Permaculture.
Regenerative or restoration agriculture and an ever increasing reliance upon ancient perennial crops as staples of our nutritional maintenance on the grand scale is where purposeful design affects directly not only our immediate impact on the land-base but also our connection to all of those various processes which sustain and support us. Simple sustainability is an end to be cultivated and sought individually and collectively. The shift that is required is one of public and general focus and perspective. This involves the adoption of a novel set of values and even a complete and ubiquitous paradigm shift among individuals, such that we begin as a species to find our connection to our true place in the environment an attractive impulse arising from our cultural context and affirmed and supported by every social cue we receive as we mature.
This is, however, much more than simple landscape design or organic gardening practices. This is the adoption of a dialogue with what remains of the natural world in its own language. It is an affirmation of our place in nature as part of nature and our connection to every other creature and those natural processes that sustain us. It is learning to embrace this moment in human history as an opportunity to repair and redeem the traumas we have experienced and inflicted as a result of the Great Disconnect.
The goal is to raise up among us a growing cadre in our society, once at the margins and only receiving our focus when their individual traumas became our collective concern, to a position of leadership toward that new paradigm. We stand outside the walls on this prison planet and call to our brothers and sisters on the other side and say, “Come learn with us and heal. Come learn with us and teach. Come learn with us and lead.”
About Us: Cultivating New Beginnings
We are here to empower individuals with the knowledge and skills they need to build a brighter future, both for themselves and for their communities. Our focus is on providing Permaculture Design Consultancy courses specifically designed for people transitioning from incarceration back into lives that are less regimented and controlled.
Why Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design philosophy for creating sustainable and resilient systems that mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature. It’s about working with nature, not against it, to create abundant and flourishing landscapes, homes, and societies that provide for the needs of people and return the surplus to give everyone a fair share.
Why People in Transition?
We believe that everyone deserves as many opportunities as it takes to become a co-creator in their own life, and that this design approach offers a unique and powerful tool for individuals seeking to rebuild their lives by reframing and redirecting their perceptions. By recognizing our connection to the natural world and to our communities and becoming better observers, partners, and stewards, and by designing our own place in this world and in our communities, we hope to free one another from lives of slavery to the tyranny of our impulses, appetites, and emotional states. How? Well, if you want a perfect world, create a design that allows nature to provide one .
We seek to partner with nature and with one another to create lives and landscapes and communities that are no longer extractive and exploitive. We share the surplus in order to release the abundance inherent in every act of human kindness. We extend a hand across the walls to our brothers and sisters enslaved and traumatized by a carceral state that imprisons more of its citizens by proportion and by actual numbers than any other in the history of mankind.
Here in Colorado, where the recidivism rate sits at approximately 44.9%, our program offers a path to positive change. Through our course, participants gain valuable skills and knowledge that can help them find meaningful employment: The national salary range for certified Permaculture Design Consultants is impressive, spanning from just under $37,000 to a substantial $145,000. Our program equips participants with the expertise and credentials to tap into this growing and rewarding field. This portion of our mission statement should specifically appeal to community supervision departments around the state and beyond.
Participants learn practical skills like gardening, food production, resource management, and business development, building confidence, self-sufficiency, and financial stability. Permaculture design fosters a deep appreciation for the natural world, because we seek to work in harmony with natural systems promoting mental and physical well-being, especially beneficial for individuals seeking positive reintegration into society. Graduates can share their knowledge and skills with others, creating positive ripple effects throughout their communities, strengthening social bonds and promoting awareness of our collective connection to those natural processes that sustain us as a species.
Let me take the wheel back for a moment from the guy in me who wants to sell this idea to the correctional community and speak as someone who endured a life in reaction to everything and everyone. As a man who survived by cultivating an unhealthy emotional and material dependence upon others and maintained that through manipulation and dishonesty. We must help others regain that locus of control that allows them to become partners in the creation of new and productive lives by teaching them to design the world in which they want to live. If we want a better life and a better world, we begin on that path by designing one. And sure, you can probably make money doing this, and why not? Self-support is a spiritual act in its own right and affirms that self-worth that is part of the foundation of a better life.
Beyond Individual Transformation:
The program we seek to implement and grow is not simply about individual success. However, one sure metric of success among our participants is the design and implementation of a more abundant, more just world in our local communities. We can do that by being living examples of the three ethics of Permaculture: Care of the Earth, Care of People, and Return of the Surplus.
Earth care. People care. Fair share.