Hazel Hill Wood, Salisbury, UK
Join us for our community belonging in nature retreat in summer! We will be staying for two nights in a cabin in the beautiful Hazel Hill Woods in April. Our retreat is designed to cultivate regenerative belonging for mixed, bi-cultural or dual heritage, and multicultural people of colour.
About our Flagship Retreat
From our Founder, Isabella: “As a mixed, multilingual and multicultural person of colour, I have always held the question ‘Where do I belong?’ close to my heart, and deeply felt that I didn’t belong for most of my life. It was only through transformative experiences in nature when I felt safe and at home in my body for the first time. Nature helped bring me back to my essential belonging, supporting me in my mental health recovery, and bolstering my authentic identity and self-confidence.
I launched Roots of Belonging because I wanted to explore this grounded, regenerative belonging with others — so I offer you a space for us to replant ourselves in the universe, together.
We’re crafting a space for folks to explore their own stories of belonging in community with others, make special friendships with people who share lived experience, and deepen their connection to nature (what we call the more-than-human world).”
Our Philosophy
In terms of our approach, in designing our retreats we are informed by our co-facilitator Jahnvi Singh’s model of belonging (see About page), encompassing four things: connection to place, connection to others (including other-than-human species), connection to self, and connection to purpose.
These are the six core values that inform our work of belonging and connection to nature for our growing community:
Deep ecological listening
Animal joy and presence
Connection through play
Finding comfort in discomfort
Cultural curiosity and humility
Interspecies empathy
Location
Hazel Hill Wood is a charity safeguarding a wonderful woodland and site for outdoor education. For three decades the trustees at Hazel Hill have been welcoming people to find rest, nourishment and inspiration. It is a woodland that is lovingly looked after by the people who come hear. Through the wood and their buildings, the trustees of Hazel Hill hope to demonstrate how we can live differently, treading lighter on the earth and having a closer encounter with nature. The site, including residential cabins, is entirely off-grid to minimise carbon footprint.
Their vision for Hazel Hill Wood is for the land to be a thriving ecosystem where people come to heal and learn through deeper connection with the living world.
Their missions are to build:
A Place for Connection
A Practice of Connection
Partnerships in Connection
Financial Accessibility
Making these retreats accessible is of the utmost priority to us, as we understand how deep the barriers are to outdoors access for our community. In line with that, we will be offering 4 tiers of ticket pricing by way of a ‘Pay it Forward Model’ to support those on a low income.
We are offering one fully-funded bursary place on the retreat. Please get in touch if you are interested in applying for the bursary place.
Get in Touch
We will be offering remote 1:1 calls in June to those who will join us on the retreat, for some face-to-face time to get to know you, better understand how we can support you over the weekend, and answer any questions you might have.
In the meantime, please bear with us — we are beavering away to make this weekend as connective, supportive and nourishing as possible for you. Those who have signed up will receive further updates by email. You can also sign up to our newsletter below!
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any specific questions, concerns, or reflections you’d like to share.
We’re so excited to meet you and look forward to spending a beautiful weekend with you in the woods this summer!