7 Stages to Sustainability Permaculture Design Course MA Center

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2008, Living Mandala
creative services by: 360 Degrees

7 Stages to Sustainability

Permaculture Design Course

Permaculture for International Sustainable Development & Social Entrepreneurship

4 Modules, 13 Days

March 27 - May 18, 2014

Green Friends Farm - Castro Valley, California

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Student Special :$875!

Full 7SS PDC: All 4 Modules: $1150 Standard / $995 Supplemented / $875 Student Discount

What’s Included in Full Course Registration & Completion:

•4 Modules: March 27 - 30, April 10-13, & May 1 - 4, & May 18, 2014
•World class, hands-on, instruction
•Internationally recognized PDC Certification + 7SS Basic Training Certificate
•9 months follow up coaching
•Extensive Resource Materials DVD
•Beverages and snacks. Option to bring own lunch, or a catered lunch for + $10

To Register Click Here.

What You’ll Gain & Learn:

•Integrative Social, Economic & Environmental Development
•Vital tools & practices in locally-led community development
•Hands-on International Permaculture Design Course Certificate
•Leading-edge approaches to cross-sector collaboration
•Best practices in Asset Based Community Development (ABCD)
•How to apply 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) framework and Permaculture in your own organizations, communities, and projects.

Who’s Coming?

•Aspiring & Experienced Sustainability Leaders
•NGO Leaders
•Social Entrepreneurs
•Community Organizers
•World Class instructors
•Permaculturists (of all experience levels)
•System Thinkers & Eco-Social Designers
•All ready to co-create a healthy, culturally rich, thriving world!

Take Full Course or Individual Modules

Individual 4 day modules details are below. Space is limited. Full course is required to receive full experience and PDC + 7SS Certification & 9 Months Project Coaching.

4 Modules:

•Module 1 (March 27 - 30, 2014): $395 Regenerative Leadership: From Igniting Our Purpose to Cross-Sector Co-Creation
•Module 2 (April 10 - 13): $395: Ecological Design in Action: Appropriate Technology, Measurable Impact & What it Takes
•Module 3 (May 1 - 4): $395 - Social Enterprise for Synergistic Partnerships & Resilient Communities: From Harvest to Market to Reinvesting the Surplus
•Module 4 (May 18): Free Open to Public - RSVP
Design Presentations, Graduation, Celebration!

Scholarships & Work trade

Limited scholarships and work trade are available, both for the entire course and individual modules! To apply, fill out an application by Clicking Here and email scholarships(at)livingmandala.com

Module 1: Regenerative Leadership: From Igniting Our Purpose to Cross-Sector Co-Creation

Module 1 (March 27 - 30, 2014):

Instructors:

Kat Steele, Jay Ma, Melanie St. James, Samantha Sweetwater, Pandora Thomas Genevieve Smith

Topics Include:

7SS Stage 1: Build a Team
7SS Stage 2: Take Inventory
7SS Stage 3: Co-Create Plan
Permaculture Overview, 7SS Overview, PC Ethics, Design Principles, Patterns in Nature, Pattern Application, Reconnecting with Nature, Site Analysis, Asset Mapping, Zones & Sectors, Program Design & Evaluation, Regenerative Leadership, Cross Sector Collaboration, and more.

Module 2: Ecological Design in Action: Appropriate Technology, Measurable Impact & What it Takes

Module 2 (April 10 - 13):

Instructors:

Max Meyers, John Valenzuela, Michael Flynn, Melanie St. James, Kevin Bayuk, Jeanette Acosta, Jay Ma & others from the Bay Area Permaculture Teacher’s Guild.

During this module we will dive into Permaculture practices and techniques applied on the ground in visible structures.

Topics Include:

•7SS Stages 4: Build Skills / Human Capacity, 7SS Stage 5: Transfer Tech / Info & Build, Appropriate Technology, Water on the Landscape, Regenerative Earthworks, Swales, Ponds, Keyline Design, Rainwater Harvesting, Greywater, Aquaponics, Forest Ecology, Plant Guilds, Gardens, Food Forests, Sustainable Forestry, Coppicing, Plant Propagation, Seed Saving, Pruning, Soil Ecology, Soil Food Web, Soil Building Strategies, Compost, Sheet Mulching, Compost Teas, Animals in the System, Holistic Management, Carbon Sequestration, Mushrooms & Myco-remediation, Built Structures, Natural Building

Module 3: Social Enterprise for Synergistic Partnerships & Resilient Communities: From Harvest to Market to Reinvesting the Surplus

Module 3 (May 1 - 4)

Instructors:

Kevin Bayuk, Kat Steele, Melanie St. James, Jay Ma, Jeanette Acosta, Adam Wolpert, Trathen Heckman
During this module we will dive into Permaculture practices and techniques applied on the ground in invisible structures.

