Homeward Bound Project
Mother nature needs her daughters
Homeward Bound Project (HBP) is a one year long leadership program for women with a science background to learn the skills to influence policy and decision makers about climate change. The program culminates in a 3-week expedition to Antarctica.
​
The HBP aims to create and equip a network of 1,000 women by selecting 80 women from around the globe each year to make an impact on the way we care about the planet. I am honored and happy to be part of the 2018 team.
​
A leadership journey
Let me tell you more
Homeward Bound is a groundbreaking leadership, strategic and science initiative and outreach for women, set against the backdrop of Antarctica.
​
The initiative, turned global movement, aims to heighten the influence and impact of women with a science background in order to influence policy and decision making as it shapes our planet.
​
Launched in 2016, Homeward Bound gathered the first 76 of a targeted 1,000 women from around the world, all with critical science backgrounds, to undertake a year-long state-of-the-art program to develop their leadership and strategic capabilities, using science to build conviction around the importance of their voices. The inaugural program culminated in the largest-ever female expedition to Antarctica, in December 2016, with a focus on the leadership of women and the state of the world.
Program objectives
To elevate each participant’s leadership capabilities.
To educate the team on the science of what is happening to our planet.
To refine participants’ skills to design and execute strategy, and to create plans for future collaborations as women working towards a sustainable future.
To enhance these skills, over a 10-year target, with 1000 women networked and skilled to affect change.
To create active, non-hierarchical collaborations among the women both in small groups and as a collective.
To be 100% self-funded, i.e. not ‘not for profit’ and not ‘for profit’. Instead, all the women pay a small contribution to the ship and everything else is donated because of the deep belief in the value of women’s leadership in our world at this time.
To have a global focus.
To contribute to and elevate the broader societal conversation about the role of women in leading the world toward a more sustainable future.
How
12 month virtual leadership program
At sea for approximately 3 weeks, led by Greg Mortimer OAM (2016 and 2018), setting sail from Ushuaia in Argentina
Twelve days of state of the art leadership and strategic planning training delivered by Kit Jackson, Fabian Dattner and other experts in their fields
Six days of a cutting edge science education program incorporating the most up to date and relevant research about the state and functioning of our planet delivered by leading Australian academics
Primarily underwritten by Dattner Grant (see Support for further details)
Why women
Globally, women are underrepresented in leadership positions and change has been incredibly slow, despite increasing dialogue and process/systems changes.
Women are emerging from college degrees as significant percentages of graduates and they take up a significant percentage of our workforce. However, they are in the profound minority globally when it comes to executive decision making roles.
By giving these women the leadership and strategic skills, a sound understanding of the science, and a strong purposefully developed network they will be able to impact policy and decisions towards a sustainable future.
Why Antactica
Regions of Antarctica are currently showing amongst the fastest responses to climate change seen anywhere on the planet
The study of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, and their roles in the climate system, provides critical insights into global-scale change, and the influence of human activities on environmental change
The continent is iconic as a wild, beautiful and unique environment that has captured the imagination of many leaders in the past
By taking this journey together we envision the experience will create strong bonds, inspire action and lead to extraordinary collaborations between the women