7/16/08-So far, about 10 people have joined in workshop on the Sustainability Workshops Series, also now known as the Homesteading Workshops Series. This includes workshops leaders, volunteers who put up signs, and volunteers who helped organize and publicize workshops. More than 60 people have been reached, with almost 30 people at our first workshop alone. These people were affected by learning a new homesteading skill and leaving the workshop will all the knowledge and material to start practicing this skill at home. Each skill helps people become more locally self-sufficient and build a more sustainable and harmonious relationship with the local ecology.
Sustainability Workshop Series
Submitted by josha on Tue, 10/02/2007 - 15:24
the problem:
The Sustainability Workshop Series is an effort led by the ad-hoc community group, Global Awareness Local Action (G.A.L.A.), to provide experiential learning of basic homesteading techniques like composting, sourdough baking, canning, utilizing renewable energy, biofuel production, wool spinning, wine making, native foraging, and bioregion education. The goal of the Sustainability Workshop Series is to empower individuals to become more locally self-reliant in a fun, practical, and meaningful way. How is the G.A.L.A. Sustainability Workshop Series fun? The Sustainability Workshop Series remains fun, as well as educational, by allowing participants to be engaged in a creative and unique manner. For instance, a Wool-Spinning Workshop would not require everyone to use the same three colors of wool. Instead, participants would be allowed to pick and choose from a variety of vegetable or root dyed wools to make each spool of yarn unique. Likewise, a follow-up Knitting Workshop would not demand everyone to make a hat, but would offer diverse knitting techniques that accommodate the final product desire of everyone!
vital stats:
people impacted:
0people involved:
0why it's important:
The Sustainability Workshop Series is also fun because it remains informal, learning-focused rather than accomplishment-focused, and held at a rotating venue. While the Sustainability Workshop Series serves as a chance to learn a new homesteading technique, it is also an opportunity for community members to socialize with people they may not otherwise spend time with. All workshops also place more emphasis on the learning process rather than the accomplishment aspect of the final product. Emphasis on process over product helps keep the atmosphere lighthearted, and avoids disappointment if a product does not turn out exactly how the person expected. And finally, the Sustainability Workshop Series is fun because it takes place at a rotating venue to remain fresh and new! How is the G.A.L.A. Sustainability Workshop Series practical? The Sustainability Workshop Series is practical because it uses only locally available resources and helps meet some type of basic human need. For instance, there would not be a Sustainability Workshop that teaches participants how to maneuver aero-freestyle tricks with remote control airplanes. First, chances are that the parts used to make the remote control airplane are not produced locally. And second, other than sharpening mere hand to eye coordination and simply enjoying the outdoors, this activity does not serve a practical human need. This is not to discredit those who enjoy leisurely time spent flying remote airplanes. To be more specific, G.A.L.A. will aim to have all “ingredients” for each workshop available within a one hundred mile radius. In addition, each workshop will develop skills to help meet a basic human need like food, shelter, warmth, health, and a sense of belonging. How is the G.A.L.A. Sustainability Workshop Series meaningful? The Sustainability Workshop Series is made meaningful by deliberately connecting the skill being learned, with how that skill helps achieve sustainability. It is G.A.L.A.’s promise that each workshop will develop skills that if utilized, will help increase the chances of a sustainable future. But what is sustainability? A literal definition of sustainability is simple: capable of being sustained; the ability to withstand or uphold some type of weight (or pressure). Language around sustainability has evolved, however, as scientific advancements allow for a greater understanding of the earth’s carrying capacity, or in other words, the ability of the earth to withstand pressure of human impact. Models used to illustrate the relationship between human impact and the earth’s carrying capacity are grounded in a fundamental law of nature: natural systems have a limited capacity to assimilate waste and recover from the depletion of resources.
the plan of action:
G.A.L.A.’s goal behind the Sustainability Workshop Series is to help people develop skills that lower their impact on the earth, also commonly referred to as “ecological footprint,” in a fun and practical manner. G.A.L.A. will make this experience meaningful by connecting each skill with information about the unsustainable trend it seeks to mitigate. For instance, the rate of soil erosion and loss of productive cropland is unsustainable. As Lester Brown highlights in his rigorously researched book, Eco-Economy, “the loss of topsoil from wind and water erosion now exceeds the natural formation of new soil, gradually draining the land of its fertility." These are the facts that would be brought to a Sustainability Workshop on Household Composting Methods to show that composting not only keeps organic matter out of landfills, but can also help restore nutrient-rich topsoil. Helping participants understand that their new skill is not simply a novelty or isolated action, but part of a larger movement to ensure an environmentally restorative existence, will make the workshop experience that much more meaningful. Inevitably, G.A.L.A.’s Sustainability Workshop Series will help strengthen the social fabric of community as well as restore the ecological integrity of the given bioregion. Although G.A.L.A.’s Sustainability Workshops Series will take place in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, all course descriptions will be made available in a user-friendly template for community groups to adopt everywhere!
how you can get involved:
n/aproject updates:
06/25/2009