Topics Include:

•7SS Stages 6: Access to Markets, 7SS Stage 7: Reinvest / Reinforce Impact, Urban Strategies, Invisible Structures, Alternative Economics, Financial Permaculture, Regenerative Enterprise Design, Land Access & Legal Structures, Social Permaculture, Ecovillages & Intentional Communities, Village Design, Building Community & Embracing Diversity, Communication Skills Conflict Resolution, Facilitation, Decision making, Leadership and Empowerment, Cultural Mentoring, Governance and Democracy, Indigenous Wisdom, Zone Zero, Developing Public-Private Partnerships

Module 4: Design Presentations - May 18

As part of the course, students will apply the 7SS & Permaculture technologies towards live design projects to be developed during the full course from March - May 18 2014, and delivered to stakeholders in the community on the final session on May 18. Deign presentation are open to the public to attend for free! Please RSVP in advance. Design presentation will be followed by certificate presentations and an evening passion show and celebration!

Certification Applicability

Participants who successfully complete the course will receive a Permaculture Design + 7SS Certificate. Design Certification is applicable towards Gaia University Degree Programs, and may be applied towards University credit in some cases.

Bay Area Accessibility & Global Connection

This course is accessible to those who are unable a to take two-weeks off or more from their lives, jobs, and family responsibilities to attend a residential intensive course, we are excited to offer this 5 part Permaculture Design Certification Course + 7SS Training at Green Friends at the centrally located beautiful east bay beautiful site of the M.A. Center / GreenFriends Farm in the East San Francisco Bay Area - U.S. headquarters of international humanitarian & India Saint - Amma. The beautiful 180 acre grounds of the M.A. Center are becoming a demonstration & educational hub of leading permaculture, holistic management, and regenerative design practices in the San Francisco Bay Area. The MA Center and GreenFriends International have a strong global focus as well, and leading and supporting many humanitarian and ecological projects around the world.

Lodging & Transportation

Participants are responsible for their lodging and travel arrangements. Lodging is not available at the M.A Center to non residents. Room costs in San Ramon or Castro Valley range from $40/night to $120/night. Upon registration, you will be sent a list of local hotels and online hotel booking options. We will also assist in coordinating carpools with participants coming from different parts of the S.F. Bay Area.ea.

Site Details - M.A. Center / GreenFriends Farm - Location, Location, Location

Just between South Bay & SF, our centrally located, beautiful East (of San Fransisco) Bay site of the M.A. Center / GreenFriends Farm is approx 20 min east of Oakland. This pristine 180 acre grounds is a major educational demonstration hub of leading regenerative design practices for Northern California. As the U.S. headquarters of international humanitarian & India Saint, Amma, www.embracingtheworld.org it supports many humanitarian & ecological projects around the world.

Site Projects Include

•1,000 tree holistic food forest
•Dynamic watershed restoration
•Broadacre land contouring & water infiltration
•Keyline patterning & ploughing
•Native reforestation & agroforestry
•Holistically managed grazing
•Soil food web management
•Solar energy
•Community garden & orchards
•Sustainability & spirituality programs

About GreenFriends

GreenFriends is a global grassroots environmental movement that promotes environmental awareness and participation at the individual and community levels in activities aimed at preserving our precious environment. GreenFriends’ baseline philosophy is that we should strive to preserve and protect our environment because not only does nature provide us with resources we need to sustain ourselves, but she also sustains all life forms on earth. GreenFriends advocates that each one of us strives to reawaken our awareness of unity with all of creation, and cultivate an attitude of love and reverence towards nature. Developing love for nature will lead to a change in our attitudes, helping us work together towards restoring the harmony between humanity and nature that has existed throughout the ages.

GreenFriends: A Global Environmental Movement

In the United States, GreenFriends’ main activities include tree planting, organic food production using organic farming techniques, a plastics project, solar energy and beekeeping. GreenFriends is a satellite project of the humanitarian organization Embracing the World (ETW). ETW is a member organization of the United Nations Billion Tree Campaign. Since its inception in 2001, GreenFriends has become a global environmental movement with thousands of members of all ages in the United States, Europe, Australia and Japan working together to preserve the environment through local participation in GreenFriends projects.

