Facilitated by Starhawk and Alfred Decker

Earth Activist Training and 12P Permaculture Design are happy to invite you to a two-week intensive Permaculture Design Course (PDC), offering the internationally-recognised 72-hour permaculture curriculum with an additional focus on social permaculture, organizing tools, and spirit. This will be the first training Starhawk and Alfred have offered in Europe that is family-friendly (bring the kids!) and will be live translated between English and French. Come and share a life-changing experience with an intercultural mix of participants and a pair of dynamic and international permaculture educators!

If you have questions about the course, contact us HERE

If you have questions about the venue or registration, contact us HERE

Course Objectives and Content

Earth Activist Training (EAT) is an intensive course combining theory with practical hands-on learning. Completion of the course earns participants a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) – the foundation for further permaculture work and study and a prerequisite for the Diploma in Permaculture Design. Participants will learn Permaculture design principles & techniques. The course includes lectures, discussions, hands-on learning, slideshows, Earth-based rituals, and design projects. We will examine the underlying assumptions of the current culture of consumerism and economic globalisation, and encourage exploration of ways to contribute to the emergence of a culture of sustainability, compassion and equity. The PDC covers a broad range of subjects to provide a holistic overview of Permaculture systems and sustainable living. Some of the topics / themes to be covered are:

• Principles of permaculture
• Observation & landscape analysis
• Ecological planning & design methods
• Organic food production and food security
• Climatic factors in design
• Soils: natural soil improvement
• Integrated animal systems
• Water : harvesting, conservation, and management
• Agroforestry & forest gardening
• Appropriate technologies & renewable energy systems
• Mapping & design exercises
• Techniques and design strategies for both urban & rural applications
• Ecovillages & sustainable human settlements
• Nature connection practices and personal resilience
• Social permaculture
• Tools for collaboration
• Communication skills and conflict transformation
• Community ceremonies and celebrations
• Bioremediation
• Urban sustainability
• Garden and farm design and planning

What Can I Do After This Course?

• Embark on new farming practices
• Begin a small business such as: nurseries, landscape design consultancies, etc.
• Manage a school or community garden
• Design and plan a resilient, land-based project or community—from the water systems to the governance and decision-making systems
• Realise goals towards self-sufficiency
• Advocate strategically for policies that address climate change and environmental justice
• Find ways of dramatically reducing energy consumption
• Start a permaculture diploma program
• Volunteer internationally with permaculture programs worldwide
• Start a permaculture diploma program
• Advocate strategically for policies that address climate change and environmental justice
• Find ways of dramatically reducing energy consumption
• Begin land-based ventures & small businesses such as: nurseries, landscape design consultancies, etc.
• Realise goals towards self-sufficiency

City dwellers have found that even with little or no land, Permaculture shows them how to work with their home to produce food, reduce energy needs, live more ecologically and in closer connection with their communities. Educators, farm advisers, international development workers, garden directors, builders, master gardeners, and landscape architects have all reported that what they’ve learned in this course has become a foundation for their work. Farmers, nursery owners, foresters and livestock farmers have all found that Permaculture design has multiplied their incomes, reduced their work, and improved the health of their stock. This course is committed to creating a welcoming space for people who are/were exposed to any form of discrimination.

EAT Facilitation Team

Starhawk

Facilitator

Starhawk (she/her) is the co-founder and executive director of Earth Activist Training. One of the foremost voices in Earth-based spirituality, Starhawk is an author, activist, and permaculture teacher and designer. Her 13 books include such beloved reads as The Spiral Dance, The Earth Path, and The Fifth Sacred Thing. Starhawk drew from 30 years of living collectively to write The Empowerment Manual, which is the basis for her social permaculture course, Empowering Collaborative Groups. Find out more HERE

Alfred Decker

Facilitator

Alfred Decker is an award-winning permaculture designer; the Education Coordinator of Permaculture For Refugees; a certified educator with the Permaculture Association of Britain; a leading voice in Social Permaculture; and one of Europe’s innovative permaculture educators. Find out more HERE

2025 will be the eighth year that Starhawk and Alfred will be teaching together in Europe, having collaborated on 13 courses together.

Course Venue: Grain&Sens (France)

Grain&Sens is an ecovillage that was created in 2018 with the ambition of creating a multicultural and bilingual project where people can share spaces, equipment, land and knowledge, aiming at the preservation of natural resources. The ecovillage is managed by the association, Grain&Sens, which promotes actions and activities which care for the local environment and community and connect to a global context Grain&Sens is based in a domain: The Lavenant estate, located at an altitude of 750m. It is cradled in lush greenery, surrounded by 20 hectares of forest and prairies. There are independent spaces for each family and inhabitant, and communal spaces to welcome groups and camps. Beautiful nature surrounds the inhabitants who have adopted a lifestyle with low environmental impact. The main activities and training courses happening on site focus on education for sustainable development. Training courses offered onsite bring people together from France and Europe to share knowledge and co-create.

