Cultivate true resilience for challenging times.
Cultivate true resilience for challenging times.
Learn from real-life tools that have been piloted in a collaborative and diverse project.
Embody the principles of resilience.
The course is meant for individuals, families, communities and organisations
Starting May 11th, 2026
Photo: Mitchell Luo (Unsplash)
What Is the Weaving Resilience Course About?
Why Energy Systems Matter for Sustainable and Regenerative Development
We are living in times of great complexity.
Climate crisis. Political crisis. Wars.
This course is an invitation to stop reacting and start responding based on real experiences applied to your context. In this course, you will actively engage with the complexity around you, supporting a more sustainable and just future for individuals, communities, and organisations.
You will be provided with a range of meaningful interactive activities to integrate the learning within your community/group contexts, along with support and guidance from experienced facilitators.
In a social-ecological system, resilience reflects the capacity to sustain human well-being in the face of change, by buffering shocks, adapting, and when necessary, transforming.
This course is built based on tools and insights developed through an exploration of Ecovillages Resilience to Climate Change.
It distills learnings from communities around the world — blending lived community wisdom with expert resilience science to offer practical, real-world tools for thriving through change.
It’s not just theory — it’s tested, grounded, and woven from the stories of people already living resiliently.
If you are interested in the pilot that was ran with 20 ecovillages around the world, head to our blog to hear how the participants gained more resilience during the course.
Why Energy Systems Matter for Sustainable and Regenerative Development
Photo: NextGENNA
In this course, you will actively engage with the complexity around you, supporting you on a more sustainable and just future, for individuals, families, communities or organisations.
You will be provided with a range of meaningful interactive activities to integrate the learning within your community/group contexts, along with support and guidance from experienced facilitators.
Why Energy Systems Matter for Sustainable and Regenerative Development
Why should I enroll?
Key Benefits
Deepen understanding of resilience of social-ecological systems;
Explore tipping points and the impact of climate change and polycrisis on our communities;
Create space to connect with the Earth and your ancestors;
Gain clarity on your own values and purpose, strengthening your ability to make decisions aligned with a meaningful life;
Explore local, bioregional and regional resilience;
Develop a grounded sense of inner stability and adaptive capacity to navigate personal change, stress, and uncertainty;
What You Gain for your community:
Frameworks to understand your own patterns and reactions, fostering greater self-awareness and emotional regulation;
Explore tipping points and the impact of climate change and polycrisis on our communities;
Learn to design strategic pathways and scenario-plan for long-term challenges, moving your team or organization from reaction to proactive vision;
Gain clarity on your own values and purpose, strengthening your ability to make decisions aligned with a meaningful life.
Build a practical toolkit of participatory activities and processes that you can directly apply to engage your community, clients, or colleagues in building resilience.
The Journey to Resilience - What you will learn?
We will spend time understanding, engaging with, and mapping personal and interpersonal resilience, and why we are doing this work.
Root Yourself: Map your personal and interpersonal resilience. Why are we doing this work? You will use the Tree Model to understand your own system dynamics.
See the Whole: Explore global and local tipping points. Understand the polycrisis and its impact on the systems you care about.
Envision the Future: Move beyond despair. Develop skills to envision alternative future scenarios for your community or bioregion.
Weave It Together: Learn and apply resilience attributes to create strategic pathways that strengthen your projects over time. Connect with the land and ancestral wisdom as a source of guidance.
Gaia’s 4D Framework: Unique and impactful approach to Sustainability & Regeneration.
Social, Ecological, Economic, and Worldview dimensions combine to offer a holistic approach to sustainability. Gaia’s 4D Framework connects people, nature, local economies, and personal growth to create balanced and resilient comunities and projects.
The programme is divided into four interconnected dimensions: Social, Ecological, Economic, and Worldview.
Each dimension spans eight weeks and can be taken individually as Focus Course or as part of the full course.
Social
Enhance your leadership and collaboration skills with practical tools to empower communities, advance social justice, create inclusive solutions, and implement effective governance strategies.
Starts: 6 October 2025
Ecological
Master regenerative design and ecological practices to restore nature, applying principles of permaculture, ecosystem resilience, and innovative environmental solutions.
Starts: 12 January 2026
Economic
Develop regenerative economic models by integrating local economies, ethical finance, conscious consumption, and systems that foster prosperity without depleting natural resources.
Starts: 25 May 2026
Worldview
Expand your perspective by embracing holistic values, ecological ethics, and transformative spirituality while balancing innovation with ancestral wisdom.
Starts: 23 March 2026
Course Details
Course format:
Online, flexible modules
Price:
Options based on what's best for you: £300, £350 or £400.
Limited number of partial scholarship available, apply here by Sunday May 3rd, 2026
Duration:
4 months
Workload:
Approximately 3-5 hours per week
Structure:
8 Modules - Live sessions, Forums, and Complementary material
Live Sessions
90-minute sessions for each Module, every other Saturday at 1 PM UTC
Is the Weaving Resilience Course for You?
This course is for anyone who is interested in deepening their understanding of social-ecological system dynamics of their community or organisation.
We also create the space for those who want to understand their own personal and interpersonal resilience and how this interconnects with the wider whole.
We will explore strategic actions to address sustainability challenges, while building capacity for adaptive and transformative change.
It's for anyone who is asking "What can communities nurture today to be more resilient tomorrow?"