Since its inception, GreenFriends has made a tremendous impact on the environment by planting more than 1 million trees globally since 2001. Other GreenFriends projects found around the world include permaculture, building eco-friendly dwellings, promoting the use of Efficient Micro-organisms (EM), preserving land and water ecosystems, and recycling/reducing waste. To reconnect people with nature, GreenFriends also conducts workshops, nature retreats and group meditation in forests and other natural settings.

Instructors & Facilitators

Jay Markert (“Jay Ma”)

Director of Programs - LIving Mandala

Jay Ma is a holistic educator, regenerative design consultant, permaculture teacher, and social entrepreneur committed to creating ecological and cultural resiliency through living systems design principles. As the founder and director of programs at Living Mandala, Jay works with holistic educators, businesses, communities and institutions designing, organizing, and promoting educational trainings, events, and initiatives for personal, ecological and social transformation in the pacific northwest, nationally, and internationally. Jay is a community organizer and seasoned event producer who has produced educational programs, retreats, workshops, conferences and community development projects for 12 years now with organizations including the Regenerative Design Institute, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Gaia University, Omega Institute, Harmony Festival, and many others.

Jay received his first Permaculture Design Certificate in 2001, started his degree program in performing Arts Production Management at Naropa University, received a B.S. through New College of California in Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Community with a concentration in Eco-Dwelling & Natural Building in 2005, and is currently a Master's Candidate at Gaia University in Integrative Ecosocial Design. He is a two-time graduate of the pioneering two-year training intensive in Regenerative Design & Nature Awareness through the Regenerative Design Institute. Jay is permaculture design course instructor, a nature connection educator, a community facilitator, and a fire walk instructor through Sundoor International.

Jay is also co-founder of Shire Springs - a developing Ecovillage based on Permaculture Ethics & Peacemaking Principles offering affordable residential Ecovillage living and community co-stewardship opportunities on a beautiful oasis in the greater Mt. Shasta Bioregion in California - U.S.A.. Jay is skilled community organizer as well as an engaging educator passionate about sustainability, nature connection, social entrepreneurship, team building, and creating a culture of human beings living harmoniously with each other and our environment. More information on Jay Ma can be found on his Linkedin Profile.

Lead Instructor & Facilitator

Melanie St.James, MPA

Executive Director & Global Programs Director (USA) - Empowerment Works

Executive Producer & Co-Chair - The Global Summit

Melanie's passion to change the world began at 20 in 1994 with a semester in mainland China, an experience that awakened her to the pressing social and environmental challenges of humanity. Returning to China in Fall 2009 to co-create the service learning program for the World Academy for the Future of Women, Melanie delivered EW's flagship approach "7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS)" as a curriculum, which continues to evolve as an open source Asset-Based Community Development knowledge base. Melanie holds a Masters of Public Administration in International Management from the Monterey Institute of International Studies’ Graduate School of International Policy Studies, and a BA in International Relations and Diplomacy from Schiller International University in Madrid, Spain. Fluent in French and Spanish, Melanie has lived and traveled across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas.

Lead Instructor & Facilitator

Kat Steele

Kat Steele is a permaculture activist, designer, educator, founder of the Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland. Kat is the sustainability manager at Esalen institute, and currently leads the Growing Beyond Green Sustainability Initiative at Esalen. She facilitates workshops on ecological design, sustainability and permaculture as well as speaks about eco-social design, and eco-conscious transformational leadership. Trained in Ecovillage Design with the Findhorn Foundation of Scotland, Natural Building with Kleiwerks International, and Permaculture Design with theOccidental Arts and Ecology Center, she also holds an MA in Creative Arts from San Francisco State University. In 2006 she became one of a 1,000 Climate Project trainees empowered to present a version of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth slide presentation. She is devoted to localization and community resiliency, believing it to be a key strategy towards sustainability and "thriveability.”

Lead Instructor & Facilitator

Warren Brush

Warren Brush is a certified Permaculture designer and teacher as well as a mentor and storyteller. He has worked for over 25 years in inspiring people of all ages to discover, nurture and express their inherent gifts while living in a sustainable manner. He is cofounder of Quail Springs Permaculture, Sustainable Vocations, Wilderness Youth Project, Trees for Children and his Permaculture design company, True Nature Design. He works extensively in Permaculture education and sustainable systems design in North America, Africa, Middle East, Europe, and Australia. He has devoted many years to mentoring youth and adults to inspire and equip them to live in a sustainable manner with integrity and a hopeful outlook. His mentoring includes working with those who are former child soldiers, orphans, indigenous peoples, youth from troubled families and situations as well as those youth from other varied and privileged backgrounds. He teaches courses including: Permaculture Design Certification, Rainwater Harvesting Systems, Ferro- Cement Tank Building, Compost Toilet Systems, Greywater Solutions, Water for Every Farm, Drought Proofing, Cultural Mentoring, Introduction to Permaculture Systems, Corporation Sole Formation, Food Forestry, and origins skills among other offerings.

