Boulder VIllage Building DesigN Course
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Boulder Village Building Design Course
August 14-17 Boulder, Colorado How do we make a village in a city? Our lives are already filled with a strong network of interconnection, and the purpose of the Design Course is to enhance these connections and bring them to life. We learn how to work with the neighbors who live right on our block to craft our villages again! In Portland, Oregon, The City Repair Project brought the idea of "Placemaking" to common use. City Repair is essentially about "transforming spaces into places" -- thus, Placemaking is the process in which a Place in invested with value and meaning by the people who live there. The neighborhood is transformed to reflect the common values of the neighbors themselves. We're teaching the essentials found from the Placemaking Process for this course. About the course This course is for anyone interested in starting and completeing a Placemaking project in their neighborhood. This may apply to social activists, artists, builders, stay-at-home moms, gardeners, and anyone with a passion for the common good -- experienced or aspiring. Projects could take the form of anything you and your neighbors come up with: a garden, a communication station, a child-care-co-op, collective tool sharing, street painting, natural building project... this course is designed to teach you the skills to pull the key values and ideas from a group of neighbors, find the one that is perfect for your neighborhood, and create the place together. In this course, we will cover grassroots project organizing, working with neighbors you may have never met before, basic project management, and design strategies. We will tie in concepts of personal empowerment, how that is connected to placemaking, alliance building, and other strategies for cultivating village living in the city. We'll take a Permaculture design approach toward using the resources already present in an urban landscape, and how to bring out the unique skills of the people involved in your neighborhood. VBDC gives the background, insights and training needed to create Placemakers -- people who can return home and, with their neighbors, "transform spaces into places". There has already been one intersection painting in Boulder and we'll draw on the resources and strategies used by the local organizers in Boulder to do public projects in your city. Read an article about it here. And Boulder's Paint the Pavement initiative. Location 3980 Broadway in North Boulder, Lucky's shopping center, the Earth Guardians office above Julia's Kitchen. Class Flow
Dates: August 14-17 Each class day we will go from 10AM sharp to approximately 5PM. Lunch is 1.5 hours. Lunch is provided. Please let us know of any dietary restictions during your registration process. What to Expect in Class We switch it up with walk-a-bouts, group process, small groups, partners, and hands on activities. As a facilitator, I never try to talk for more than 20 minutes at a time, and there is plenty of space designed in for questions, group sharing, and guest lectures from local leaders. Class size between 10-25. Course Schedule Thursday, August 14 10am - 5pm Introduction to Placemaking This is the essential starting place, context and tools to start the simplest forms of group process - understanding what Place means to you, to the group, and the basics of getting to know your neighbors and running meanings.
Friday, August 15 10am - 5pm Introduction to Permaculture & Embodying Permaculture With Special Guest Teacher: Maren Waldman of Moving Joy Studios!
Saturday, August 16 10am - 5pm Patterns & Tools
Natural Building
Human Beings in Nature Relationship
Sunday, August 17 10am - 5pm
We will work with each other to set goals and check-in systems to move forward with the information we've learned. Visualizations will help us understand what we're working toward and motivate us to take action on the inspiration and skills we have in our lives.
*This course includes one-on-one follow-up support from the instructor, and continuing online communication with your fellow Village Building Classmates. Kiddos? Unfortunately, childcare will have to be organized outside of us. If you have a homeschooler who is mature and serious about the course, they may enroll at full price or apply for scholarship. Cost Complete course is $200. Scholarships are available. Please "pay as you are able". $5, a song, $1000, a stone. If you're applying for scholarship, please fill out the registration form as normal so we can keep track of your information, and click "Yes" applying for scholarship at the bottom, and write in the amount you'd like to pay. We may also set up a payment plan, if you'd like to pay in increments. We're also organizing a crowd funding campaign! If we meet the goal, we'll be able to start a fund for projects in Boulder, generate scholarship money, and pay our venue and cook. $200 still saves your spot in class, plus helps the campaign meet its goal! Click here to learn more. A Paypal invoice will be e-mailed to you upon registration, or you can bring cash or check the first day. Any amount paid greater than the minimum helps us generate scholarship money and gives us resources for making more educational content available for free. Before & After Class Before class, it is helpful if you have already had at least one potluck with the neighbors on your block, but not necessary. You do not have to live in a particular neighborhood full time in order to take the class. :) After Class, we will be supporting each other in follow-up for six months to one year or more, depending on the timeline that works best for you as the organizer, and what's right for your community. More information will be sent with specifics about the location logistics nearer to class. Questions? Please e-mail us at info@placecraft.org, or call 530-238-5237. The phone number printed on many of the flyers was incorrect, sorry for any inconvenience. Registration If you're ready to register, head on over to the Registration Page! |
