Lifeboat Builders

Now Recruiting Our 2025 Cohort!

Do you know a lifeboat builder who could use a little support?

The world today is turbulent. Things are already bumpy, and they’re getting bumpier. To navigate these times, we need to find innovative ways to fundamentally transform how we think about and work with the land and each other. 

We think the best way to do that is to develop a fleet of lifeboats – local, grassroots, human-scaled resilience networks working together for mutual support.

The Lifeboat Academy is our proposal for how we do that. We are currently accepting nominations for our 2025 cohort of lifeboat builders.

Whether you’re just starting out and want a little guidance or you’re a seasoned lifeboat builder looking for a little social support, we want to connect.

You’ll be joining a group of up to 25 other lifeboat builders to develop your own plans for growing your local resilience network with the support of both seasoned lifeboat builders and your peers.

Our nominations are open until the end of January but the cohort starts meeting before the end of the year. You can join as an individual or team. You can nominate yourself or someone else who you think could benefit from some support.

Read more about how we evaluate our nominees and select our winners here.

Why become part of the Lifeboat Academy?

We offer a variety of resources to support people building place-based resilience networks, including:

  1. Mutual peer-to-peer support group
  2. Relational (relationship-based) – limited to 25 builders
  3. Guidance / mentoring from seasoned lifeboat builders
  4. Effective collaboration, project management and team development tools

You will work together with others in the cohort to design your own syllabus and skill-development plan with guidance from seasoned lifeboat builders.

Then we’ll help you design your next phase of lifeboat building. We’ll set you up to run, debug, and debrief your 2025 experiment – with support along the way.

You’ll also get access anytime on our Help Desk and 1-on-1 support.

All our work freely based on the principles of reciprocity and the pay-it-forward model. Lifeboat builders are encouraged to participate in our commitment pooling experiment.

Check out our ongoing events and peer support spaces here.