Guest Instructor

Samantha Sweetwater

Samantha Sweetwater is a visionary educator, soul coach and priestess. She is the creator of Dancing Freedom, an Embodied Mystery School, and the founder of PeaceBody Ministries. She has led transformational workshop and trainings integrating dance, yoga, soul empowerment, light work and sustainable lifestyle design nationally and in Brazil, Australia, Germany and Japan since 1995. Her guiding questions: How do we bring peace alive as a moment-to-moment reality for all beings? How do we co-create a culture of Embodied Oneness?

Samantha invokes the integral wisdom of body, mind, heart and spirit. She ignites the passion of the soul’s true purpose, and reflects the Beauty Way of Evolutionary Enlightenment - the marriage of Source connection with grounded actions, whole relationships and living communities. In her travels, she has inspired thousands to embrace living tools for radiant health, authentic expression, joyous wholeness, planetary regenesis and awakened heart. Through the Dancing Freedom Embodied Mystery School, Samantha is training a community of facilitators to spread Peace-embodied around the world. She is constantly exploring angles through which the soul level epiphanies of the dancing experience can galvanize the WE in sustaining communities, relationships and actions. She is currently part of the organizing team for State of the World Forum and the Global Transitions Initiative.

Guest Instructor

Pandora Thomas

Pandora Thomas is a passionate global citizen who works as a sustainability and environmental education consultant, permaculture teacher, lecturer and writer. She is a certified green building professional, credentialed multiple subjects’ teacher and studied at Columbia’s Teachers College, and Tufts University.

Her writing includes a children’s book, various curricula and a green building manual for youth. After years of working with groups as diverse as Iraqi and Indonesian youth to men serving in San Quentin she enjoys lecturing and teaching about empowering collaboration and community assets based design.

Pandora co-founded Earthseed Consulting LLC, a holistic consulting firm whose work expands the opportunities for sustainable living for diverse communities. Her clients include as Toyota, Alameda County office of Mental Health and San Quentin.

She currently co-leads a project called Pathways to Resilience, a permaculture and social enterprise-training program for men and women re-entering their communities after incarceration.

She also recently co-founded the Black Permaculture Network, which is serving a community of diverse permaculturalists around access and support. She has studied four languages and lived and worked in over twelve countries and her other achievements include presenting at Tedx Denver and SF, and being awarded fellowships to Columbia University, Green For All and the Applied Research Center.

Guest Instructor

Max Meyers

Maximillian Meyers is an experienced Ecological Designer, Permaculture Teacher, Consultant, Commercial Aquaponic System Designer/Installer, Rainwater and Greywater System specialist, Farmer, and the Executive Director of NorCal Aquaponics & the Mendocino Ecological Learning Center - a nonprofit educational organization and ecological reserve offering green job training and sustainable living skills to the public. In addition to the work at MELC, Mr. Meyers provides Ecological design services to the public, organizations, and schools through his businesses Osiris Designs and NorCal Aquaponics. He is passionate about all things related to a more just and sustainable world. He has been studying, practicing and teaching Permaculture and Ecological Design for 12 years. Since graduating from College with a B.A. degree in Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Communities, Max has become a certified Permaculture designer/teacher, water systems specialist and working professional. He has been fortunate enough to study with people like Bill Mollison, Geoff Lawton, Sepp Holzer, Tom Ward, Jude Hobbs, John Valenzuela, Penny Livingston, Tim Mann and many others in places like the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Thailand, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Hawaii. Some of his fields of study and practice include: Natural Building, Organic Farming, Integrated Rainwater Harvesting, Alternative Transportation, Mushroom Cultivation, Sustainable Forestry, Beekeeping, Animal Husbandry, Renewable Energy, Biogas Production and use, Greywater Systems design and installation, Vermiculture, seed saving and many other sustainable technologies, methods and skills. He has experience teaching Permaculture, Natural Building, Cob Construction, Renewable Energy, Organic Farming, Beekeeping and others. His work has been featured in the best selling book Gaia’s Garden, as well as on various radio and television programs.

