FACILITATION CLIENTS
Facilitation-Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC): builds policies that deliver spectacular improvements in the speed of environmental progress. Structured as a series of semi-autonomous policy teams, the staff wanted to strengthen its ability to move at a pace that builds trust among partners and communities in its environmental justice and equity work and the spaciousness required for team cohesion and collaboration. Soil and Shadow facilitated their first team retreat and walked them through a process of identifying key challenges, developing their vision statement, activating a decision-making model that allows for equitable and distributed decisions, and integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion into their policy work.
"If you've been lucky enough to experience facilitation by Nikki, you'll know that she creates a brave space for sharing enlightening as well as difficult conversation and has an unparalleled ability to sense the room and shift energy when needed. Nicky can keep a group on track for hours and have us all be happy about it.
She is a siren with a beckoning smile that lures you back into the room, on topic and task. If you're ever tempted to stray, she can pull threads from the groups and tensions, weave them together and create a beautiful tapestry reflected at the systems level, thinking garnered from a wealth of experience that gives the group clarity in ways to proceed." - #NRI Team
Facilitation -#NoRegrets Initiative (NRI): Designer & Campaign Manager. The #NoRegrets Initiative has the distinction of being Soil and Shadow's first and longest-running client. For the last eight + years, we have worked together to save the agricultural soils of North America. As part of the inspiration for the name Soil and Shadow, the #NoRegrets Initiative continues to convene ranchers, farmers, philanthropists, investors, and other regenerative agriculture enthusiasts to ensure we're all working together to save our soil.
Nicky has the great honor of being one of NRI's main facilitators for the learning journey for the philanthropic regenerative agriculture learning journey, events, and other events such as health from the Soil Up, Women in Ranching, Gathering Fire, and Farm Field Days.
Facilitation- Gathering Fire Facilitation Workshop: Co-Designer and Facilitator. We see rural leaders regularly called to host meaningful and often “hot” conversations in their communities and nationally. Rural areas have never been homogenous and are becoming more diverse: between 2000 and 2010, people of color and immigrants, in particular, were responsible for 83% of the population gains in rural areas. How do we lead through challenges and harness these differences toward a better future? In our experience, the skilled facilitation of in-person gatherings is one of the most profound ways to transform conflict or stagnation into social transformation. To protect our soil, water, and air, build wealth for the most marginalized, improve health outcomes, bridge cultural rifts, build power for rural places, and other transformations we want to see, we believe we need strong conveners in our rural communities.
To this end, the #NoRegrets Initiative, Paicines Ranch Learning Center, and a trio of experienced conveners are piloting a three-day residential deep dive into facilitation skills, targeted specifically at leaders who identify as women with some prior experience in hosting groups and a desire to deepen their practice.”