What is 6 months long and happens in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh and… Sofia?
With a little bit of luck — it will be the Learning Marathon!
We’ve just welcomed five new members to the Enrol Yourself hosting team. They join us from the aforementioned locations— where they’ll be bringing the Learning Marathon to their local area.
Since 2017 we’ve kicked off 6 Learning Marathons in London and 1 in Birmingham, working closely with 76 participants, who have each explored a learning question of great personal, professional or societal significance.
Now we’re heading off with the goal of hosting 8 Learning Marathons this year. No doubt there’s a challenging and beautiful road ahead of us.
Here’s our 2019 hosting team:
Anna Rowlands / Bristol
Anna will host a peer group open to anyone with a personal, professional or societal development goal. Kick Off will be in May. Find out more and sign up here.
Sarah Adefehinti / London
Sarah will host a peer group open to freelancers — or aspiring freelancers — exploring personal, professional or societal change. Kick Off will be end of June. Find out more and sign up here.
Anneka Deva / Birmingham
Anneka is back for her second Learning Marathon, hosting a peer group open to anyone exploring personal, professional or societal change. Kick Off will be end of June. Find out more and sign up here.
Eleonora Carnasa / Sofia, Bulgaria
Eleonora will host a peer group open to adults aged 25–45 from any professional background. Kick Off will be September. Find out more and sign up here.
Rosie Palmer / Edinburgh
Rosie will host a multidisciplinary peer group for parents exploring the professional challenges and opportunities of parenthood. Kick Off will be September. Find out more and sign up here.
Alana Bloom / London
Alana will host a peer group open to professionals and creatives exploring personal, professional or societal change. Kick Off will be September. Find out more and sign up here.
Each host is tasked with finding 11 souls willing and ready to start this 6 month journey. So if you’re reading this from any of these locations, or know some friends there, help a sister out and spread the love!
Full bios for our new batch of hosts:
Anna Rowlands / Bristol
Hi, I’m Anna. I’m a facilitator, coach and massage therapist with a thirst for knowledge and an appetite for impact.
I love being part of peoples’ journeys in reaching their full potential, and I’m determined to keep finding ways to plant myself in environments and settings where I can witness those journeys taking place.
I have spent the last six years working with education and arts charities in London, Brighton and Bristol, managing, designing and delivering youth, educator and leadership development programmes. Over the last three years my primary role was heading up the UK delivery arm of a life skills development project for teenagers in the Middle East and North Africa, in partnership with the British Council.
Currently I’m working as a freelance facilitator, coach and massage therapist in Bristol and beyond, keen to seek out new connections and challenges.
I am committed to supporting individuals, groups and organisations to cultivate and nurture their skills/super powers. I mix this up with making playlists for friends, gazing at the moon, recording and editing podcasts and running long distances.
There are several learning questions that I’m toying with:
- How can I support positive mental health by harnessing the power of listening and touch?
- How can we foster and encourage creative connections between our bodies and minds?
- How can I blend my practices of facilitation, coaching and massage therapy to benefit my local community?
Sarah Adefehinti / London
I’m Sarah Adefehinti, a coach who loves guiding people through transformational processes and watching them bloom on their journey.
I’m a deep believer that the personal shapes the environment around us, and that we need to get to know and work on ourselves before we attempt to change anything else. I’m interested in ways of questioning and evaluating the social assumptions around us and within us, as well as ways of finding and living in our own personal truth.
I participated in a Learning Marathon in 2017 and it shifted so much for me — I was able to learn, create beautiful friendships, grow alongside people I wouldn’t otherwise have met, and launch my wellbeing business Loving with the Lights On. I’m excited to guide a group of people through this transformational journey and see what unfolds!
My learning question for this journey will be “how do I create a strong brand without losing myself?”
Eleonora Carnasa / Sofia, Bulgaria
Hi, I’m Eleonora Carnasa, founder of Fabrica 360 and representative of the Service Design Network and the Design Thinking Camp in Bulgaria.
My focus is on personal and organisational transformation and mindset change by the creation of collaborative environments and signature trainings in design thinking, creative leadership, ideation, storytelling and team facilitation.
I’m an active community member and I enjoy mentoring teams of social innovators and entrepreneurs, having worked with various teams across geographies.
As your host and peer in the Learning Marathon, my goal is to introduce a design-led and peer-to-peer learning approach in Bulgaria and to support individuals tackling professional, personal or societal challenges. Join me for this journey and you’ll be provided a safe space for exploration and experimentation, new and meaningful relationships, and a structure to start your project.
My learning question will be ‘How to help people to keep their focus on the projects that matter to them(a say “no” toolkit)?
Rosie Palmer / Edinburgh
Hi, I’m Rosie. I’m a facilitator, mentor, and a transformational coach in training. I work in heritage learning, developing and delivering educational events and experiences.
With over seven years of facilitation experience across various subjects and audiences, I find joy in exploring something new with a group and love working with people of all ages and backgrounds. My experience spans teaching chocolate making and tasting to adults, to exploring the fascinating history of Mary, Queen of Scots with primary school pupils, and much more.
Since returning to education as an adult, my passion has been making learning more enjoyable and accessible to a wide variety of audiences. As well as my experience as a facilitator, I also bring my core skills of curiosity, enthusiasm and empathy.
I will host a multidisciplinary peer group for parents. Parenthood often brings new challenges when it comes to balancing parenting commitments with making a living or progressing your career. I want to explore these challenges and opportunities with others.
For example, how might we create communities that support parents to work, whilst also supporting and enriching their family lives too? Can we create working environments that support parents and families to work and live? Can you succeed at work AND parenting at the same time? How might we create communities where people are able to truly work flexibly?
Perhaps you’re looking for ways to work more flexibly or have a new business idea but aren’t sure where to start. Maybe you want to make a total career change or perhaps upskill and maximise your current role. Maybe you want to work, but your current circumstances mean that it isn’t possible right now. Join me, and we can explore these challenges and ideas together.
Alana Bloom / London
Hi, I’m Alana Bloom, a creative artist and embodied facilitator working in the realms of performance, movement, ritual, myth, ecology and nature.
I started my journey when I spent five years training in Physical Theatre & Circus. This intense time focusing on physicality through dance, voice, movement and many more skills, gave me a variety of physical experience. It was an unexpected step into the world of embodiment and why I now seek to further my experience of leadership using creative and embodied forms, as the starting point.
I now regularly facilitate and produce retreats for those wanting to experience radical creative expression, including a creative residency called The Warren — a deep dive into community living, art and performance. I’m involved with a number of projects that use creativity and community as a container for transformation and expression, including a year as an event coordinator for the Psychedelic Society.
I’m hugely inspired by the work of Charles Eisenstein and want to explore ways of using creativity to create meaningful change. I’d like to connect with people who are curious to explore embodiment and how it might be a tool for social change.
My learning question is developing to look a bit like ‘how we can create spaces of expression, using these tools, to transform how we relate to the world and the natural environment?’