Guest Instructor

Kevin Bayuk

Kevin Bayuk started as an artist and filmmaker, explored an eight year meander as a technology entrepreneur (in an attempt to fund his films) and has now graduated into his life as an activated advocate for ecotopian living. Kevin is currently leveraging his skills and relationships to develop organizations and projects that regenerate healthy ecosystems and socially just environments. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Urban Alliance for Sustainability, and teaches with the Urban Permaculture Institute, Urban Permaculture Guild, and Earth Activist Training. Kevin facilitates permaculture trainings and shares his skills in organic gardening and composting in playshops and community workshops.

Guest Instructor

Genevieve Smith

Genevieve Smith specializes in research and analysis of gender-related issues and opportunities within the household energy sector. Genevieve is currently the Program Director of The Visionaria Network, an organization dedicated to cultivating locally–driven sustainable development through the empowerment of young women in Peru. Genevieve also works for the United Nations Foundation's Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves specifically regarding gender and markets. Within this, she co-leads the development of the gender and empowerment strategy and oversees the gender research agenda. Genevieve is currently conducting research on empowerment methodology to engage and empower women in clean energy initiatives in Bolivia and is an empowerment teacher trainee under the Empowerment Institute, a preeminent consulting and training organization specializing in the practice of empowerment globally. Previously, Genevieve was the Program Manager of the Peru-based Energy Justice Clean Cookstove Program for the Center for Energy and Environmental Security. Additionally, she has led research on the role of women in the Nepalese clean cooking value chain and on gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Smith has experience working throughout various countries in Latin America and Asia.

Guest Instructor

John Valenzuela

John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant and educator who has returned to live in Northern California after being based in Hawai’i for 15 years.

First introduced to the sustainable design theories and methods of permaculture in 1989, John studied and practiced tropical permaculture and taught extensively in the Hawaiian Islands. He has been a lead permaculture design course instructor at the Bullock Family Homestead in Orcas Island, Washington for over 10 years, and also has experience teaching in Costa Rica and now throughout urban and rural California, collaborating with leading permaculture organizations.

His special interests are rare fruit, home gardening, trees, traditional agriculture, plant propagation, and ethnobotany. He is active in the Golden Gate chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers where he has been the Annual Scion Exchange coordinator for the last two years, and now serves as Chapter Chairperson.

He now lives and grows in North Eastern Marin County California, where he is diversifying a food forest garden with over 150 varieties of fruit on multi-grafted trees, along with a small nursery, while practicing photography, developing educational materials, freelance consulting, team teaching, planting and maintaining gardens. John is known for an engaging enthusiasm that matches his depth of plant knowledge. For more information on John and his work visit: http://cornucopiafoodforest.wordpress.com/

Guest Instructor

Jeanette Acosta - Sat Siri Kaur

For all her life, Sat Siri Kaur and her family have applied their shared experience to create cultural preservation and teach sustainability and stewardship of the Earth. Together they develop and implement practical solutions for sustainable living while offering hands-on permaculture courses, workshops and more. Sat Siri’s courses lead us through the principle of Council, followed by an exploration of Indigenous teachings about sustainability passed on by her parents and Chumash Elders. Council is the practice of speaking and listening from the heart. Through compassionate, heartfelt expression and empathic, non-judgmental listening, Council inspires a non-hierarchical form of deep communication that reveals a group's vision and purpose. Council offers effective means of resolving conflicts and for discovering the deeper, often unexpressed needs of individuals and organizations. Council provides a comprehensive means for co-visioning and making decisions in a group context. Council is about our personal and collaborative story. Her workshop sessions introduce the abundance of materials, resources, knowledge, and ancestry that exists in our natural environment. (i.e., The practice of gathering and use of native plants.) Sat Siri provides expertise with cultural immersion specifically to Indigenous Maritime land use system as it relates to culture and ethno-ecological importance. She teaches to cultivate inner garden’s cycles, transitions, restoration, and revitalization process as it relates to the preservation and stewardship of Self, Earth & Spirit. Sat Siri was raised in a household visited by traditional Indigenous healers who imbued in her the respect of these sacred traditions. She is the Blesser for the Annual Blessing Ceremony for Peace at the 3HO Summer Solstice International Peace Prayer Day. She is also a certified Teacher Trainer of Kundalini Yoga & Meditation. Sat Siri Kaur is deeply connected with the earth and spirit, emotes love, compassion and connectedness and seeks to fill others with gratitude, consciousness and the sensation of being blessed.

