Community Leader

🅰 Community Building

First steps as a new CC
Building a core team
Communicating internally with your community
Upskilling your community
Facilitating community events
Community values and care

🅱 Workshop Organisation and Promotion

Putting workshop organisation at the heart of your community’s foundations
Organising workshops around the search for participants
Organising trainings with intention
The path from participant to Fresker

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The essential mission

Climate Fresk has come a long way since its inception in 2018. In just over five years, it has transformed from a small group of staff and volunteers trying to organise climate education workshops in France, into an international movement driven by climate educators and activists from all over the world. And you're at the heart of it!

What it means to be a Fresker, to be a part of this growing community, has evolved too. And now, so has our ambition. To both sustain and enrich this progress, we now see the need to strengthen our sense of community among Freskers. This means being well organised on a collective level, creating a sense of belonging that connects each Fresker to our common, overarching mission, and creating an ecosytem of which empowers each Fresker, in every corner of the globe, to upskill, to take action, and to have a greater impact.

This section on being a leader in your Fresk community seeks to support you and experienced Freskers in your country achieve that mission.

We believe that the Community Leader role as CC comprises of the two following interrelated parts:

Community building
Workshop organisation and promotion

Explore each page by clicking the buttons below and study the tips and guidance offered by the team.

What leadership is and isn't as a Climate Fresk Country Coordinator

The word leader can evoke many different connotations, often shaped by personal experiences and cultural contexts. For some, it may bring to mind images of authority and power, while for others, it evokes visions of guidance and service.

At Climate Fresk, we believe leadership is not about wielding control or making unilateral decisions; instead, it is about empowering individuals, fostering collaboration, and building a community where every member plays an active role.

Our vision of leadership is rooted in humanism, transparency, and collective action, with a focus on decentralised decision-making that puts you and your Freskers at the heart of the movement. Through this approach, we cultivate an environment where leadership is shared, and where everyone is encouraged to contribute to action for the common good of the project and for the living more broadly.

Take inspiration from the Ubuntu philosophy in Southern Africa, "I am because we are." This principle reflects a deep sense of interconnectedness and mutual responsibility, where leadership is about uplifting and empowering the collective.

What leadership isn't...

Leadership is not power. Leadership can often be confused with power due to the inherent authority leaders possess. However, power is about control, while leadership is about influence and inspiration. A true leader will guide others by example and encourage collective action from a place of trust and mutual respect.

Leadership is not coercion. A leader who resorts to coercion isn't leading at all, but rather manipulating or dictating. Whereas coercion diminishes people's autonomy and limits their ability to contribute their full potential, true leadership encourages collaboration and shared vision, empowerment and delegation.

Leadership is not unilateral decision-making. An individual who makes all decisions without consulting their community is not leading but controlling. The kind of leadership we want to foster involves actively listening to others, valuing diverse perspectives, and fostering an environment where collective input leads to better outcomes. Leaders who are inclusive and collaborative build stronger teams and more resilient communities.

Leadership is not about perfection. We can't expect each other to have all the answers or to never make mistakes. A leadership style based on perfectionism creates pressure and discourages creativity. Instead, with the right to make mistakes deeply engrained in Climate Fresk's values, we want to embrace vulnerability and growth, where members of our community acknowledge their limitations and trust each other to to do their best with the energy they dispose.

There you have it folks. All you need to now is keep these notions of leadership in mind as you seek to enrich your community of Freskers.

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