Earth Circle

With the Summer 2025 Earth Circle, Heart-to-Heart seeks to support the intergenerational climate justice community in Massachusetts by helping leaders renew and grow even more life-giving and courageous relationships with their communities, one another, themselves, and the earth. Together, we will practice deep speaking and listening, drawing upon and combining tools of courage & renewal, nonviolent communication, co-liberation, art, and various spiritual traditions. We seek to create a circle that can hold and nurture leaders across age and geography in ways that support the long arc of their lives and the climate justice movement.

Historically, Heart-to-Heart has framed its core practices as Learning Goals, which draw heavily on Marshall Rosenberg’s language of Nonviolent Communication. CEO Steve Tumolo has further categorized these goals into the four MEDC skills: Mindfulness, Empathy, Decision-making, and Conflict transformation. The Learning Goals and MEDC skills can be specific and measurable in ways that can help some practitioners assess and hold themselves accountable to their own growth. 

The central practice of the Earth Circle: 

As climate justice leaders, we’re often mired in the urgency,  pressure and conflict of the political present. We will gather several times on Zoom and once in person to disrupt the urgency, slow down together, and support each other’s deep listening and learning. We will treat stillness and the earth as members of our Earth Circle. We will use the Earth Circle Touchstones to ground and guide our interactions and group practice.

Who does this event serve:

Leaders who consider themselves a lifer in the climate justice movement and have at least 1 year of actively engaging with the movement in their communities