Guest Instructor

Trathen Heckman

Trathen Heckman is the founding executive director of Daily Acts Organization, president of the board for Transition US, publisher of Ripples - an award-winning journal, and a backyard farmer. He is the former executive director of Green Sangha Organization and currently on the board of directors. Seeking to inspire the engagement of hearts, minds and senses, Trathen educates and works with community, business and municipal leaders to create programs, policy and models which harness the power of nature and inspired action to restore the health of our lives and communities. Trathen has given oodles of local, national and international presentations on Sustainability, Ecological Design and the power of our daily actions to renew the world. He lives in the Petaluma River Watershed where he grows food, medicine and wonder while working to compost apathy and lack.

Guest Instructor

Tonya "Tbird" Ridgely

Tbird Luv aka Tonya Ridgely, is one of those once in a blue moon artists who’s really taking risks and pushing her art form into areas of business, spirituality and activism. For the past 17 years, she's helped visionary and grassroots organizations refocus on the Bigger Picture. She's mentored hundreds of groups and individuals to move beyond limiting ideas and fears of scarcity so that they set and accomplish worthy goals. Her workshops inspire passion for creative, free expression.

Her mission to instigate freedom and inspire all of us to take whatever we find beautiful - to stand behind it, support it and proliferate it has lead her on stage with leading visionaries and entrepreneurs such as Tracy Lee Jones founder of The Feminine Business Model, Tribal Truth CEO Cofounder Tanya Paluso, and FEM Talks founder Jessica Hadari, online marketing guru, Eben Pagan and Marc Gafni, founder of The Center for Integral Wisdom. She's also been featured in TEDxfidi SF, Radiate Living Radio, True Colors TV and The WOW Factor Conference of 500 women of wellness.

She brings all of her creative talents of marketing + business skills sets, personal empowerment tools and music improvisation to provide a roadmap for fellow conscious entrepreneurs to actualize their own purpose and create deeper impact on the development of a new paradigm.www.tbirdluvmusic.com and www.thespiritualbusinessmodel.com

Lonny Grafman

Lonny Grafman is the founder of Apropedia an Instructor of Environmental Resources Engineering and Appropriate Technology at Humboldt State University; the founder of the Practivistas summer abroad, full immersion, Spanish language and resilient community technology program in Dominican Republic; the Advisor for the epi-apocalyptic city art projects, Waterpod, Flock House, and WetLand; the Executive Editor of the International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering; the CEO of Propelsion, a design and creativity incubator in Humboldt County; and the Founder and President of the Appropedia Foundation, sharing knowledge to build rich, sustainable lives. He is also a board member of engaged community organizations such as Locally Delicious, Thrivable, and Ashevillage Institute.

Lonny has taught courses at universities in four countries and facilitated interactive workshops in dozens of locations. He has worked, and led teams, on hundreds of domestic and international projects across a broad spectrum of sustainability - from solar power to improved cookstoves, from micro-hydro power to rainwater catchment, from earthen construction to plastic bottle schoolrooms. Throughout all of these technology implementations, he has found the most vital component to be community.

Adam Wolpert

Adam Wolpert is a skilled professional facilitator, a Sowing Circle Community member, a painter and the Director of the Arts Program and co-director of the Intentional Communities Program at OAEC. He studied for two years in Florence, Italy, at the classical atelier, Studio Cecil-Graves, and received his MFA at UC San Diego. Adam has lectured on sustainable community and led painting workshops at many West Coast venues. His painting has been widely exhibited throughout California. Adam offers workshops on group process and organizational structure in many OAEC trainings and courses. His work can be viewed on the internet at www.adamwolpert.com.

Affiliate Organizations & Sponsors

Become a sponsor of this course!

For details email: affiliates@livingmandala.com

For Upcoming Courses, Workshops, & Events Click this Spring & Summer in Permaculture, Ecovillage Design, Sustainable Living Skills, & More Click Here.

Including

7SS BASIC TRAINING

COMMUNITY & ECOVILLAGE DESIGN

PERMACULTURE DESIGN TOOLS & PRINCIPLES

GOVERNANCE BY DESIGN

WATER HARVESTING TECHNOLOGIES

CAPACITY BUILDING

FOOD FOREST GARDENING

NATURE CONNECTION & INDIGENOUS WISDOM

ECO-BUILDING & APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY

SUSTAINABLE ECONOMICS

SOCIAL JUSTICE & COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

URBAN PERMACULTURE & VILLAGE DESIGN

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

HANDS-ON EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

INNER ECOLOGY

& MUCH MORE

Co-Organized By

Empowerment WORKS

Living Mandala

Partners & Co-Creaters

GreenFriends Farm

M.A. Center

Common Vision

Quail Springs Permaculture

Urban Permaculture Guild

NorCal Aquaponics

Mendocino Ecological Learning Center

Urban Permaculture Institute

Earthseed Consulting

The Visionaria Network

Dancing Freedom

Cornucopia Food Forest Gardens

Bay Bucks

The Spiritual Business Model

Daily Acts

Appropedia

Facilitators & Instructors

Jay Markert “Jay Ma”

