permaculture

["E.Christopher Mare" <ecmare@antiochsea.edu>]

DESIGN
for SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY






- where Permaculture meets 


Social Ecology 


  


Tues 20 – Sun 25 SEPTEMBER






Sahale, Olympic Peninsula, WA




TUTORS:  


Robina McCurdy


Tyrone LaFay


Huckleberry Leonard


This course offers a
wholistic approach to building sustainable human settlement, by
balancing and integrating social and economic design with
environmental and physical design. The course’s intention is to equip
participants with sufficient knowledge and skills to facilitate a
healthy community culture and create comprehensive permaculture
concept designs - with urban neighborhoods, co-housing clusters, rural
communities and ecovillages.






PARTICIPANTS 







This course is for anyone who is interested in ecovillages and
intentional communities, and especially those who: 


•       want to further their understanding of ecovillage and community


•       want to apply their learning’s to a new or existing settlement


•       dream about living in community but don’t know how to bring this
into reality


•       want to specialize in community and ecovillage facilitation


•       are community development facilitators, and want to extend and
enrich their ‘toolbox’


•       are permaculture practitioners (or trainees) and want to extend
their work into the field of community design




Recommended Prerequisite  


In order to get optimum benefit from this course, and to enable topics
to be covered in greater depth, participants are strongly encouraged
to advance their background in Permaculture.  This could be done by: 
attending a Permaculture Certificate Course or introductory workshop,
visiting Permaculture properties or demonstration sites, or doing some
background reading in Permaculture.  Check relevant websites. 




CONTENT






The following topics will
be covered, with priorities of the participant group determining their
level/depth.






FORMATION & FOUNDATION LAYING


•       Review of
Permaculture Principles & their application




•       Definitions and Descriptions of “ecovillage” and “community”




•       Evidence of intentional communities and         ecovillages as a
sustainable solution to


        ecological decline




•       Ecovillage Diversity:  a slideshow presentation of some
ecovillages around the world




•       Ecovillage-Community Range (Communal -  Private): examples from
kibbutzim to freehold ‘ecological subdivision; determining your
group’s range positions




•       The Stages of Ecovillage Formation, typical highs and lows of each
stage, ways of moving forward, propelled by the learnings.




•       13 Key Issues of Social Design which block the success of
intentional communities and ecovillages, issues most pertinent to
participants, some ‘unblocking’ processes 




•       Designing for Social Ecology:  introduction to internal community
systems, organizational structures and physical layout - for ultimate
‘energy flow’ to serve intentional group culture.




•       Core ‘Human Ecology’ Issues - communication, power, ownership,
gender, labor, freedom and governance.






•       Cooperation in Business
- dealing with money together; systems for internal community


        accounting; social and physical design for ethical business in
community.




•       Land Purchase – a checklist and some wise prerequisites.




SKILLS FOR COMMUNITY
LIVING


•       The Group as an Organism  -
phases & cycles of a group; forming new groups; defining group
identity; shaping a healthy code of behavior; honoring each person’s
role and contribution. 




•       The Ingredients of a Successful Ecovillage, and methods to develop
the following:  social & physical action planning, capital investment
and internal financial systems, skills, labor and time management.




•       Introduction to Social Design - for clarity and workability
regarding rights, responsibilities, ownership and power




•       Some Facilitation Techniques for working with emerging
ecovillages, with application to the common needs of the workshop
group.




•       Facilitating Group Alignment - social mapping, identifying the
reality of ‘what is now’ as a 


        springboard for visioning the future; clarifying and activating
common purpose; operating synergy; building group power for effective
action.




•       Introduction to Wholistic Goal Setting




•       learning to use Earthcare Education Aotearoa’s manala templates,
Community Culture, Social Structure and Physical Environment, as
powerful community building and planning tools.  




•       Group Process & Decision Making Skills - some keys skills for good
communication; designing out conflict and designing in trust & safety,
conflict resolution strategies, leadership & power; formats for
successful meetings; meeting facilitation; decision-making methods;
working with the consensus process.




•       Self Nourishment & Self Empowerment - keeping ourselves centered
and balanced “in the midst of it all”; working in harmony with
nature’s rhythms and cycles to optimize our energy and time;
sustaining vision, maintaining energy, choosing appropriate action
when faced with ‘opposing forces’. 






INTEGRATED LANDUSE
DESIGN


•       Earthcare’s Integrated Design
Methods:  a slide presentation of Earthcare Education Aotearoa’s
stages and processes for facilitating the formation, development,
establishment and sustenance of ecovillage land use.




• Introduction to Site Analysis, involving all generations (children,
adults, elderly) in the


        process and the use of 3D models in participatory design.




•       Zoning from several perspectives, to arrive at a marriage of the
needs of the people and the


        needs of the land.




