Why: Build the skills, knowledge, and relationships we will need to collaboratively envision and cultivate a healthier, more equitable, and regenerative future for our region.  

Where: Rochester Convention Center

When: Friday, April 4 – Saturday, April 5, 2025

Who: Leaders and representatives of organizations, businesses, and government (Friday) and Concerned citizens – anyone and everyone welcome! (Saturday)

Day One – Friday 4/4 | 12:30pm - 5pm
12:30 Registration/Networking
1:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks
1:40 Panel discussion: “How can organizations contribute to co-creating a better future for our region?”
2:10 Garth Fagan performance & interactive experience
2:30 Panel discussion: “Why and how should we pursue a collective impact approach?”
3:00 Topic-specific table discussions
3:50 Closing Remarks
4:00 Networking/Happy Hour
5:00 End

6:00 — Don’t miss the after party! Join us as we participate in First Friday. For added fun, join the climate trivia challenge!

Day Two – Saturday 4/5 | 8:30am - 4pm
8:30 Registration/Networking
9:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:15 Keynote + Q&A w/Kit Miller (Director Emeritus, MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and author, Culture Shift: Nonviolence at Work)
10:00 Big Questions Blitz
10:50 Break
11:00 Breakout Sessions #1
11:50 Lunch
12:45 Breakout Sessions #2
1:35 Break
1:45 Breakout Sessions #3
2:35 Better Futures Fair
4:00 End

Breakout Sessions

Choose a track, or mix and match!

Community Organizing Track

  • “Organizing” has become a popular term in the activist community in recent years, but what does it actually mean? How is organizing different from other approaches to social change? What does it mean to be an “organizer?” This panel discussion will feature professional organizers from the Rochester region representing different organizing traditions who can help us answer these questions and more.

  • If organizing is all about building the power of regular people to affect change in the world, “base building” is a set of practices used to identify, recruit, and empower those regular people. This session will offer a primer on the theory behind building people power and introduce participants to several foundational practices used to build a “base.”

  • So you’ve got an organized group of people and a policy goal you want to win, but how do you actually go about winning it? Organizers approach making change by running campaigns, which are specific, time-bound projects focused on winning a demand and building power along the way. Join this session to learn the basics of planning a policy advocacy campaign with a special focus on the process used to understand the network of power your campaign exists in: Power Mapping.

Climate Communications Track

  • To successfully co-create equitable, regenerative, resilient communities that can withstand the pressures of a dynamic world, we must foster a culture of effective communication and strengthen our ability to constructively engage in conflict. Drawing on ideas from Dr. Marshall Rosenberg and others, this experiential workshop will explore Nonviolent Communication, which centers deep listening, self-awareness, and the non-judgmental expression of each person's needs as the basis for working through conflict and differences of opinion.  

  • What if you thought of the audiences you communicate with about climate change as a partner?  What could you do to make them look good? In this experiential two-part workshop (50 minutes each), participants will be introduced to applied improvisation exercises, techniques, and principles used toward communicating more effectively and empathetically about climate change, particularly with skeptical audiences.

  • Are you interested in advocating directly to your elected representatives for climate solutions, but aren’t sure how to effectively do so? Then this training is for you! Come learn the basics of how to prepare for, participate in, and follow up on a lobby meeting, as well as how to get involved in local lobbying efforts.

Climate Policy and Advocacy Track

  • Are you interested in advocating directly to your elected representatives for climate solutions, but aren’t sure how to effectively do so? Then this training is for you! Come learn the basics of how to prepare for, participate in, and follow up on a lobby meeting, as well as how to get involved in local lobbying efforts.

  • There’s a lot of important work happening at the state level to advance effective, equitable climate policies. In this session, you will learn about key pieces of legislation that climate advocates and members of our local delegation are trying to move forward, as well as barriers to getting those bills passed and how you can help out.

  • How we design our communities and decide what goes where is critical for preserving greenspace, creating vibrant neighborhoods, limiting sprawl and transportation emissions, and making resources accessible. But zoning and land use policies can be hard to understand and influence! So in this session, our panelist of experts will provide an overview of the most important issues and guide us toward effective advocacy opportunities.

Earth Care Track

  • Why is soil so important and how can we keep it healthy? What does it mean to care for the land in different settings and situations? In this session, our panelists will share how they dig in, get their hands dirty, and literally regenerate the Earth! 

  • Climate change is caused by an excess of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, primarily from humans’ use of fossil fuels. So what can we do to clean up these pollutants and other pollutants that are directly and indirectly harming our health? Our panelists will identify a range of approaches and inspire us to proactively care for the air we breathe. 

  • As Indigenous communities have long known, water is life, so we had better take good care of it! We are fortunate to have abundant freshwater in our region, but the quality of this water is under threat. This panel of experts will help us understand what those threats are and what we can do to address them. 

Shifting Systems Track

  • Though our lives are shaped by systems in profound and sometimes very problematic ways, they are often invisible to us and can seem impossible to change. In this session, we will explore how systems work and what conditions hold them in place, equipping you with a basic framework for how to approach the challenge of intentionally shaping them for the better. 

  • Much of our current economic activity is structured as a linear “take, make, waste” or “dig, burn, dump” process that is clearly not sustainable or aligned with the goal of protecting our climate. This extractive economy is also driving massive wealth inequality, while largely failing to meet human needs. In this session, you will learn about an alternative approach and how you can play a role in implementing that approach here in our region.

  • What skills and knowledge do young people need to care for the planet and deal with the environmental challenges they will inherit? How can schools and parents provide this education, and what advocacy efforts are necessary to support that work? Our panel of experienced educators will dive into these questions and more!

Self-Care and Personal Growth Track

  • What does it mean to be psychologically healthy right now? Join Dr. Emma Nelson, a psychologist working at the intersection of mental health and climate change, as she explores the emotional side of the climate crisis. Dr. Nelson will cover climate emotions, roadblocks and growth opportunities therein, and ways to build emotional resilience in tumultuous times.

  • Grief work is a way of sharing our pain for the world in a contained and compassionate space. It can help ease isolation, honor losses, and free up energy for joy and meaningful work. Please join us for a ritual adapted from Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects, including music and optional sharing.

  • What do you think 2030 will be like? And how about 2050 or 2200? These questions can be hard to answer for ourselves, and even more difficult to speak about with others. Dr. Janet Lewis and Dr. Emma Nelson will lead an exercise designed to help individuals and groups practice "futures thinking": our ability to hold complex and sometimes contradicting visions of possible futures and to share our ideas with others.

Program Advisory Committee

Marcus Cooper - Teen Empowerment
Katie Rygg - Color Penfield Green
Sandy Schneible - Letchworth Gateway Villages
Jeff Halik - Rochester Rotary
Julio Jordan - Ibero American Action League
Jackie Augustine - BluePrint Geneva
Lynn Duffy - Butler/Till
Dorothy Leasure - Rochester Youth Climate Leaders
Erin Turpin - Rochester Ecology Partners
Lorna Wright - Genesee Land Trust
Bleu Cease - Rochester Contemporary Art Gallery
Ronnie Pollack - Indigenous Health Coalition
Aqua Porter - RMAPI