Melanie St. James

Kat Steele

Warren Brush

Samantha Sweetwater

Max Meyers

Kevin Bayuk

John Valenzuela

Pandora Thomas

Genevieve Smith

Jeanette Acosta

Adam Wolpert

Trathen Heckman

Lonny Grafman

Tonya "Tbird" Ridgely

"I believe this to be one of the most RELEVANT permaculture trainings (within an urban and/or cross sectoral context) in the world. Relevant because it emphasizes capacity building for cross sectoral collaboration to cause social innovation and entrepreneurialism. These are the critical engines of real, large scale and lasting change."

Samantha Sweetwater - Founder of the global Dancing Freedom Movement

Do you have a vision you’re ready to turn into meaningful impact?

Want to learn two of the world's leading sustainable design systems to transform our world from grass-roots gardens to governments?

We're gathering an extraordinary team of community leaders, Social Entrepreneurs and International Sustainable Development professional for measurable collective action.

JOIN US!

Course Summary

During this one of a kind, ground-breaking, physically hands-on, intellectually engaging and paradigm expanding training over 2 months (+ 9 months of follow up project coaching!) , we will learn to apply the basic 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) process framework and the whole system design science of Permaculture to develop resilient human settlements in greater harmony with Nature.

In addition to delivering essential 7SS tools for community-led social enterprise solutions, this 4 weekend sustainability intensive will be integrated with a full Permaculture Design Course (PDC).

Course Description

This Spring (multi-weekends, March 27 - May 18), in collaboration with some of the region’s and world’s most amazing & veteran Permaculture educators

Global Sustainability Think-Tank, Empowerment WORKS (producers of The Global Summit) and Educational Cooperative Living Mandala, (producers of NorCal Permaculture Convergence) bring integrated social enterprise, cross-sector collaboration & sustainable community development training home.

The first of its kind in the U.S., with lessons learned in China, India, and Africa, this ground-breaking 7SS Permaculture Design Course is a rare opportunity to learn two of the world’s most scalable systems for community-led solutions, how they work together, and how their regenerative design processes can be applied to address our world's most pressing local & global challenges.

In addition to being an ideal capacity building opportunity for NGO leaders, social entrepreneurs, and sustainability enthusiasts, graduates will complete an internationally recognized certificate in Permaculture Design within the context of social entrepreneurship and integrated sustainable development.Together, we will explore local challenges, co-create appropriate solutions, build upon successful case studies, move through scalable design processes applied to on-the-ground projects, and learn powerful, practical tools for localized food, energy, water systems, and invisible structures for re-designing every scale of human habitat.

Combining key 7SS project management & social enterprise skills and a full Permaculture Design Course Certificate, this training builds upon our recent 7SS+PDC launch in India, EW’s 7SS service learning curriculum in China, and many years of combined global grassroots community action and education of EW, LM, & all our guest instructors over the years.

Through learning simple program development and sustainability approaches (including program evaluation, micro-finance, fair trade, local asset building), along with a potent tool bag of permaculture strategies and on-the-ground and solutionary technologies, students will as emerge as more confident leaders, designers, and community facilitators able to engage, and inspire diverse stakeholders in local solutions.

Real Projects / On-Going Coaching

As part of the course, students will apply the 7SS & Permaculture Design frameworks towards live, on-the-ground design projects in their organizations, businesses, & communities, which will be presented to stakeholders in the community on the final session on May 18. Select design projects will receive follow-up coaching for a full 9 months after the training completes.

What is Permaculture?

Permaculture is a holistic design philosophy described as the art and science of creating community ecosystems in which plants, animals, human beings, and all forms of ecological diversity interact to produce a prolific, ecologically-sound, and regenerative system that can support itself and life indefinitely. The focus of permaculture is to design and establish societal systems that provide for humanity’s material and non-material needs including food, water, shelter, energy, and health in a way that is symbiotic and synergistic with the Earth’s natural ecosystems. More recently permaculture is incorporating an ever-growing landscape of diverse fields and skill sets and is being applied towards areas such as business, government, economics, group process, social systems, and inner work.

7 Stages to Sustainability

Pioneered by Empowerment WORKS since 2001,

“7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS)" is a tool to transform poverty into prosperity.

