Holding Space for Change

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We are living through a time of profound transition.

Across organisations, movements and communities, more people are being asked to hold conversations that matter — bringing people together across differences, navigating tension, supporting collective decision-making, and making sense of complexity.

Many of the people doing this work don’t necessarily call themselves facilitators. They might be organisers, managers, educators, community leaders, or people inside institutions quietly trying to shift the culture around them. They often find themselves holding important spaces for change without always having the tools, language, or support to do so.

As filmmaker and organiser dream hampton reminds us, “facilitation becomes governance” when existing systems begin to break down. The ways we gather, listen, and make decisions together increasingly shape how we live and work together.

Holding space is not simply about running meetings. It is a practice - one that many people are already doing intuitively, but rarely have the time, community, or support to deepen their practice and expand their knowledge and approaches.

The invitation

We are inviting a small group of practitioners to join a 9-month experiential learning cohort for people who hold space for others and want to develop their practice.

Together we will explore what it means to facilitate conversations that matter — to navigate complexity, foster creativity, support collective decision-making, and create spaces where learning, honesty, and transformation are possible.

The same group will journey together across the programme, creating space for honest reflection, experimentation, and mutual support. Throughout the programme, you will both participate in and co-create learning spaces — experiencing and practising different facilitation approaches while building your own capacity to design and hold them.

We will explore not only how to facilitate, but who you are as a facilitator — how you show up, how you relate to power and uncertainty, and how your presence shapes the spaces you hold.

You might be working within systems that feel constrained: corporate environments, public institutions, NGOs, or complex partnerships. Or you may be working in spaces that feel under-resourced: community organising, grassroots initiatives, or small teams trying to build something meaningful with limited capacity.

Part of the learning journey is exploring how practices of care, participation and imagination can take root within these contexts — and how small shifts in how we hold space can lead to meaningful change.

• Clarify your facilitation practice
• Strengthen your confidence in holding complex spaces
• Develop your toolkit for working with groups
• Connect with a network of peers facing similar challenges

The programme is designed to support significant personal and professional transformation, shaping how you work, lead, and collaborate long after the programme ends.

How we will learn together

This learning experience is designed to be experiential because we see facilitation as something you develop over time, and reflection on lived experience is a core part of how that learning deepens. During the programme you’ll get access:

8 x 3-hour workshops

Led by six experienced facilitators and practitioners, each session is designed as a live learning environment. You will experience a range of facilitation approaches; from embodied practices to collective sense-making, from working with power dynamics to engaging play, imagination, and nature. We will also make space to reflect on how the approaches you are learning might translate into and play out differently your own settings.

Peer learning sessions

In between each workshop small peer groups of 4-5 people will come together to reflect, integrate learning, and support one another in real-world facilitation challenges. You’ll also have the opportunity to volunteer to facilitate this space and put what you’ve learned into practice.

1-to-1 coaching

Individual sessions to support you in making the learning your own. You can use these spaces to explore your facilitation style, work through live challenges, and think about how best to embed new approaches into your specific context.

Welcome pack and learning journal

We want your learning experience to start well - so all participants will receive a welcome pack and journal. You’ll be supported to set some learning goals and provided with a set of reflection prompts to help you journal about your experiences.

Who this is for

This programme may be a good fit if you:

• Often find yourself holding important conversations or processes in groups
• Care about creating more participatory, thoughtful or humane spaces within your work
• Are trying to shift culture or ways of working within an organisation, team, or community
• Want to strengthen your facilitation practice, even if it is not your formal job title
• Are open to reflection, experimentation, and learning alongside others

You do not need to identify as a “professional facilitator.” Many people who hold space do so quietly within other roles.

Programme costs

• Supported tier - £800

  For individuals earning a low wage and with no significant savings or access to family wealth.

• Standard tier - £1,400

  For individuals earning an average or decent wage or those with savings/ family wealth.

  For team members joining on behalf of micro or small organisations.

• Solidarity tier - £2,000

  For individuals with disposable income or access to decent savings.

  For team members joining on behalf medium or large organisations.

Please choose the highest rate you can afford so that facilitators can be paid fairly for their time commitment, and we can continue to offer scholarship spaces.

If you cannot afford any of the above rates please contact ray@and-breathe.org to request a free scholarship place.

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Key dates

Programme dates & topics

All workshops take place online from 10-1pm on Fridays. Additional peer learning sessions are currently scheduled to begin in August but peer groups may choose to reschedule and follow a different pattern. Coaching sessions will be booked on an individual basis.