[Sdpg] Sustainable Vocations: Innovatively Training Youth and Young Adults to Grow a Green Economy

Mon Jun 7 21:18:40 PDT 2010

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:
<http://www.quailsprings.org/SustainableVocations/brochure.pdf>
www.quailsprings.org/SustainableVocations/brochure.pdf 
Contact for more info:   <mailto:info at quailsprings.org>
info at 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

 <mailto:w at quailsprings.org> w at quailsprings.org 

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)
<http://www.coastalalliance.com> 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:
<http://www.sustainablevocations.org> www.sustainablevocations.org  

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