Our Story
The SWFL RESET Center has been formed out of the belief that human society is moving increasingly in the direction of irreversible environmental deterioration. Many of our ways of life are neither environmentally sustainable, socially just, nor spiritually fulfilling. Environmental scientists with many backgrounds agree: we don’t have much time to change our ways.
But challenges can also be occasions of great opportunity. Paradoxically, the global pandemic has taught us where to look for optimism. While people were sheltering and many human activities were on hold, we were witnessing the resiliency of nature to heal herself. We saw global efforts to confront the pandemic. The root causes of our current crises became increasingly clear. We experienced an ardent yearning to reset the human systems and paradigms that are now failing us.
The recognition of our dire circumstances which have grown increasingly dire since 2020 and the commitment to seize this opportunity to create fundamental change gave rise to the SWFL RESET Center. Inevitably, education and cooperation are essential if we are to meet the challenges before us. While many organizations in SWFL, large and small, are working individually to increase awareness of environmental and social dangers, their cumulative effect to avert crises has not had the pace and scope needed.
The SWFL RESET Center partners with a number of organizations to share resources, set common goals, and augment outreach on environmental and related issues of regional importance. It will help to answer the urgent need to bring diverse organizations together for maximal impact within and beyond our region.
The mission of the SWFL RESET Center is to inspire collaborative regional actions through transformative education to reset human impacts on the natural world by restoring our relationship with nature.
“As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to seek a new beginning ... Let ours be a time remembered for the awakening of a new reverence for life, the firm resolve to achieve sustainability, the quickening of the struggle for justice and peace,
and the joyful celebration of life.” The Earth Charter