Its exactly a year since I completed the wonderful People and Permaculture Facilitation (FIT) training   Attending the Permaculture Association's Thriving Communities Gathering this weekend, and meeting up with Anna and Charlie who had also attended the FIT training,  got me thinking about how FIT and the resulting monthly online gatherings,  had influenced my permaculture design/work.

Anna, Charlie and myself,  all facilitated key workshops focusing on People  Centred Permaculture projects, at the Thriving Communities Gathering - it felt like a very meaningful presence, bringing our applied and tested designs focusing on People Care and Fair Shares,  to the event.

More details about our workshops, (text taken from the event programme) - 

Reciprocity in Communities - Working with deprivation - with Charlie Gray of Horton Community Farm & Grow Bradford, 1.30pm
This workshop is about creating reciprocal relationships in deprived communities, of which Charlie has great experience to share through her work in and around Bradford. Charlie is part of a LAND permaculture Centre in Bradford, West Yorks as well as Grow Bradford and Plenty, all food related organisations which are helping to transform food systems across Bradford by various means.

The next steps for these projects are all focused on how to link underprivileged and privileged areas and how to run projects across these areas to best effect.
www.hcf.org.uk

My current designs, especially the development of my overall Right Livelihood and then Creative Dying, (using permaculture to design how we die),  have evolved and grown in a really effective way over the past year, with much of the knowledge and experience of the FIT training being core to this deepening growth.
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My next steps over the following month are to document these designs into a publicly accessible format, meaning others can benefit from more accessible People Focused design information. ​

This week is Dying Matters Awareness week in the UK - a big diverse event with many people and organisations holding events to promote awareness about subjects relating the death and dying. I decided a few months ago that this week would be my goal for launching the zone 3-5 phase  of a design, Designing Dying,  I started about 4 years ago as part of my Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design. 

I started the  latest phase of the design, now called "Creative Dying" by using a different design process (The Design Web by Looby Macnamara)  to explore the design at a new level. I presented my experience of doing this at the National Diploma Gathering earlier this month. 

Creative Dying is a website and coaching/workshop business which aims to support people - at any time of their life - to plan and design the death they would like.
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It is focused at anyone who would like to explore the creative, positive and unique approaches that we can take to considering the end of our lives and how we die. 

Creative Dying uses permaculture design at its centre and will appeal to the many people throughout the world already using permaculture to increase resilience and healing in other aspects of their life and work. 

Im really passionate about the journey of this design for many reasons, and will be writing regular updates about its progress and hopefully success here.

creativedying.co.uk
Creative Dying on Facebook 
Creative Dying on Twitter 

The National Diploma Gathering - NDG-  (for anyone involved in the UK Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design) took place over the weekend in St Werbergs Centre, Bristol. Its one of the highlights of my permaculture year- so much inspiration and learning, and catching up with friends old and new - and for me my first NDG both as a Diploma tutor and as a member of the Diploma Working Group. The Friday before the Gathering was a tutor training  day - so a great opportunity to connect further and increase confidence with my new role.

'Im tired of' - discussing patriarchy, and solutions - a fab workshop facilitated by Anna Broszkiewicz, expanding on some of the issues raised in a recent blog by Nicole Vosper, "Overcoming burnout part 6 - Patriarchy makes me tired"  

A layered system of observing and assessing Graham's tutorial with Reevsie - I got totally lost as to who was observing and assessing who and why, but the whole experience was really useful as a new tutor - and I have so much gratitude to Graham for letting us all in on his design support hour!

Me presenting my Creative Dying design, without my planned presentation, due to a series of tech issues. The problem being the solution meant I had to just get on with it though - and it certainly deepened some confidence edges in doing so! 

​The weekend, as usual, renewed my designing energy and motivation and I'm very much looking forward to spending the next few days planning on the next steps I aim to take as a permaculture practitioner.