss their experiences and work, with an eye to taking a position on what the sector might need to do in order to promote decolonization. Participants will use the first session to define our goals for the remaining three meetings. Therefore, session topics named here are proposals only.
Session 1: Naming the Cannibal: Settler Colonialism in the ENGO Sector
Session 2: Proposed topic: Reflections on working in the ENGO Sector
Session 3: Proposed topic: Centering Indigenous Thought in the ENGO Sector
Session 4: Proposed topic: Visioning a Decolonial Environmental Sector
Cost: Free
Dates:
90-minute sessions, starting at 1:00 PM ET for all dates:
February 5 & 26, March 12 & 26, April 9 & 23 and May 7 & 21
Cost: $200 per participant (Zoom Meeting)
Sustainability Network and Raissa Marks bring you an opportunity to join an online group leadership coaching program with fellow ENGO leaders in early 2026.
Group coaching blends one-on-one coaching with guided discussion and uses the power of the group mind to amplify personal and professional learning and growth. It involves a small group of individuals who come together as a supportive peer group for a series of sessions facilitated by a professional coach.
The first session will involve introductions, reviewing the program goals and logistics, identifying the main themes/topics to be discussed, and establishing group guidelines. Subsequent sessions will involve check-in questions, individual coaching for two participants on that session’s topic/theme, and reflection questions. The last session will be a wrap-up session to reflect on learnings and next steps. Participants will also have access to one individual coaching session.
This program is designed for Executive Directors of small-to-medium-sized environmental ENGOs (those with fewer than 25 employees) in Canada. Ideally, the cohort will be made up of eight individuals (min 6, max 10) from different types of organizations, at different points in their career path, and from different demographic groups (e.g., gender & gender identity, ethnicity, region, etc.). The program will run in English.
How to Apply
Interested leaders should email Raissa at raissa@raissamarks.ca by December 14 to arrange a brief 1-on-1 Zoom chat to ensure a good fit for the program and answer any questions you may have. By mid-January, those selected for this cohort will be invited to register.
Your Coach
With over 20 years in the non-profit sector, Raissa Lily Marks is a collaborative leader with a passion for fostering healthy communities and empowering the people within them. She is a skilled facilitator with extensive experience leading diverse groups of people through consensus-based decision-making processes. Raissa is an ICF-credentialed coach who helps her clients achieve clarity and realize transformative professional and personal growth. She is a strategic thinker with experience in policy work at both the federal and provincial levels. She currently lives in Montreal.
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