Modeling the way nature creates, the 7SS pattern is universal and used world-wide to catalyze innovation in business, technology, music and even movies.

The widely distributed 7SS pattern, termed 'monomyth' by author Joseph Campbell (a.k.a. Hero's Journey), is inherent in most (if not all) other functional systems.

Applied as a curriculum, 7SS empowers local communities to build their futures independently. Ultimately, when delivered world-wide, the 7SS curriculum is our opportunity to empower a global community of practice to work together in thriving interdependence.

Through several years of Empowerment Works’ action research advancing 7SS global grassroots community initiaitves, and the success of a first 7SS service learning curriculum in China, 7SS is being taken to new heights in northern India and other places.

While the 7 Stages to Sustainability is a philosophy and process of self-determination as well as a curriculum, it is also a proven catalyst for business, technological and social innovation.

Whole System Co-Creation

Bringing the WHO, HOW & WHAT together to catalyze locally-led solutions.

To facilitate coordination across geographic, cultural and political boundaries, Empowerment Works offers two frameworks that integrate business, community and technology development: 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) and Partners in Empowerment (PIE). Through identifying the "who, how & what" frameworks within this growing web, understanding the primary functions of each, and how they work with others in a whole-system, we foster coherence and transparency:

•WHO: 6 Sectors of Partners in Empowerment = the unique roles we play
•HOW: 7 Stages to Sustainability = natural process we use to co-create
•WHAT: Goals, issues, actions & impact needed for a thriving world

Mirroring the inherently repeatable and scalable (aka Meta) patterns found in nature, 7SS & PIE are complete systems on their own and also reflect the larger system which they are part of. Thereby, 7SS is a process itself, and also encompasses and thus serves to aggregate the many more "who and how" parts (the diverse players and relevant methods used). And, as it is universal, it allows for the variable of "WHAT" (needs, issues & solutions) to be integrated and decided by those on the ground.

7SS Case Studies & Action Research

For over a decade, working with local communities affected by humanity's critical issues of AIDS, poverty and climate change across Asia, Africa, Latin America and the USA, Empowerment WORKS has continuously assessed the relevance and need for the 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) framework to expand in a way that enables global collaboration across Public, Private and Voluntary sectors. Representing experiences of what works, what's broken and opportunities for change, the Case Studies here inspire and inform the development of 7 Stages to Sustainability tools.

ONGOING 7SS CASE STUDIES / EW ACTION RESEARCH:

2013 - 7SS + PDC Training in Bodghaya, India

2011 - Nepal - Hamro Forum "7SS Catalyst Action Training" and "Local Summits"

2011 - Botswana - Peace Corps Volunteer, Kyle Turk "Onsite 7SS tool development"

2010 - Ghana - Kabissa (NGO) "Capacity Building Symposium/Local Summit 2012"

PAST 7SS CASE STUDIES / EW PROGRAMS SINCE 2001:

2009 - China, East Asia launched 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS) Curriculum

2007 - Kenya, East Africa - Amani Children's Center - Youth Entrepreneur Micro-grant

2006 - Suriname, South America - Micro-grants for Social Entrepreneurs

2002-2008 - Zimbabwe, Southern Africa - Orphan Care & Sustainable Development

2001-2007 - Senegal, West Africa - Casamance Institute of Arts & Sciences, EW Music

About Empowerment Works

Inspired in Senegal and Zimbabwe in 1999 & 2000, and registered in the USA as 501c3 tax-exempt organization in 2001, Empowerment WORKS (EW) is a global sustainability think-tank in action dedicated to the advancement of whole-system, locally-led solutions for a thriving world. In the world's most culturally rich, yet economically challenged communities, access to markets, appropriate technologies and education can empower people to transform critical problems into opportunities for lasting social change. Empowerment WORKS brings these vital tools within the grasp of citizens on the front lines of poverty and climate change.

Working globally from the ground up, Empowerment WORKS fosters a global network of Partners in Empowerment (PIE) united in action by a universal collaboration framework called 7 Stages to Sustainability (7SS). Through The Global Summit, the African Local Summit, its ongoing Artists in Action event series and other educational forums, these Partners are empowered to contribute their diverse skills, appropriate technologies and markets to catalyze local impact.

Through this holistic mission, Empowerment WORKS inspires people across the globe to realize the value of their existing knowledge, unique talents and collective potential to change the world.

Contact

For questions and more information regarding the course

e-mail: education(at)livingmandala.com or

call: (530) 918-8675

To Register Click Here.