•       Co-operation with Nature - ways of including the nature kingdom in
our decision-making.




•       Physical Infrastructure:  considerations for buildings, water,
sanitation, access etc






•       Community Scale Food
Production: considerations for orchards, vegetable gardens, herbs,
animals for meat & milk products.






WEAVING IT ALL
TOGETHER


•       Ecovillage Web - integrating natural, social, cultural, physical
and economic elements, pulling together what we have learned and
cumulatively designed, into a full-integrated community-village
design.  






•       Presentations &
Celebration!






TUTOR’S BACKGROUNDS


Robina McCurdy  (Aotearoa/New Zealand)


Robina is co founder/resident/trustee of Tui Land Trust & Community &
founder/trustee of the Institute for Earthcare Education Aotearoa. She
has a Diploma in Permaculture, plus various teaching qualifications. 
For 20 years Robina has been engaged in community development,
permaculture design & tutoring, organic growing, the development of
environmental education resources & the creation of participatory
processes for decision-making & collective action.  She has taught &
applied these powerful community-building methods with households,
neighborhoods, schools, farms, ecovillages & bioregions, in
Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, Brazil & USA. 
Robina was the originator/coordinator of Golden Bay’s ‘PLANET
Organic’, a year-long vocational training in community-scale
sustainable landuse design, management & facilitation. Throughout her
life, she has worked with minimal resources to bring about significant
changes in the lives of people, their communities & their environment. 
Consequently, human capacity building is one of Robina’s special
skills - inspiring, guiding & offering specific tools & techniques for
people to access their gifts, develop their potential, build their
resourcefulness, & live their dreams.




Tyrone LaFay (Bellingham, WA) 


Tyrone is the director/founder of Earthcare Design Solutions – a
community based organization offering services in permaculture,
sustainable settlement & ecological design education & consultation. 
He has been working for the past 3 years as an Associate Faculty
member with the Village Design Institute.  Tyrone holds a BSc in
Environmental Science: Sustainable Ecological Design, plus
Permaculture and ecovillage qualifications from USA, Australia and NZ. 
Over the past seven years, he has been studying, practicing & teaching
applied human ecology, permaculture design, organic gardening &
eco-village design in the Pacific Northwest, and overseas. He is
currently living & working as the Permaculture Design Program
Coordinator at O.U.R. Eco-Village, in Canada. 




Huckleberry Leonard  (Olympic Peninsula, WA)


For the past 30 years Huckleberry has been owner & primary consultant
for GREENWORLD edible landscaping.  He is also a plant adviser for
Raintree Nursery. He has qualifications in zoology, landscaping,
permaculture & community development.  Huckleberry has taught
permaculture design, native plant identification, wild foods foraging
& seed collecting, internationally, including within community
projects in South America. He facilitates deep nature connection
experiences in the Olympic National Park wilderness. Two strong
underpinnings in his life are yoga & music, including a diversity of
performance music.






LOGISTICS & REGISTRATION


Cost: $700 - $350 + $25 night for indoor accommodation or $15
night for camping.


Sliding scale, based on income, with consideration for affordability
(higher waged -  students/lower waged)


Cost is inclusive of food, tuition, & all educational materials.  (If
finance is a problem, make contact about this). 


Accommodation Options    Indoor: $25 per night = $125 total        
Camping: $15 per night = $75 total


Food:  delicious, mostly vegetarian & organic.   




Further details:  sent upon registration, eg program, what to bring,
travel info, personal needs.


IT IS POSSIBLE TO ATTEND FOR PART OF THE TIME ON A DAILY BASIS, for a
daily fee, based on the above cost divided by the number of days
attending.   


Arrive Tuesday morning.  We begin at 10.30am. 






REGISTRATION




Registration/Enquiries to:  Selma Ruth


Email: robina@context.org   (cc to: hoff@goodenough.org)


To register:  All email registrations need to be received by Wed 5pm
on 14 Sept, and will be responded to then.   Send a deposit of $50 by
Fri 17 Sept to: 


Sustainable Community, c/o  Huckleberry Leonard, PMB 181, 2442 NW
Market St, Seattle, WA 98107




Payment details: Checks should be written out to:  ‘/Robina McCurdy’. 
Other payment methods: cash-in-mail or postal order.  Remainder of fee
payable on arrival. 






Include with registration: 


•




  your name, postal address, phone & email contact; 




•




 a letter/note which covers
your motivation for participating in this course, your permaculture
education & experience, whether or not you live in or are initiating
an intentional community/ecovillage.




* the amount of days you will be attending.






•




        please state the full fee you will be paying. 


        






FURTHER INFORMATION


To know about our venue, visit Sahale’s website:
www.goodenough.org/Sahale