Facilitating Community Gatherings

Hiraeth Hope & Healing, Inc. hosts a limited number of in-person trauma-aware gatherings each year. These events are peer-led and community-based, offering space for connection, reflection, and shared presence.

Below are upcoming event dates and locations where facilitator proposals are currently being welcomed. Details about each gathering are available on the individual event pages.

Submitting a proposal is optional and does not guarantee selection. We value alignment, care, and thoughtful engagement, and we review proposals with intention and respect for the community we serve.

How Facilitation Is Held

Hiraeth Hope & Healing facilitators support gatherings and community spaces with care and presence, grounded in respect for lived experience. Their role is to help create environments that are attentive to group dynamics and held with intention.

Facilitators do not direct outcomes or set expectations for participation. Their role is to support space that respects choice, pace, and individual autonomy.

How Facilitators Support Our Spaces

Facilitators are attentive to group dynamics, boundaries, and pacing. They help maintain environments rooted in consent and choice, while remaining responsive to the needs of each gathering. Participation is always optional, and no one is required to share or engage beyond personal choice and pace.

Our facilitators come from a range of backgrounds and experiences. What unites them is a shared commitment to care, presence, and thoughtful engagement.

Facilitator Selection & Support

Facilitators are thoughtfully selected and supported by the organization. They receive guidance aligned with our commitments and community approach, and they engage in ongoing reflection as part of the shared responsibility for how space is held.

Upcoming Event Dates and Locations

Below you will find upcoming event dates and locations where facilitator proposals are currently being accepted.

April 16–20, 2026 — Surf City, New Jersey

Optional Reflection

If you would like a moment to pause before submitting, Helix’s Corner offers a seasonal reflection and prompt designed to support clarity and intention.
👉 View this winter’s reflection

Session Formats & Scheduling

Session formats and schedules vary by event type and location. Details are designed to support group size, pacing, and the overall rhythm of each gathering.

For five-day retreats, sessions are typically offered across multiple days. On Fridays, sessions are commonly scheduled as ninety-minute offerings held in small groups, with a maximum of ten participants. These sessions may be repeated to allow multiple groups to participate. On Saturdays, sessions are often scheduled as ninety-minute or three-hour offerings and are usually held with the full group of up to thirty participants. Sunday sessions are generally scheduled as ninety-minute offerings and are held with the full group once.

For Wellness Weekends, the schedule is more flexible and may not follow the same multi-day structure. Some Wellness Weekends do not include Friday sessions, and Saturday offerings may vary or rotate depending on the location, facilitators, and overall weekend design. Sessions during Wellness Weekends are typically held with the full group and are offered once.

When submitting a proposal, please indicate the event type you are interested in, your preferred session format, and general availability. This information helps us assess alignment with the specific structure and pacing of each event.

Join Us as a Facilitator

Hiraeth Hope & Healing, Inc. welcomes collaboration with clinicians, educators, and individuals with lived experience who are interested in contributing to community-based gatherings grounded in care and accountability.

If you are interested in facilitating a session at one of our events, you are invited to submit a proposal for consideration. When submitting, please include your preferred location or locations and general availability.

Facilitators are welcome, but not required, to attend additional portions of the event. Many participants choose to engage beyond their facilitation role in ways that feel supportive and aligned for them.

If you know someone who may be a good fit, you are welcome share this opportunity with them or share their contact information. Our team is happy to follow up directly.

We also encourage you to explore our work and reach out with any questions before submitting a proposal.

Strong Session Proposals:

Strong session proposals engage participants through interactive or experiential formats that invite participation rather than presentation. Sessions should respect individual pacing and choice.

Proposals may include practical tools, insights, or shared approaches that support understanding and exploration, without positioning the session as therapeutic or outcome driven.

Sessions should speak to points of connection across the constellation while recognizing the nuance and diversity within those experiences. Proposals are also expected to align with the overall mission and theme of the specific event.

Suggested Topics:

Proposals may explore a wide range of themes connected to identity, family, and lived experience. Topics can draw from reflective and relational frameworks, including trauma-aware approaches such as parts-based work, somatic awareness, narrative exploration, or other relational models, when presented in an accessible and non-clinical way.

Sessions may also address identity shifts and integration, intergenerational experiences, family systems, attachment, rejection, and repair. Consideration of cultural humility, working across diverse backgrounds, neurodivergence, and mental health is welcome when grounded in care and accountability.

Grief, loss, and reconnection are central themes for many participants. Proposals may explore ambiguous or disenfranchised grief, estrangement, reconciliation, navigating rejection or no contact situations, and the integration of past and present identities.

Creative and expressive approaches are also encouraged. This may include writing-based sessions such as memoir or personal reflection, oral storytelling, visual art, music, or other hands-on creative practices that support exploration and expression.

Proposals may also engage with questions of identity, ethics, and advocacy, including evolving definitions of family, boundaries, and the ongoing conversation around nature and nurture.

What We Provide:

Hiraeth Hope & Healing, Inc. recognizes the time, care, and preparation facilitators bring to community gatherings. To support facilitation and participation, facilitators receive complimentary registration for the event at which they are facilitating, as well as financial compensation for the session they provide.

Facilitators are also offered logistical and communication support before and during the gathering to ensure clarity and coordination.

Access to sessions and community gatherings is available throughout the event, subject to capacity and facilitation needs. Participation beyond a facilitated session is open to community members. Educators and clinicians who are not part of the impacted community may be asked to receive board approval to attend sessions or events they are not facilitating.

Many facilitators choose to remain engaged as participants during the event, though this is always optional and based on individual comfort and availability.

If you have specific accessibility needs or considerations, you are welcome to reach out so we can discuss how best to support your participation.