We Live in the Space Between Worlds.
The world we have known - built on extraction and disconnection - is unravelling.
Many of the systems and structures that we considered cornerstone, including democracy, are under threat, with rising disinformation, dark money and polarisation threatening their limits.
Climate change and biodiversity loss are causing catastrophic events around the planet, their impacts likely to become only more pronounced in years to come.
The world’s conflict zones have increased by two-thirds in the past three years.
Our world is more brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible (BANI) than ever before (h/t Jamais Cascio).
And yet… as one world unravels, so too can another begin.
At Scintilla, we call this the world as it could be. Our work in this time is to lay the seeds of what comes next, prototyping and experimenting across our communities.
Our intention is to empower changemakers with the skills, wisdom, and community to lead in this liminal time, navigating from the world as it is to the world as it could be.
We help you define your role: Get clear on your unique path as a changemaker, guided by your callings and inner compass rather than external expectations.
We equip you with essential skills: From conflict reconciliation and nonviolence to moral imagination and complexity thinking, our programs give you the skills to navigate today’s challenges.
We connect you with a community: Join a network of changemakers who support and inspire one another, creating the conditions for a more just & regenerative world.
Our Theory of Change
The work we need in this time is multi-dimensional; systemic, relational and spiritual.
To address the myriad interconnected crises we face, we must cultivate an approach that transforms both the external systems we live within and the internal landscapes that shape how we perceive and interact with the world.
We believe the skills necessary for this time include:
Vision & Moral Imagination: We must be bold and ambitious enough to envision a more beautiful world; to believe in the world we can feel in our hearts, even if we cannot see it with our eyes. It requires dreaming deeper, feeling into the realm of possibilities, and trusting our power. To claim a new world, we must have the audacity to name it, embody it, and call it into being. Imagination is not a luxury; it is one of the most useful tools we have.
At Scintilla, we work with changemakers to cultivate imagination and creativity, planting seeds of possibility and nurturing their growth.
Systems Thinking, Complexity and Narrative Work:
Ideologies like capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacy are created by humans, perpetuated by humans, and play out their impact through humans. They live in our mindsets, beliefs, behaviours and values.
To change the system “out there,” we must also address the conditions within us that consciously or unconsciously perpetuate and internalise these systems. We call this work Getting Free, and it requires deep reflection, unlearning, and a willingness to sit with what is uncomfortable.
We help changemakers develop the capacity to navigate and influence complex systems. This includes identifying leverage points for transformation and working at the narrative roots of our world, where the stories we live by are created and sustained.
Relational Stitching: In our hyper-polarised world, we need community and connection more than ever. We need to learn to work across lines of difference, and build bridges across ideology. Relational stitching includes learning how to work with conflict and nonviolence, developing empathy, curiosity and compassion, and embracing the nuance and complexity that defines our world.
At Scintilla, we help changemakers cultivate the skills to bridge divides, steward nonviolence, and work with the beautiful complexities of a diverse and interconnected world.
Wisdom & Spirituality: The crises facing our world are spiritual and relational in origin, going to the heart of what it means to be human and how we relate to each other and the living world. We integrate the relational and spiritual dimensions of change, nourishing the soil and roots of our shared world.
Meet Laura Hartley - the Founder of Scintilla Centre
I’m Laura Hartley; writer, activist, leadership coach and founder of the Scintilla Centre.
My journey into changemaking began early - at 17, I organised my first fundraiser for the World Wildlife Fund. It was a beautiful disaster involving a pallet of fresh juice with no fridge and $300 in donations that mysteriously disappeared from a table. But it was a jumping off point for my journey and my belief that we can radically remake the world. Since then, I've become a climate and environmental activist, writer, leadership coach, and trainer for nonviolent direct action. I've studied Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, and my work has taken me from corporate mindfulness workshops to intimate group courses and coaching.
Growing up around coaching - my mother not only was a coach but owned a coaching school - I lived and breathed the personal development world. Yet it was my own struggles with mental health, depression and perfectionism that led me deeper into mindfulness and inner work. I discovered that stillness can be a form of activism, a resistance to a world that demands we always be on, always consuming. A transformative trip to Bhutan in 2016, learning about Gross National Happiness alongside other young changemakers, also solidified my passion for wellbeing economics and the power of robust public values.
I'm a bit nomadic by nature - originally from Sydney, Australia, but currently calling London home, with stops in Toronto, Dublin, and Amsterdam along the way. I'm spiritual but not religious, believing that spirituality is really about how we show up: Are we being loving? Are we listening? Are we honouring life - human and more-than-human - as sacred?
I believe firmly the work of this time is multi-dimensional, and we are all called to different threads.
We need to build as we resist. We need to heal as we end harm. We need to liberate as we fight. This is the work of our time, and it's why I created Scintilla as a space for wisdom, courage, and radical imagination to flourish.
Why Scintilla?
The word “scintilla” means a tiny spark or amount, often of a feeling, eg, a scintilla of hope.
In the space between worlds, even the smallest spark matters.
A moment of connection.
A spark of creativity.
An awakening of insight.
Here at Scintilla Centre, we believe:
The inner work of healing and liberation is inseparable from the outer work of systems change.
The space between is sacred: a place where old stories fall away and new possibilities are born.
Imagination and play are some of the most radical tools we have for seeding a more just and regenerative world.
