You might be a driven self starter that has opened up your own center/community.
It's possible that you're transitioning from conventional teaching to facilitation in an SDE space.
In our experience there are a lot of dedicated people that do amazing work with young people but that are longing for more confidence in their role as facilitators.
We know what it’s like!
We have experienced this reality ourselves. We know how inspiring and daunting it can be working with youth in radically new ways. Supporting them (and their parents!) on their self-directed journey can be challenging to say the least.
The vision is clear - but how do you make it happen?
This is why we decided to put together a Support Program specifically designed for SDE facilitators that want to deepen their facilitation skills.
We help you unlock your own potential so you can support young humans to do the same!
Our Facilitation Support Program offers a pathway to the Self-Directed Education (SDE) Youth Rights Accreditation—an international recognition for educational spaces that champion human rights, with a focus on the rights of young people.
This accreditation provides recognition that bridges youth-centered methodologies with conventionally accepted educational frameworks. It supports the sustainable growth of youth rights education, enhances legal recognition, and amplifies respect for this global movement rooted in fostering independent, responsible, and fulfilled young people.
Interested in pursuing accreditation? Read more here.
During 6 months, through a mix of video content, live online group coaching sessions and accountability partner sessions, you get the tools to co-create a new way of relating and communicating with the youth in your life by learning how to:
Deepen your confidence and facilitation skills.
Develop new practices to support self-directed learners in developing more autonomy and independence.
Co-create a consent based learning culture with young people.
Develop more collaborative, equitable relationships with youth.
Build consent-based and trusting relationships with the young humans and their parents.
Identify and learn strategies to let go of control and power over young people.
You get:
We gather two Mondays per month (3-5 pm PST/ 6-8 pm EST) and share our tried and tested tools and methods - providing facilitators with tangible support to deepen their confidence and facilitation skills, develop new practices to support self-directed learners in developing more autonomy and independence, and learn how to build consent-based and trusting relationships with learners and their parents.
We pair you up with another participant who you will meet privately every two weeks work together towards your desired deschooling/facilitation goals. Accountability partnership is a brave space to check in on reflections, progress and share celebrations, struggles and curiosities. It's a giving and receiving that empowers you to keep on doing the work outside of the group coaching sessions. You can even keep this up after the program is over if you jive!
Freedom to Learn is an online self-study course for parents and adults supporting youth that want to deepen and broaden their understanding for how self-directed learning happens and how to best support self-directed learners. You recieve access to this program (value $350) as part of our Facilitation Support.
“This program was such a wonderful opportunity to increase our knowledge and understanding of SDE. Before the program I really lacked confidence of who we are and what we are offering. When it comes to taking path less traveled the supportive seems non existent. Thus, when my partner found this opportunity, it did feel too good to be true. I really enjoyed how much effort was spent on creating this container of safety that allowed us to listen, to feel, to even shed some tears. It was a space for those of us who are uniquely approaching education and have questions about any or even all of it. You will get out what you put in. It’s intentionally designed so that we can lose our inhibitions and ask the questions you need. Sari and Becka are so special with hearts of gold. Thank you for trusting your guts and taking the risk to dive into the what feels like unforeseen waters of SDE. I’m eternally grateful for the pioneering you’ve led to help all of us find the light at end of tunnels."”
Mercedes Gearhart, Luminary Village
“I have so much greater clarity about my values as a facilitator and the type of culture I want to intentionally create after having taken this program. I have more meaningful tools I can use to do this in community, a greater reflective capacity, more insight into common roadblocks with communicating with parents, and ways to communicate outwards with them to support their inner work. My inner transformation has created a steadiness and clarity that shifts the energy in the space, and I think gives folks a sense of permission to be steady in themselves, too. The most important thing I take away from this program, is the sense of solidarity, community, support, and validation with other folks doing this work - our paths are parallel, and we don't have to go this alone. We are better together, in dynamic relationship, in the container Sari and Becka have created and held for the group.”
Sarah Hancock, The Children's Community
“I am so glad I took the golden opportunity to be a part of this program. It’s given me more confidence in this type of education, more connection with and encouragement from others, and a better language to speak about it (plus my own continued deschooling). I’m so much more confident in SDE as a wider thing, which surprisingly makes me more relaxed and “flowy” as a facilitator and parent liaison. Beyond the great content, there has been a depth, a sense of community, and even a sense of love in the program and our cohort that I did not expect. Sari and Becka are beautiful humans who are artful at holding space for others.”
