Sustainable
Vocations has a few spaces available, inquire now!
Summer
Session:
June 21-July 11, 2010
Ages: 15-24 years
Scholarships: Financial scholarships
available for low income participants
View program brochure: www.quailsprings.org/SustainableVocations/brochure.pdf
Contact for more info: info@quailsprings.org or
805-886-7239
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For
Immediate Release
Tuesday,
June 1, 2010
Contact:
Warren Brush, Director
Quail
Springs Permaculture Farm
Phone
805-886-7239, Fax 866-321-1102
Sustainable
Vocations:
Innovatively
Training Youth and Young Adults To Grow A Green Economy
Santa
Barbara and Ventura County, CA (May 28, 2010) – In its second
year, Sustainable Vocations, a program of Quail Springs Learning Oasis,
is a pioneering program that prepares youth ages 15 to 24 for diverse
leadership roles that integrate sustainability into their communities and
provides a hands-on introduction to the growing green jobs market.
Developed
and hosted by Quail Springs Permaculture Farm (quailsprings.org), a nonprofit
sustainability demonstration site and education center in the mountains near
Santa Barbara and Ventura, the program is accepting applications now for
its second intensive session that takes place June 21 – July 11, 2010.
“Permaculture
is an integrated design system being utilized in over 135 countries, in many
thousands of projects, and increasingly being taught in colleges and
universities because of its successful approach to creating productive human
habitats and green economies while reducing our ecological footprint,”
states Warren Brush, Quail Springs Permaculture Farm’s
Executive Director and lead permaculture instructor.
At
the heart of Sustainable Vocations is the power of the up-and-coming
generations to positively impact their individual communities and society at
large through an understanding of integrated design.
“I
love that permaculture approaches environmentalism in a way that values and
promotes a holistic and mutually interdependent relationship with nature and
with other people… [Permaculture principles] are particularly useful
guides for transforming cities and suburbs into centers that are healthy both
for the earth and for all of
its inhabitants,” comments Christine, a Sustainable Vocations
graduate.
THE
PROGRAM:
Each
session of Sustainable Vocations is a three-week, intensive residential
training at Quail Springs’ 450-acre site, with field trips to area green
industries and businesses. Transportation is provided from Santa Barbara
and Ventura counties.
Sustainable Vocations’ students will earn a
Permaculture Design Certification and receive introductions to renewable
energy, green building, eco-entrepreneurship, and advocacy for sustainability
from local professionals. This year, in addition to several of last
year’s speakers, we will be learning from Dave Fortson of LoaTree
on eco-entrepreneurship and Dr. Tynes Viar of Backyard Harvest & Quail
Springs on agroecology and sustainable food systems. We are also pleased to
partner with and learn from The Sustainability Project, a local
nonprofit comprised of prominent and diverse professionals within the green job
market.
Scholarships
are provided for low-income youth. The Scholarship Fund was made possible
through the generosity of the Hutton Foundation, Towbes Foundation, and
Santa Barbara Foundation, The Sustainability Project, as well as
green business sponsors including Island Seed and Feed.
Sustainable Vocations continues to grow a community network of referral,
educational and sponsoring partners, as well as relevant program
collaborations.
SUSTAINABLE
VOCATIONS IS GROWING:
An
unexpected positive result, one of the first year program assistants,
Christopher Rumbley, is expanding Sustainable Vocations to North Carolina in
partnership with the Good Work, a Raleigh-based community development
organization. Sustainable Vocations-North Carolina will be mentored
intensively in its first year. Warren Brush, Quail Springs’ Director,
will teach its August 2010 training, and will support the NC program to link
with local teachers as it grows.
Sustainable
Vocations has recently partnered in offering its curriculum and program support
to the Green the Rez campaign, which is working with tribes in
California and Nevada to grow their green economies. The Green the Rez campaign
takes a broad approach to current economic and workforce development
opportunities that includes the four leading renewable energy industries:
energy efficiency, solar, wind and biofuels all within a context of integrated
design using permaculture ethics and principles.
Warren Brush, Director, will be
presenting a break-out session on “Sustainable Vocations Training,
Opportunities, and Understandings” for the Central Coast Green Economy
Summit. The Central Coast Green Economy Summit, “Where Sustainable
Education, Business, and Jobs Meet,” takes place on June 11, 2010 from
7:30am-12:30pm at Ventura College and is convened by Central Coast Alliance
United for a Green Economy (CAUSE) www.coastalalliance.com.
Kolmi
Majumdar, program co-director, says “Sustainable Vocations aligns with
the deepest purpose of the green jobs movement by investing in training young
people with the critical thinking skills, stewardship ethics, and practical
know-how that will empower them to implement solutions and create new
approaches to the social and ecological problems and opportunities we face as a
society.”
Network
partners include Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy
(CAUSE), Community Environmental Council, Santa Barbara Permaculture Network,
LoaTree, and The Sustainability Project.
For
more about Sustainable Vocations, visit: www.sustainablevocations.org
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