~ Education sows the seeds of our shared future. ~
RECAP is an umbrella organisation with a guiding emphasis on education for sustainability and community resilience, most specifically on permaculture education. We have two mutually supportive approaches to education. First, we offer presentations and workshops, at times in collaboration with other groups. Second, within the geographic region of Ashhurst and the Pohangina Valley, we offer a range of practical projects that have education and consciousness-raising aims built into the project design. Although Ashhurst and the Pohangina Valley serve as our home base, local site for educational projects, and formal membership area, people who live elsewhere are quite welcome to come and participate in any of our workshops or projects, and we have at times been able to travel to offer presentations or workshops elsewhere. Anyone anywhere may subscribe to our email mailing list by sending a request to info@recap.org.nz.
This page summarises some of our past and planned workshops and presentations. Our project-based education is discussed elsewhere on the site.
Workshops. RECAP offers a wide range of workshops that offer participants a range of high quality information, practical demonstrations, and direct experience with aspects of permaculture applied both at the home level and, in keeping with the Transition Towns movement, at the community level. Some examples are:
- A Permaculture Design Course planned for 2013
- A fermented foods and sourdough breadmaking workshop co-offered with Ruth Cohen from Thrive Food Coaching in Taranaki (August 2012)
- A permaculture home and garden tour (Feb 2012), which is likely to become an annual event
- A low maintenance, high productivity gardening workshop in collaboration with Nelson Lebo from The Eco School in Wanganui
- A monthly speaking and sharing series, Te Manawa me Te Wairua, on a range of community resilience topics (winter 2011)
Lectures and presentations. RECAP volunteers are often willing to travel to make presentations based on our projects and on the general educational principles those projects demonstrate. At the invitation of Sustainable Rangitikei, Otaki Transition Towns, and The Signs of Change National e-Conference on Transitions to Sustainability, we have offered a series of presentations on our local LOAVES project and related projects worldwide to those interested in learning more about alternative currencies, how they function, their benefits and limitations, and how they can serve as one tool for creating more resilient communities with positive feedback loops into the local ecology.