Sustainability Education is as much about HOW you teach as it is about the content. It is a participatory experience where people develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and connections to affect positive change in the world. At Root Forward, we base our approach on UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development, integrating key sustainable development issues into both teaching and learning experiences. We draw on the "total environment," recognizing that social, economic, and environmental issues are connected. Solving complex problems requires people who can communicate and collaborate across disciplines and differences.
The Good Food Movement has many voices and perspectives. Food is a natural and powerful gathering point, something all of us can relate to. We view it as part of Sustainability Education, using food and farming as lenses to address food (in)security, nutrition and health, sustainable agriculture, and generally a more equitable and sustainable food system.
The Good Food Movement Resources
These organizations are notable in The Good Food Movement, many with strong youth programs.
The Good Food Movement-Farm Aid
GRuB (Garden-Raised Bounty)
The Food Project
Seattle Tilth
Rooted in Community
Janus Youth Programs
Growing Power
Life Lab - Food What?!
Ma'o Organic Farm
Small Planet Institute
Sustainability Education
These organizations provide resources, research, and action in Sustainability Education.
Farm-Based Education Network
Cornell University Local and Regional Food System Library Guides
Center for Ecoliteracy
E3 Washington
UNESCO Education for Sustainable Development
Tilth Producers of Washington
ATTRA
Seattle Tilth
UC Davis Sustainable Agriculture and Research Program
The Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems
North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)
Association for Experiential Education
Life Lab
Root Forward
Thoughts, articles, and images from Root Forward Consulting
Tuesday, July 15, 2014
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
April for farm educators: 5 tips to begin a successful season
April is full-tilt work,
made trickier due to unpredictable weather. More people are active on the farm, it’s time to prepare and plant spring crops, and the greenhouse is bursting.
You are planning for, and leading, interns, volunteers, and program
participants. This is your chance to build a leadership team and to test the farm systems you developed earlier in the year....and most of all, set the stage for a bountiful season. Here are 5 tips to support your success:
Train leaders:
Whether interns, program participants, or other staff, make sure you build in several leadership and
facilitation trainings so you can share the load leading work in the fields.
While your trainees may not have your deeper agricultural knowledge, by taking
the time to walk them through specific activities and making sure they have the
core skills to lead, you’ll be able to work with more volunteers and offer more
learning opportunities for everyone. Make sure you participate while leaving
them room to learn their new roles. Leave time for reflection and feedback so
trainees can improve their leadership and facilitation skills over time. Your
joy is to step back and watch (with some back-up support) as they take over.
Spring interns
are great, especially because there is so much work to do and not usually a
consistent work force yet. Remember though, they are there to learn. Build a
learning contract with them, setting out their goals, the goals for the farm,
and your expectations. Set up weekly check-ins as a group to review their
experience, problem-solve, and slowly support them taking more responsibility.
Take them on field walks, sharing what you see, and eventually leaving them
room to improve their own “farmer’s eye” for tasks and prioritization. Offer
weekly trainings, and try to connect them with learning opportunities in other
parts of your organization. Interns are awesome and will be great spring
support if you can develop a good support/communication structure for them.
Volunteers
are definitely coming out now. Ideally the volunteer coordinator is playing a
major support role in scheduling and communication, but you’ll need to make
sure you are clear about your needs and especially the volunteer schedule. Your
leadership trainings pay off, as much of the group facilitation is taken on by
interns and program participants. Take this time to make connections with
volunteers, offer more technical support to the leaders, and keep a step ahead
in your project planning. Anticipate the transition times like the end of the
school year, when few people will be on the farm. Now is the time to recruit
the volunteer team to help you through until the next program group begins. Also,
don’t be shy about deflecting volunteer energy to where it is needed. You will
run yourself ragged trying to adapt your program to fit every potential
volunteer’s needs and schedule.
Marketing is
one of those things that is easy to put off, but now is the time! If you haven’t
already, you’d better make a big advertising push to fill your CSA, announce
your upcoming farm stand hours, and otherwise make sure the public/supporters
can take advantage of all the bounty you are producing. Consider other
advertising or direct outreach approaches if you are not meeting your goals.
If you are looking for help developing facilitation or leadership trainings, intern programs, farm planning systems, or other farm-educator support, contact info@rootforward.net.
Monday, December 2, 2013
Growing with education in mind: 6 tips to creating an education based farm
More than ever we are seeing farms and nonprofit organizations
use land and food as connecting, teaching, and gathering points. As part of
this farm-based education trend, there is a growing need for farmers and
gardeners who can manage with an educator’s perspective. While production and
general operations remain important, new goals require shifts to your way of
doing things.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Mini-consults get results on a shoestring
As someone who worked for small and medium nonprofits (and farms for that matter), I know how far you have to stretch your resources. The idea of paying a consultant to support your visioning process, your new project, staff training, or sticky operations problem seems like a luxury for the big guys. In fact, the only time we spent money for outside help was on highly specialized trainings or executive-level problems….usually worth it, but thousands of dollars!
A coworker drew this for me during an
appreciation exercise. If you feel this way
at your work, raise your hand(s).
|
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Dreams of a Farmer-Educator "Go-To" Book
After reading this article, check out the list of ways you can help!
Monday, July 22, 2013
Choosing your CRM database is only the first step…
It takes a lot of work and research to decide on the right
database for your organization, especially now that companies offer Constituent
Relationship Management (CRM) systems that can integrate fundraising, online
donation and store activities, communications, volunteers, program management,
and more. As hard as it is to wade
through database options, the real work is truly making good use of them. Once you take the plunge, it is vital to keep in mind that you not only are moving data from your
old system, you are figuring out how to use the CRM capabilities to create new administrative
and potentially programmatic SYSTEMS and functionality. The power of good
CRMs is that they can simplify time-consuming activities while providing easy
and accessible analysis and reporting…putting your staff in the position to
make data-supported decisions and to focus on relationship-building.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
11 Tips for Your Next Evolution: Building an Engaging and Effective Strategic Plan Process
I recently sat down with Stephanie Seliga of the Just Garden Project, a program that was adopted by Seattle Tilth this year. Over a couple hours we talked about their efforts to build a new vision and
strategic plan for the organization now that it is part of the Seattle Tilth
family. It felt good to be able to share the insights and lessons from my own
experience co-leading GRuB’s evaluation
and evolution of its vision, mission, values, and strategic goals. Our conversation also reminded me how important it is to create a strong process and to involve the right people. Here are a few tips for those of you who
might be starting your own evolutions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)