Yesterday I celebrated finishing a big chapter in my journey of development as a Facilitator of people centred permaculture work. The year long programme involved mentoring creating and undertaking 3 designs for my work, participating in a variety of online and face to face gatherings with others doing the same course, and maintaining a reflective journal of my learning, experience and accountability.

The course has been a really important and motivating factor underpinning my current work as a permaculture practitioner and designer.  I'll be spending the next month or so designing the next phase of my work, developing the workshops, mentoring, designing and tutoring work already undertaken as well as exploring some exciting new project ideas. These will be detailed and updated here on my website 

Last night, as I spent time on Skype with others from the course, sharing my portfolio of designs and reflections on experiences of the past year, I felt so much gratitude that I have been able to be part of this programme. It felt very fitting to use my own "5 Elements" permaculture tool, inspired by my Earth Based spirituality,  to guide my reflections in this presentation. This tool is something I will be writing more about in another post. Doing the Facilitator training has been a fantastic way of taking a lot of the design knowledge and experience gained in my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design to a new level, as well as making and embedding connections with some other wonderful  practitioners focusing on people centred  permaculture projects.


For more details about participating in future  People & Permaculture facilitator training  see this link - you can also read more about my experience of the training here 

Yesterday I faciltated an informal two hour workshop, "Design Your 2017" at the wonderful Settle Community and Business Hub, in Settle, North Yorks. The main aim of the workshop was to use a creative design process to inspire and empower people to develop their own planning system, in order to help achieve goals they have for the year ahead. Ten women from four counties, (including Ann via Skype), came along, and we spent a lovely morning sharing experiences, ideas and tools, with guidence from The Design Web by Looby Macnamara

The workshop was a new project for me and it felt like a positive way of using people centred permaculture design in non permaculture focused settings. Some women in the group use permaculture in other areas of their lives and others didn't. My general observations throughout the morning, and then the feedback afterwards, indicated that the format was really accesible to all though. The event could have definately been extended to perhaps a whole day, but overall this workshop design seemed to be really sucessful and its definately something I would repeat again. 

We left with plans to reignite a monthly gathering in Settle, in order to create a space for momentum, reflection , support and sharing of our 2017 stories.

​Last month I completed a 10-day residential course ‘ People and Permaculture Facilitator Training (FiT)’ run by Looby McNamara and Peter Cow, at Ragman’s Farm in the Forest of Dean. I only heard about the course a few weeks before it was due to commence, but the timing and content seemed to fit perfectly with everything else in my life.
 
Being back at Ragman’s was really special for me. This was the amazing permaculture site where I spent time learning much of my core permaculture knowledge from Patrick Whitefield on his PDC in June 2011,  and then again for a weeks course in Organic Horticulture the following January.
 
The whole FiT course was an incredibly special experience, and perfectly timed to coincide with thinking about my next steps as a permaculture designer.

Here is a summary of some of the many positive outcomes of the training  for me: -
 
Spending the duration of the course getting to know the most fantastic group of social permaculture/people centred  designers and facilitators from all over world – being really motivated by the prospect of continued learning and growing alongside them over the next year, and hopefully much further ahead, through regular online meetings and connections.

The FiT training was a very different style and aspect of permaculture learning from Patrick’s courses. Being there in the same landscape with those connected  experiences  enabled me to further widen understanding I had built up in my Diploma, about the importance of putting people care at the core of any permaculture design, for a design to be be resilient and successful. 

A much more detailed and in-depth understanding of using the Design Web as an intentional process for Social Permaculture/People centred permaculture design.
 
Developing skills, confidence and  knowledge in facilitation – exploring the ability to see how this can be applied to and transferred to work and life situations beyond permaculture focused settings.
 
The creation of the first phase of my  Facilitators/Right Livelihood Pathway as an umbrella design to incorporate several other smaller designs.

The FiT course will run again in November 2016 at Ragmans Farm. See the Thriving Ways website for further links and contact.

Last month I spent a wonderful 10 days on a residential course learning about facilitation of social permaculture courses…to fuel us through our long, productive days of learning, Rebecca, the cook for the course,  created some amazing meals.
 
​With a variety of diets (including vegan, high protein, gluten free, allium free!) to cater for, our lunches and dinners often included a variety of delicious toppings and accompaniments (toasted seeds with tamari, sprouted pulses, various seed/pulse ‘dips’, cheeses, eggs, salad leaves) to meet our diverse needs.
 
Back at home now, and feeling inspired by our course meal, I have started making a lot more yummy healthy plant based additions to our main dishes of the day, and snacks  …first up,  ensuring we grow a continuous supply of sprouted seeds and pulses, and toasting pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds each day.

Also posted in Nomadic Food Divas