Shawna Pitts, Clearview Sudbury School
“I feel both grateful for and extremely satisfied with all the support I've received during the Facilitation Support Program. It's an experience that has completely shifted my way of looking at, talking to and behaving towards kids. I'm transformed - as a facilitator and as a mom. Totally connected to myself I can fully connect with the kids. I'm so grateful to finally have had the opportunity to experience true vulnerability, authenticity, curiosity, diversion, creativity and infinite play! Thank you Sari and Becka for guiding me in my process and showing me how to become free.”
Daniela Ruelas, Karuna ALC
“Big thanks to Sari and Becka for modeling for me what being a facilitator really means. What a gift.”
Jessica Seevers, KindKin Collective
To help support equity and in an effort to balance accessibility with the financial sustainability of the program, we are offering sliding scale payment options depending on where you reside and where your economy is based (Global North or Global South*). We also offer 6 month payment plans for those needing them.
*Global South Economies include Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Pacific Islands, and the developing countries in Asia, including the Middle East.
If you are a person that is marginalized and inequitably impacted by systems of power, please reach out to us to inquire about scholarships.
This program is for SDE facilitators that have experience working in SDE spaces with young people, but feel the need for tangible support to deepen their confidence and facilitation skills, develop new practices to support self-directed learners in developing more autonomy and independence and learn how to build consent-based and trusting relationships with learners and their parents.
The content of the program is partly pre-defined (based upon our experience in what we see facilitators struggle with) and partly co-created with participants depending on individual/ group needs. Some of the content covered is: Agile tools for intentional culture creation; Fostering choice and autonomy; Building equitable relationships; Setting healthy boundaries; Radical self-acceptance; Power of apology; Conflict resolution; Consent-based support. Other themes and topics are emergent based on what is relevant for participants.
We support you by providing concrete tools and methods to help you develop more collaborative, equitable relationships with youth through letting go of power and control while learning how to more deeply trust young humans (and yourself!).
You get the tools to:
Replace coercion with consent and foster a learning environment where young people can thrive.
Develop ways of communicating with youth that lead to more authenticity, connection and ease in the center.
Co-create a conscious culture based on equity and empowerment for all.
You unlock your full potential as a facilitator so that you can fully support the autonomy and freedom in the young people you support.
Our job is to support you by holding space, listening, mirroring and sometimes challenging limiting thoughts or beliefs. We also share our experience, knowledge, knowhow and expertise in order to help you move from being stuck to taking intentional action to support you to reach new depths of your facilitation practices and relationship with youth. That being said, you will get out what you put in. In other words, the outcome will depend on your own efforts, commitment to the process and willingness to do the deep work.
Becka is an experienced teacher gone rogue, with an extensive and unique path within alternative education. Having grown up in the Montessori system in Sweden, she moved to Mexico in 2003 where she founded two Waldorf initiatives and Explora, Mexico’s first Agile Learning Center. Deeply committed to youth rights & liberation advocacy, Becka dedicates most of her time training parents, teachers and facilitators, and creating content for SDE families. She is the mama of a neurodivergent teenage unschooler.
Becka is a master at connecting the dots and sharing bounds of knowledge in impactful and meaningful ways that are changing the very fabric of the world we live in: she’s a catalyst. Her unique commitment and determination to advocate for youth liberation while supporting parents and facilitators in evolving their conscious communication is a fountain of inspiration.
Sari González, Director of Explora Agile Learning Community and Co-founder of Radical Learning, is an unschooling mama, educator, experienced parent coach, and facilitator trainer known for her clear, practical focus and dedication to intentional culture creation. Leaving the corporate world to advocate for youth empowerment, she has spent the last 20 years humanizing education through initiatives like Summer Search, Farm School NYC, and Cottonwood NYC. By empowering adults to support children's learning, autonomy and agency, she champions youth liberation and social justice. Sari provides innovative tools for parents and educators to radically shift the way they think about, speak to, and relate to young people, helping them to learn and thrive.
Sari is a badass communicator and great at both conflict resolution and setting firm yet loving boundaries. She is a true defender of kids’ freedom and has an amazing gift in creating intentional & conscious cultures that center the voices of young people.
