About Us
Space Melbourne
Space Melbourne (formerly Illoura Peace Retreats) was established in 2016. With backgrounds working in the peace, development, security and community sectors on difficult topics and in difficult situations, Space Melbourne is no stranger to the darker sides of difficult work. With a history of managing the impact of difficult work on individuals, teams and organisations Space Melbourne is very alive to the common experiences of burnout, depression, grief, and other challenges. And it is why we do this work.
Space Melbourne supports peacebuilding, resilience, leadership development, systems change and strategic problem solving using creative facilitation and capacity building. We help individuals, teams, and organisations solve problems, think strategically, build resilience personally and organisationally, nurture their creative innovation, and build peace and understanding so they can thrive.
Based in Melbourne, we work locally, regionally and globally with experience in bi or multilingual facilitation. Connect with us to find out more by emailing charlie.allen@space-
Charlie Allen - Founder & Principal
Charlie is a facilitation, resilience, leadership, and peacebuilding professional with over 30 years’ experience. His early experience is grounded in the security sector, and over the past decade he has expanded his experience to include working in South, South East, and Eastern Asia, Western and Eastern Africa, MENA region and Oceania. His areas of specialty include process facilitation, training design and delivery, resilience practice, leadership development, organisational and community systems change.
His experience expands through operational and strategic facilitation. Creating safe spaces and establishing connection between participants are key components to Charles’ approach. His personal education includes Leadership and Organisational Change, Peace and Conflict Prevention, Good Governance and Human Rights. Maintaining fitness, creating great and healthy food, trekking and music are the outlets that maintain Charles’ resilience and these outlets spill over into his facilitation practice.
Space Melbourne has a sister organization called Space Bangkok, founded by Jenn Weidman in 2016. Jenn and Charlie developed their practice as part of the Humanity’s Thread community of practice. Humanities Thread is an association of like-minded peace building and social change practitioners.
Space Melbourne and Space Bangkok have collaborated and cofacilitated retreats and accompaniment using face to face and online modalities. The partnership between Space Melbourne and Space Bangkok has benefited both organizations, as they both work toward helping individuals and organizations grow, and succeed. Together the two organizations have a vast network and are highly respected across the peacebuilding, development and social change sectors.
Jenn Weidman - Founder & CEO
“It went on for years. I accompanied peacebuilders through their times of transition, struggle, crisis, realization, and healing. And all along I was dealing with my own struggles – the aftermath of harassment, grief, and my own burnout. While the demands for more and more creativity and innovation didn’t stop, I had no energy, no spark, to draw on. The forces that paved this road we walked gradually became clearer, as did the realization of their prevalence, not only in the peacebuilding field, but beyond. And echoing around it all was a single thought: this is wrong and it doesn’t have to be this way.” – Jenn Weidman, Founder & CEO
With backgrounds working in the peace, development, and humanitarian sectors on difficult topics and in difficult situations, our Space Bangkok team is no stranger to the darker sides of difficult work. In fact, we are in many ways bound together through our common experiences of burnout, depression, grief, and other challenges. And it is why we do this work. Having walked our own paths through darkness, we are magnetically drawn to finding better ways.
Since 2016, Space Bangkok and Space Melbourne, have worked with hundreds of individuals, teams, and organizations to build resilience, develop leadership, and solve problems creatively. We are also founding members of the Humanity’s Thread community of practice building resilience for peacebuilders and others around the world.
