Eldering in Times of Transformation
With Cheryl Rose, Zhiish McKenzie and Juana Berinstein
September 24-26 2025 | Toronto, ON and October 2-7 Cortes Island, BC
“A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species.” – Carl Jung
What IS the human purpose of the “third third” of your life? How might it hold meaning for you and for our world? What pressing questions are you holding as you journey into your 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s? What would it take to grow fully into the elderhood phase of your life with both deep humility and brave fierceness?
This program is an invitation into personal growth and an exploration of the unique contributions that eldering can offer to our communities and the broader society.
Your hosts will offer opportunities for our group to explore eldering not as a title but as a practice; ways of being, thinking, and acting “like an elder” to better meet the world’s increasing complexity. Join with a group of your peers to discover, gain clarity, identify goals, and set intentions for your personal eldering role and path. Together, we’ll prepare to move forward in distinct, heart-centred ways that call us into deeper relationship across generations – offering gifts to this present time and to a future that belongs to those who come after us.
Program Highlights
Participants Will be Invited to…
Become clearer about your own current understandings of “eldering”, through self-reflection, listening to peers, as well as considering the natural world as a metaphor and teacher
Identify patterns and insights from your life journey, in order to align any next steps towards meaningful eldering
Explore concepts of elderhood across cultures while paying attention to power, history, and relationship in how wisdom is shared
Through various artistic, somatic and land-based practices, explore how to access various internal resources to support your own meaning-making
Become more conscious of your own mortality – gently expand your consciousness of death and grief as key to being more grounded and present
Acknowledge and access your unique internal well of wisdom – and become more comfortable sharing your wisdom with others
Consider and reinterpret a spectrum of complexity leadership skills that seem particularly relevant to eldering roles; set your own goals for development
Who Will Benefit?
Family leaders, community leaders and system leaders who hear a call to grow into roles as mentors, guides, advisors and sages
Adults 50-90+ years, curious about their own human development potential in life’s later years
Older adults interested in contributing to a better world for planet and people
Social change agents who want to explore how to most relevantly stay involved as they age
Anyone interested in the concept and potential of positive elderhood in society
Adults under 50 years who are interested in expanding relationships with those they consider ‘elders’, and who are curious about their own capacity for eldering now, and in their futures
Eldering Fall 2026
In the Heart of the Don Valley, Toronto, ON
September 22 - 24, 2026
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Cheryl Rose is a leadership educator, a systems coach and an accredited Death Doula and End of Life Educator. She was one of the principal directors for the national Social Innovation Generation (SiG) partnership. She was the Associate Director of the Waterloo Institute for Social Innovation & Resilience (WISIR), the founding Director of the Rockefeller Global Fellowship in Social Innovation, a Senior Fellow at McConnell Foundation and a core member of the design and delivery team for the Getting To Maybe Social Innovation Residency program. Most recently, she co-founded the Wolf Willow Institute for Systems Learning. Cheryl mentors systems leaders and social innovators across the country and is revered for her kindness, her practical wisdom and her capacity to connect and uplift those at the frontlines of change.
Dr. Zhiish McKenzie is Aniishnaabe from the Temagami First Nation on Bear Island in northern Ontario where she belongs to the Turtle Clan. She has worked to improve health outcomes for Indigenous people her entire career and brings a whole person, whole systems perspective. In addition to her work as a family physician and a MD in the Roots To Thrive ketamine-assisted therapy program. Zhiish brings 25 years of experience as a culturally-centered wilderness guide in programs like Rediscovery and Outward Bound and has a profound commitment to the power of land-based traditions. A traditional healer, ceremony leader, musician, backcountry devotee, lifelong learner and the mother to two beautiful daughters, Zhiish is well known for being good company to those on deep journeys of healing, learning and transformation.
Juana Berinstein is an enthusiastic nonprofit leader with a wealth of experience in systems change, policy advocacy, strategic planning, and fostering stakeholder engagement. In 2021-22, she was part of a unique cohort that completed the Positive Deviants Fellowship at Wolf Willow Institute. Her role as the Director of Policy and Communications at the Association of Ontario Midwives since 2007 has been instrumental in driving campaigns for reproductive justice, including the renewal of Indigenous midwifery, equitable healthcare access for 2SLGBTQ, immigrant, and racialized communities, the establishment of birth centers, improved abortion care access, intersectional gender-based analysis, and pay equity. Juana holds a master’s degree in Communication and Culture from York University and Toronto Metropolitan University. She is a published author and public speaker, delivering impactful presentations at national and international conferences.
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$1,350 per person*
*Includes lunch each day
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10am - 5pm daily.
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Downtown Toronto in the heart of the beautiful Don Valley.
Register by June 1st and use code EARLYBIRD for 10% off!
If Toronto isn’t right for you this time, check out the registration details and dates for an October Eldering workshop at Hollyhock on Cortes Island here.
