RAMP!  Reciprocal Annual Mentorship Program
(Regenerative • Adaptive • Multigenerational • Pathways)

Saturday, May 9, 2026 – 10:00 am PT |  11:00  am MT  |  12:00 pm CT | 1:00 pm  ET  | 2:00 pm  AT  | 3:00 pm NT (90 min)

Unitarian Universalist communities across Canada are evolving, and RAMP! offers a way for us to evolve with intention. The Reciprocal Annual Mentorship Program, or RAMP!, is a four-month national pilot program designed to grow leadership capacity, strengthen intergenerational relationships, and equip UUs with practical tools for building justice-centered, sustainable, relationally grounded communities.

RAMP! combines reciprocal mentorship, storytelling, community archetypes, and hands-on skill-building to help UUs understand their communities more deeply and support them in shaping meaningful, responsive offerings. Participants gain experience in community assessment, financial sustainability, trauma-informed practices, conflict navigation, and governance models that encourage transparency, shared leadership, and care.

This program includes a closed cohort of 16 participants—8 mentee/mentor pairs—matched by strengths, interests, and, when possible, regional proximity to encourage in-person connection. Mentorship pairs work together throughout the four months and attend two closed cohort sessions each month. These sessions provide space for relationship building, project planning, and guidance from CUC staff and guest facilitators.

Alongside the closed cohort, RAMP! offers monthly public skill-building workshops open to everyone in the Canadian UU movement. These public workshops align with the program’s monthly themes and connect with other national programming such as Congregational Conversations and Dismantling Barriers. This means that even those who are not part of the cohort will have at least three opportunities each month to engage with the material connected to RAMP!
Register below for the public skill building workshops.

Over the course of the program, participants work toward creating a community-rooted project based on the community archetype framework introduced at the 2025 Fall Gathering. These projects grow out of the participants’ mapping of strengths, gaps, relationships, and needs within their local UU or broader community. Project examples of similar offerings include a community garden guide, educational materials about political refuge and advocacy, collaborative visual art pieces shared nationally, or youth-run entrepreneurial initiatives. Participants are encouraged to design an offering that responds to the needs they discover and reflects their unique gifts.

The public is also invited to help shape the RAMP! experience. UU community members across the country will have the opportunity to vote on one public workshop topic and one resource that will be created and shared nationally. This collaborative invitation ensures that RAMP! reflects the wisdom, questions, and curiosity of the wider movement, not only the cohort.

The four months each carry their own theme:

March –  Community Resources & Assets Evaluation

This theme helps participants understand who their communities truly are – strengths, gaps, needs, and the ecosystems they’re part of. By mapping assets and identities, teams gain the clarity needed to design solutions that are grounded, relational, and responsive to their neighborhoods. RAMP! participants will get acquainted and begin to plan their projects in tandem with one another.

April – Economics for Community Flourishing

Participants explore how UU communities sustain themselves through financial justice, regenerative models, and diverse economic engines. This theme moves beyond scarcity thinking, offering practical tools for building stability, scalability, and shared abundance.

May – Building Trauma-Informed, Conflict-Ready Communities

This theme teaches communities how to navigate conflict, accountability, and emotional complexity with care and courage. Participants learn trauma-informed practices, compassionate dialogue skills, and resilience tools that turn friction into meaningful growth. Special Guest Presenters: Necessary Trouble Collective

June – How We Work Together (Governance & Cross-Pollination)

Participants dive into decision-making models, shared leadership, and governance that actually supports human beings, and not just structures. This theme strengthens collaboration across congregations and equips teams to create transparent, accountable, and interconnected ways of working. The public session celebrates RAMP! projects and relationships.

Apply for the mentorship program now.

In alignment with CUC youth safety guidelines and our duty of care for minors, all applicants under the age of 18 are required to submit a Parent/Guardian Consent Form. This form must be completed and received before the youth’s application is considered complete. Parent/Guardian Consent Form 

Participant Agreements & Commitment Expectations

RAMP participants agree to the following commitments to ensure a supportive, relational learning environment:

Participants will:

  • Co-create a mentorship agreement with their partner
  • Attend the monthly public workshops happening March–June
  • Attend at least 1 out of 2 monthly closed online mentorship sessions each month
  • Show up with compassion, curiosity, and a shared interest in growth

These agreements help create a container where all participants can learn, experiment, and co-create with trust and care.

Program Dates (March–June 2026)

All Tuesday sessions run 7–8:30pm ET.
 Sunday public workshops will generally run 1–3pm ET, with occasional variations for guest speakers.

March

April

May

June

Add to Calendar

Registration for public skills building workshops open until June 27