Family-Friendly

This course will also be Family-Friendly, a rare Certified PDC which allows parents to attend training while their children are also learning permaculture!

Shelby Geitner, farmer and educator from Grain&Sens will be collaborating with Daniella Querol, artist, educator, and permaculturalist (fluent in English, German, Spanish and Catalan), to offer activities that allow children to observe and connect with nature with their heads, hearts and hands. The program will adapt to children and will be developed in parallel with the themes of the EAT around: + Exploratory adventures: of nature and elements: Earth, Fire, Water and Air, + Activities around Art, Nature and cooperative games + Sharing tools (sharing and gratitude circles) + links to oneself (Sit Spot and journaling) + Yoga and dance for children + English-language learning skills + cooking + gardening + an evening of camping all together.

Each day is punctuated with at least one practical time of Family Permaculture. There will be days dedicated to family sharing. During weekdays, activities will be offered to PDC kids and local kids alike, with the intention of offering a space for children to mix cultures, languages, and learn from each other. 

Shelby Geitner manages Lavenant Gardens, a small-scale agroecological farming business at Lavenant. Shelby strives for creating garden spaces that are both productive and pedagogic. She also manages the English language learning Eco-Camps offered at Grain&Sens through the non-profit, The Wooden House. For more information on Shelby’s work with The Wooden House and Lavenant Gardens, visit the Grain&Sens website. 

The all-inclusive cost for bringing a child (food, accommodation and activities during approximately 8 hours/day) is €400/child for the 14 days. If you are unable to pay this fee, please contact us so we can look for a solution together.

Bilingual English – French

The course will be translated live between the two languages. As well, Starhawk and Alfred speak basic French…just don’t mind their Californian accents!

When: August 1 – 14, 2025

Course Begins: Morning of Friday, August 1, 2025.

Course Ends: Morning on Thursday, August 14, 2025.

How to Arrive

•⁠  Exact address: 360 Chemin de Lavenant 07440 Boffres, FRANCE

•⁠  Train: the closest train station is VALENCE VILLE (recommended) or VALENCE TGV (easy connection to Valence Ville). You can then take the bus from there

•⁠  ⁠Bus: (LINE 46 takes you from VALENCE VILLE train station to the village of Boffres. On Sunday, August 11th, only one bus leaves in time to arrive for the start of the course, at 9.30am

•⁠  ⁠Carpooling: we will organise a shared document to plan carpooling options

•⁠  ⁠Shuttle: if necessary we will organise shuttles to pick up participants in Valence

Food & Accommodation

Food

The food offered by Grain&Sens is delicious, colourful and vegetarian. Participants who would like to eat meat products are invited to bring their own, or to buy local options. 

Accommodation

Shared rooms or family rooms in the two lodges of the Grain&Sens ecovillage is the recommended option. Camping tents and van are also possible at a lower cost. The costs for food and accommodation charged by the hosts are as follows:

For a stay of 13 nights and 14 days…

•⁠  ⁠Accommodation: 300€ in shared (or family) rooms // 150€ on site camping

•⁠  Meal cost: 350€ full pension (recommended) // 260€ half pension

•⁠  For kids, all prices are 50% OFF

Course Fees

The course fees are separate from the Food & Accomodation costs that go to the hosts, Grain&Sens. EAT offers a sliding scale that encourages people with higher incomes to give a bit more towards the course fees. The scale for this certified training is between 440€ – 540€ per person. Those who can afford to pay more on the higher end of the scale will help those who can only pay less. The sliding scale recognises the differences in economic reality depending on what country a participant comes from, as well as their individual circumstances, so this is a practical way that people with more resources can act in solidarity. If you want to propose a different price based on your economic situation, please share with us on this application what you want to contribute and why you need support.

We also have some pay-what-you-can scholarships for people of color working in environmental and social justice movements. That is part of our way of supporting reparations and of bringing in more diversity to our permaculture movement. If you are a BIPOC or refugee/migrant and interested in one of these scholarships, please apply HERE.  If anyone is interested in helping with Europe-focused fundraising for this course, please contact Alfred at info@12pdesign.net.

Your fees include:

• A life-changing learning experience
• A PDC Certificate
• Digital resources
• A new generation of permaculture doers for you to join!

Hope to see you in August at Grain@Sens!