Reflections from the Flamingo Collective Community Check-in
On 5 September 2025, the Flamingo Collective welcomed 25 ecofeminists from across Europe into a gentle online gathering. As autumn arrived, we paused together: to breathe, to share our hopes and fears, to celebrate what is already growing, and to dream forward. The Flamingo Collective is an ecofeminist cooperative rooted in feminist values, collective care, and radical systemic change. We exist to build a community of powerful, connected eco-feminists in Europe. Our work spans many forms—supporting the emergence and practice of feminist leadership, community organising, training, direct support, and team facilitation. At the same time, we are committed to cultivating spaces of rest, joy, and connection.
This call was one of those spaces.
What We Heard: Hopes, Fears, and Needs
In small breakouts, participants explored what they carry into this season.
Many spoke of hopes for radical honesty and deeper self-reflection, a willingness to interrogate our own roles within unjust systems, and inspiration drawn from those who continue to create change under difficult conditions. There was a hunger for knowledge and for the sense of community that makes hope possible.
Alongside these hopes came fears. People named the risks of disconnection and isolation, of violence woven through our infrastructures and public life, and of the exhaustion that so often shadows our work.
And from both hopes and fears emerged needs: the need for balance between action and reflection, for visibility of each other’s struggles and victories, for spaces where we can dream beyond incremental “systems change” into fully decolonised, feminist, ecological futures.
We recognised the importance of creating brave spaces for tough conversations, and of practical peer support that helps us campaign, strategise, and act more boldly together. All this while weaving the vision for a truly eco-feminist future: let’s talk about the things we will enjoy when we wake up on a Monday morning and the revolution is done :).
What’s Coming Up for the Flamingo Community
The call was also a chance to share some of the collective’s upcoming plans, flowing from our joyful Brussels launch earlier this year—a night that felt like being immersed in presence and solidarity. From that place of connection, our work continues to grow:
🌿 Community gatherings & trainings (hybrid formats)
🌿 Regular online meetings, with the next one on 18 November (save the date!)
🌿 Ecofeminist Retreat for Systems Change – Sofia, 22–23 Sept. (next retreat: May 2026)
🌿 Online community launch – 9 October
🌿 Step Into Our Power Feminist Leadership Retreat – Mechelen, 6–7 October (co-facilitated with Joanna and Angela)
🌿 Exploring a new facilitation training on difficult conversations in feminist movements
Reflections & Ideas for the Future
The gathering was alive with ideas about what could come next. Some dreamed of moving beyond the slow pace of “systems change” into designing new systems altogether—the day one of the revolution. Others spoke of visioning practices, from meditation and mapping futures to creative design exercises, and of building spaces for peer support where we can bring campaigns and strategies into a collective “clinic” for shared wisdom.
Conversations also touched on sustainability, burnout, and the need for honest dialogue about how we care for ourselves and one another. Healing and solidarity emerged as core themes: spaces for repair and rest, for anti-racist feminist futures, for genuine acknowledgement of colonial damage and the work of moving beyond patriarchal logics. And throughout, the call returned to the power of radical imagination—embracing utopian thinking and remembering that the systems we live under today were once someone’s imagined future.
Closing
The Flamingo Collective is still young, but already vibrant. Together, we are shaping an ecofeminist, intersectional, and joyful Europe—transforming patriarchy, racism, and capitalism into systems of care, humour, presence, and shared strength.
We left this gathering renewed, reminded that we can only act when rooted in connection. That is the very definition of radical. And we are excited to keep dreaming and building that spirit with this growing community.
If you’d like to be part of this journey, join our newsletter and upcoming gatherings.