Become a Certified Nesting Ambassador

The Evolved Nest Initiative announces the Nesting Ambassador Program, the opportunity to take up the mantle of a wellness leader. You can earn a certificate at your own pace. 

The Evolved Nest and the Kinship mindset that accompanies it are wellness promoting. They represent the ways all our deep ancestors lived and understood the world and their place in it. They arise from a planetary consciousness, which is sorely needed today. You can take up this consciousness, participating in the planet’s arising immune system. 

The dominant culture undermines evolved nest provision and fosters a domineering mindset that brings about extensive destruction and suffering among all lifeforms. In order to shift the dominant culture from its trauma-inducing systems to wellness-promoting systems we need to: [1]

1.  Change mindsets. In this case, understanding our evolutionary history as cooperators who jointly raise children with love (according to evolved nest principles) is key. Also important is taking up the Kinship Mindset or Indigenous Worldview—this will be the focus of an additional ambassadorship module created later.

2.  Alter the objectives of the trauma-inducing systems. We need to move away from the Sacred Money and Markets Story that has been forced upon us and return instead to the Sacred Living Earth Story that is part of our ancestral wisdom (Korten, 2015). The objectives of the latter story are to foster wellbeing in individuals and communities, human and non-human, and to keep Life flourishing and flowing into the future.

3.  Redistribute power regarding who decides the rules that govern each system. Global efforts at localization—of food sources, investment, education, etc.—are fundamental to restore the power of decision making to local communities instead of global corporate colonialists (e.g., World Trade Organization) that hamstring nations’ capacities to self-govern towards wellness for its citizens. Evolved Nest ambassadors help grow collective efforts toward democracy and self-governance.

4.  Build knowhow for wellness promotion in self-care, relationships with humans and non-humans, and Nature’s ecological systems. The evolved nest provides the infrastructure for growing Kinship knowhow for living well with Earth’s ways of partnership and cooperation across natural systems.

5.  Change the story. Part of Kindred World’s mission is to dismantle the myths that govern our lives—e.g., that how babies are treated doesn’t much matter (they won’t remember), that children need to be punished to be good, that only research studies can tell us how to treat children, that people are naturally selfish and aggressive, that hierarchy is normal for human communities.

The Nesting Ambassador Program facilitates mindset change in enrollees who then, through their efforts, encourage mindset changes in others. Nesting Ambassadors help others to not only shift in mindset but develop knowhow for promoting wellness. As the wisdom of the nest is promoted more widely, objectives of systems will begin to change. Nesting ambassadors empower parents, teachers, and/or professionals to take up their power to decolonize trauma-inducing systems related to child raising, adult health, institutional practices, promoting the wellbeing of All. We together promote the new/old story that we co-create a living Earth.

[1] In systems change recommendations, Dana Meadows listed the chief levers of system change as the first three listed below.

Nesting Ambassadors are emissaries to the world, local and global, of evolved nestedness. A Nesting Ambassador is one who has learned the principles of the evolved nest and integrates them into their lifestyle, workplace and/or community, leading others to follow evolved nest principles. 

The first level of the program involves study of the Evolved Nest Curriculum, completion of the accompanying videorecorded class sessions, and completion of course projects.

Prerequisite: High school/secondary school diploma or equivalent.

Application: Documentation needed for application: (a) A resume regarding one’s life experiences and (b) a paragraph or two about what motivates you to become an ambassador.

Course duration: Eleven live online meetings over 11 weeks.

Material provided: Mighty Networks Classroom. Nesting Ambassador Program Manual. Self-directed Curriculum Guidebook (PDF).

Additional material to have on hand: notebook, pen and a journal.

Assignments for Nesting Ambassador Certification: (1) Tell the story of how you became interested in the evolved nest and share it in a live meeting. (2) Assess your community for nesting components. (3) Create a tool(s) for the domain where you want to be an ambassador.

Expectations for Certified Nesting Ambassadors:

1.  Stay in touch with ongoing online meetings. Report periodically on your initiatives, challenges, efforts, and outcomes. Use and share Nesting Ambassador Tools.

2.  Bring in others to learn about the Evolved Nest and perhaps even train as a Nesting Ambassador. 

3.  Pay an annual fee ($10-50) to maintain your certification and your presence on the Nested World Ambassador webpage.