The seeds of the Hollyhock Leadership Institute came out of the Hollyhock Centre, a centre on Cortes Island BC that has become Canada’s leading educational retreat centre.

Started by a group of environmental activists, they recognized that BC environmental issues were at a tipping point.  Civil protests at Clayoquot Sound were gaining world-wide attention and a new environmental movement was growing.  The Hollyhock founders wanted to make sure that this new movement had the campaign, leadership and personal skills to truly lead and win.

Our first program, the Environmental Leadership Training, ran in 1997 with 20 leaders from organizations like Green Peace, Forest Ethics, Sierra Legal Defense (now Ecojustice), and the Wilderness Committee.  The need continued to grow and in 2001 the Hollyhock Leadership Institute was formed to provide skills training and campaign support on issues as diverse as climate change, women’s rights, youth advocacy and conservation projects.  We have trained over 3,000 environment and social change advocates from over 200 organizations.