A Home FOR transformational learning since 1972
Our mission is to nurture the conditions for transformational learning, and our purpose is to be a Place for those called by the responsibility and transformative potential of these times.
We partner with a network of program leaders working in the areas of generative leadership, ecosystem vitality, community resilience, and more to offer one-day and multi-day workshops, conferences, and retreats. Our 106-acre conservation forest campus on South Whidbey Island is open to the public and features integrated gardens and a four-mile trail network.
We acknowledge this land, its history, and the people—past, present, and future—for whom this land is an ancestral home. The Whidbey Institute is located on the territory of the Lower Skagit, Swinomish, Suquamish, and Snohomish tribes—the island Tscha-kole-chy, named Whidbey Island by colonial settlers.
I recently had the honor to sit down with Fritz Hull to talk about his latest book, “Wild Idea.” Published this past year, “Wild Idea” tells of how a seemingly crazy idea became a sizable force for good – the Whidbey Institute. We met at his family’s Hilltop Cabin in Legacy Forest. Built 10 years ago on 5-acres of land that is part of the original 1966 farm purchase, the cabin provided us with a peaceful setting to explore some of the ideas he shares in the book, the inspiration of the early Chinook days, and what the future might hold for the land and those who visit it.