The holistic focus of this Summer Camp is to connect “head, heart and hands” – to examine the problems and solutions of the call to care for our common home in an atmosphere of mutual listening, discernment, and practical action – to broaden horizons and to strengthen an international network of young people who contribute to a real cultural change.

Who is invited? Young adults, students, and young professionals between the ages of 18 and 35 from Australia who want to promote ecological change in themselves and in the world.

Speakers and experts in the areas of climate change, business, agriculture, and politics will come from the local area (Clare/Barossa/Adelaide) and other parts of South Australia and Australia. The Camp is an ideologically open space in which everyone, regardless of gender or orientation, can feel at home in their personal, political, social, and religious views, as long as they are open to hearing others.

The camp is hosted by Jesuit and Ignatian Spirituality Australia (JISA) Sevenhill.

During the week, knowledge is shared, and applications imagined, interpersonal growth is encouraged and meditation and mindfulness practised. Various experts will be present throughout the summer camp, providing inspiring content in the morning and enabling the participants to exchange ideas with them. In the afternoons, the students and young professionals will learn through excursions, visits to sustainable businesses, and through practical experiences, about how ecological change can work. Times of self-reflection and mindfulness will make it possible to critically question the content and to change how participants view Earth, human society, and themselves. Even after the end of the summer camp, the exchange among the participants should continue so that the knowledge acquired seeps through from the head to the heart and contributes to long-term changes can.

The Summer Camp will take place at Sevenhill Retreat, a rural spirituality centre in the heart of the Clare Valley 120 kms north of Adelaide in South Australia – Surrounded by nature, vineyards, and farms.

7-12 February 2024
Participants will be at the camp for 4 days (5 nights), while the ‘experts’ will be invited to stay at least 24 hours to enable personal encounters and the direct and informal transfer of knowledge.

Mornings: practicing mindfulness, prayer and personal exchange, Input by the speakers and open discussion

Afternoons: Excursions, land care, visits to sustainable companies, and other practical experiences

Evenings: Campfire talks with open question and answer sessions and free evenings to promote personal networking and encounters; self-generated entertainment (music); Eucharist.