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Commenced:
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01/02/2016 |
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Submitted:
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14/08/2016 |
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Last updated:
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05/03/2021 |
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Location:
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Santa Cruz, CA, Santa Cruz, CA, US |
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Phone:
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None, please email |
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Website:
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http://santacruzpermaculture.com/ |
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Climate zone:
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Mediterranean |
(projects i'm involved in)
Back to Santa Cruz Permaculture
Project: Santa Cruz Permaculture
Posted by Melissa Ott Fant over 3 years ago
Practice permaculture each week at our ‘village campfire’ of ongoing interactive group calls. These calls are virtual, so you don't need to live in or near Santa Cruz to participate!
Hosted by experienced permaculture mentors including Santa Cruz Permaculture founder David Shaw, Lydia Neilsen of Rehydrate the Earth, and John Valenzuela of Cornucopia Food Forests.
We’ve found that people thrive when practicing permaculture from within a supportive community container. This ‘village’ based learning is at the heart of our ethos at Santa Cruz Permaculture. The village provides a place for sharing and catching each other’s stories, forming connections and deep friendships, making commitments and accountability loops about what matters, and learning about the mysteries of nature and culture.
We will build and co-evolve our learning village through the process of weekly community calls and our interactive website (call participants gain free access to the website during the call series). For the village-builders, or those culturally creative folks who want to develop community in their own neighborhood and bioregion, we will also provide the opportunity to build bioregional community in the place you live should that be a desire of yours.
The goal of this program is to create thriving and resilient individuals and communities. We do this through supporting people to connect with nature, community, and themselves more deeply, and use permaculture as the vehicle for doing so.
Each call includes a keynote talk on a relevant and seasonal topic. This is followed by a small group conversation for reflection, and a whole group conversation and Q+A. We close the calls with invitations for how you can apply what you’ve learned in your home and community. The next call begins with a check in about how it went applying what you learned.
Our curriculum is ever evolving, changing with the seasons, and influenced by the topics people want to cover. It is dialogical and co-creative. We include and also transcend the topics covered in our permaculture design course, listed here just to get the flavor of typical topics. For example, during a 10-week cohort we may spend two weeks on composting (home or commercial), two weeks on no-till agroecology and food forests, a week on habitat and pollinators, a week on designing disaster resilience (personal and neighborhood), a week on economics and right livelihood, and a week on policies to support ecological living. Overall, our goal is to help you and your community thrive using a community based approach to permaculture as the means.
Our process of mentoring is a long term commitment whereby both parties care about the positive outcome of the other and are self-aware that they are each learning from the process. In that sense it is always ‘co-mentoring’ and reciprocal.
For the most part practicing permaculture is a deep, slow, and steady process. To be sure there are times when things move quickly, like when the food must come in or the fire be put out, though we’ve found that the best permaculture practitioners and sites are made through an ongoing and iterative process of think-trial-reflect-do. Mentoring works best when focusing on what really matters in a person’s life, and this takes time.
Being immersed in a mentoring village of fellow practitioners provides greater surface area for storytelling, learning, feedback, exchanging plants and farm products, mutual aid, and so much more. The power of community cannot be overstated for human development and learning. In particular, intergenerational collaboration offers us the opportunity for greater wholeness and community in today’s fragmented world through maximizing the unique gifts of each generation. By creating a mentoring village together we not only each benefit individually from the wellspring or connections but also serve the greater good by building something powerful, durable, agile and resilient.
The weekly calls are hosted by Santa Cruz Permaculture founder David Shaw. Guest instructors shift each cohort but frequently include Lydia Neilsen, John Valenzuela, Paula Grainger, and others. Learn more about our team of instructors here.
Our weekly calls are Tuesdays at 7:00-8:30 PM Pacific.
We align our calls with the seasons using a 10-week cohort model:
Fall 2020: October 6 to December 8
Winter 2021: January 5 to March 9
Spring 2021: March 30 to June 1
Summer 2021: July 13 to September 14
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Note: The various badges displayed in people profiles are largely honesty-based self-proclamations by the individuals themselves. There are reporting functions users can use if they know of blatant misrepresentation (for both people and projects). Legitimacy, competency and reputation for all people and projects can be evidenced and/or developed through their providing regular updates on permaculture work they’re involved in, before/after photographs, etc. A spirit of objective nurturing of both people and projects through knowledge/encouragement/inspiration/resource sharing is the aim of the Worldwide Permaculture Network.
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MemberA member is a permaculturist who has never taken a PDC course. These cannot become PDC teachers. Members may be novice or highly experienced permaculturists or anywhere in between. Watch their updates for evaluation. |
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Permaculture MatchmakerOne of these badges will show if you select your gender and the "I'm single, looking for a permaculture partner" option in your profile. |
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PDCPeople who claim to have taken a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course somewhere in the world. |
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PDC VerifiedPeople who have entered an email address for the teacher of their PDC course, and have had their PDC status verified by that teacher. Watch their updates for evaluation. |
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PRI PDCPeople who’ve taken a Permaculture Research Institute PDC somewhere in the world. |
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PDC TeacherPeople who claim to teach some version of PDC somewhere in the world. |
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PRI TeacherWith the exception of the ‘Member’ who has never taken a PDC, all of the above can apply to become a PRI PDC Teacher. PRI PDC Teachers are those who the PRI recognise, through a vetting board, as determined and competent to teach the full 72-hour course as developed by Permaculture founder Bill Mollison – covering all the topics of The Designers’ Manual as well as possible (i.e. not cherry picking only aspects the teacher feels most interested or competent in). Such teachers also commit to focussing on the design science, and not including subjective spiritual/metaphysical elements. The reason these items are not included in the PDC curriculum is because they are “belief” based. Permaculture Design education concerns itself with teaching good design based on strategies and techniques which are scientifically provable. PRI PDC Teachers may be given teaching and/or consultancy offerings as they become available as the network grows. |
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Aid WorkerThe individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to be involved in permaculture aid work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture aid worker experience. Watch their updates for evaluation. |
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ConsultantThe individual with this badge is indicating they are, have, or would like to do paid permaculture design consultancy work. As such, the individual may or may not have permaculture consultancy experience. Watch their updates for evaluation. |
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Community ProjectCommunity projects are projects that help develop sustainable community interaction and increase localised resiliency. |
