Earth Activist Training (Full PDC), Family-Friendly & Bilingual (English-French) @ Grain&Sens, France
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.
Register for the course HERE
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:
- Evidence for change & the ethics of sustainability
- 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
Alfred Decker
Alfred Decker is an award-winning permaculture designer, a certified educator with the Permaculture Association of Britain, and one of Europe’s leading and innovative permaculture educators. Since his first PDC in 1998 in California (where Alfred and Starhawk were students together), he has been involved with permaculture projects and social movements and projects throughout Europe and the Americas. Based in Catalunya (Spain), Alfred is the founder of the 12P Permaculture Design consultancy, and teaches widely throughout Europe. These days he is dedicated to facilitating online and in-person permaculture teacher trainings. Alfred’s website is 12pdesign.net/alfred-decker
2024 is the seventh year that Starhawk and Alfred will be teaching together in Europe, having already collaborated on 11 courses together.
Course Venue
Grain&Sens
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
Aside from the special focus, this course will also be Family-Friendly, a rare Certified PDC which allows parents to attend training through the care of children.
The proposed activities 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) and links to oneself (Sit Spot)
+ Yoga and dance for children
+ The principles of permaculture (sustainability) woven on a daily basis.
Each day is punctuated with at least one practical time of Family Permaculture. And whole days are devoted to family sharing.
Daniella Querol is an artist, educator, and permaculturalist who lives at the site of the training, and will offer childcare support for participants with activities around permaculture and art. The proposal is that parents who want to bring their kids can organise a plan together with Daniella.
Daniella speaks English, German, Spanish and Catalan. For more information on her work, please click HERE.
To contact Daniella directly about the Family-Friendly option, please write to her HERE.
There will also be childcare support from members of Grains&Sens, who have experience in organising Family-Friendly PDCs and other activities for kids.
The requested fee for the children’s activities is a sliding scale of 100€ – 200€ per child for the whole training. If you cannot 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
Course Begins: Morning of Sunday, August 11, 2024.
Course Ends: Midday on Saturday, August 24, 2024.
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 (view bus timetable by clicking HERE)
• 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 vegan. Participants who would like to eat meat and dairy products are invited to bring their own, or to buy local options, including goat cheese from a nearby farm reached by a walk through the forest.
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: 290€ in shared (or family) rooms // 150€ on site camping
• Meal cost: 340€ full pension (recommended) // 250€ 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 XXX 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 HERE.
Your fees include:
- A life-changing learning experience
- A PDC Certificate
- Digital resources
- A new generation of permaculture doers for you to join!
Registration deadline: July 1, 2024
By this date at the latest, we will confirm that the course has enough participants to go ahead.
Hope to see you in August!
Register for the course HERE
If you have questions about the course, contact us HERE
If you have questions about the venue or registration, contact us HERE