Photo: Steve Le (Unsplash)
Course facilitator
The GEDS Full Course is guided by dedicated professionals with real-world experience across all dimensions of sustainability.
Meet some of our facilitators:
Ad Vlems
Ad Vlems is a pioneering figure in the ecovillage world, having founded Boekel Ecovillage, an inspiring example of sustainable living. He has transformed his life to focus on sustainable living with a positive impact and inspiring others.
A documentary about Boekel Ecovillage, made by the European Commission, has been broadcasted in 155 countries worldwide on television. Ad has participated in Project Resilience, on which the Weaving Resilience course is based.
He is also part of the Keystone Community project which applies one of the tools that you will learn to use in this course, the Resilient Tracker. More than 15 Dutch communities are involved with it.
Course facilitator
The GEDS Full Course is guided by dedicated professionals with real-world experience across all dimensions of sustainability.
Meet some of our facilitators:
Ad Vlems
Ad Vlems is a pioneering figure in the ecovillage world, having founded Boekel Ecovillage, an inspiring example of sustainable living. He has transformed his life to focus on sustainable living with a positive impact and inspiring others.
A documentary about Boekel Ecovillage, made by the European Commission, has been broadcasted in 155 countries worldwide on television. Ad has participated in Project Resilience, on which the Weaving Resilience course is based.
He is also part of the Keystone Community project which applies one of the tools that you will learn to use in this course, the Resilient Tracker. More than 15 Dutch communities are involved with it.
Testimonials - these are from the participants from the pilot (read more about the pilot here) (read the details here)
“I have already started applying it in my own understanding and dealings with the climate crisis, but also in my work, I have started to look at it from the lens of resilience.”
“There were useful frameworks that I have now suggested suggested to my community, I'm bringing a 'broader spectrum' thinking to the conversation. Before it was about having our own water supply and better systems for electricity distribution. Now it's about thinking about what will be feasible 100 years ahead, taking inspiration from existing wisdom, and including a bigger picture.”
”This course is delightful in the sense that showed me the transdiscipline involved in understanding resilience from the origin: the individual worldview, up to the collective perspectives. A box full of tools and methods to share and help spread reflections at other scales."
“I enjoyed a lot the spiral structure from the personal to the collective views. I also enjoyed the academic resources provided throughout the topics"
"The Weaving Resilience Course is well-structured, conceptually rich, and grounded in systems thinking and regenerative design. The Resilience Tracker Activity and results of the circle diagram which gave visual snapshot was particularly insightful and that is where it all came together"
”My biggest learning was understanding the interconnectedness of resilience in various systems - emotions, relationships and adaptation. i also came to see how my work in climate psychology can be supported by this process. the frameworks used were new to me and it was refreshing and positive to see the amount of work that has already been done in this area."
Have questions? We’ve got answers.
No previous experience is required. All you need is a passion for community building and collaboration.
The course is designed to fit busy schedules with around 10 hours per week of flexible study. Though highly encouraged, Live Sessions are not mandatory and are recorded to be watched later.
Yes! The course provides hands-on tools you can apply immediately in your community.
An energy systems course explores how energy flows through living, social, and economic systems, and how these flows shape resilience, equity, and long-term sustainability.
No. This course is accessible and experiential, combining systems science with practical tools and real-world applications.
Entirely online with live sessions, group discussions, and self-paced assignments. You’ll have access to experienced facilitators, a supportive learning community, and rich resource materials.
Yes. The course is designed for people working in community development, sustainability, education, social innovation, and regenerative design.
Participants have life-long access to the course material. Though the course has a defined length, participants can go back to the material any time after the course completion.
Have questions? We’ve got answers.
An energy systems course explores how energy flows through living, social, and economic systems, and how these flows shape resilience, equity, and long-term sustainability.
No. This course is accessible and experiential, combining systems science with practical tools and real-world applications.
Entirely online with live sessions, group discussions, and self-paced assignments. You’ll have access to experienced facilitators, a supportive learning community, and rich resource materials.
Yes. The course is designed for people working in community development, sustainability, education, social innovation, and regenerative design.
Participants have life-long access to the course material. Though the course has a defined length, participants can go back to the material any time after the course completion.
An energy systems course explores how energy flows through living, social, and economic systems, and how these flows shape resilience, equity, and long-term sustainability.
No. This course is accessible and experiential, combining systems science with practical tools and real-world applications.
Entirely online with live sessions, group discussions, and self-paced assignments. You’ll have access to experienced facilitators, a supportive learning community, and rich resource materials.
Yes. The course is designed for people working in community development, sustainability, education, social innovation, and regenerative design.
Participants have life-long access to the course material. Though the course has a defined length, participants can go back to the material any time after the course completion.
An energy systems course explores how energy flows through living, social, and economic systems, and how these flows shape resilience, equity, and long-term sustainability.
No. This course is accessible and experiential, combining systems science with practical tools and real-world applications.
Entirely online with live sessions, group discussions, and self-paced assignments. You’ll have access to experienced facilitators, a supportive learning community, and rich resource materials.
Yes. The course is designed for people working in community development, sustainability, education, social innovation, and regenerative design.
Participants have life-long access to the course material. Though the course has a defined length, participants can go back to the material any time after the course completion.
Join us!
This course bridges the inner and outer work, empowering you to act with greater coherence, agency, and strategic insight in all spheres of your life.
Speak with us on WhatsApp!