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2008, Living Mandala
creative services by: 360 Degrees

Including

PERMACULTURE ETHICS AND PRINCIPLES

MID ATLANTIC REGIONAL SYSTEMS

LAND ANALYSIS

WATER MANAGEMENT

NUTRIENT RECYCLING

FOREST GARDENING

GREEN BUILDING

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS

COMMUNITY AND ECOVILLAGE DESIGN

LAND TRUST AND ALTERNATIVE ECONOMICS

PERSONAL SUSTAINABILITY

INTENTIONAL COMMUNITY LIVING

In Partnership With

Dancing Green

Heathcote Community

School of Living

Facilitators, Teachers & Constants

Dawn Shiner

Karen Stupski

Frank Hyldahl

Tom Hopkins

Course Description

Dancing Green offers the whole Permaculture design course curriculum as an immersion in educational experiences of integration, collaboration, consensus, and self-empowerment within the context of Permaculture land-use design. The 17-day residential immersive allows you two levels of enhanced focus: (1) the routines of daily life are set aside, freeing & enhancing your attention, & (2) the process is predominately collaborative. Whether in micro- or macro-clusters, you will be living collaboratively and immersed in skill building as we consciously design the site at hand for the good of the whole.

Course Details

Dancing Green, in a forever-evolving process, developed the kinesthetic 17-day course to get beyond the limiting linear approaches precluding holistic education. Adding the hands-on components took our courses into integrated action-learning for greater empowerment as systems designers. We have since added a good measure of self-facilitation skills to increase collaborative harmony and run the immersion courses as collaborative consensus community. As an organism we individuate and collaborate. We integrate into place through kitchen and life's daily chores while we expand everyone's design parameters to revere the gifts of sun, water, earth and air.

17-days of integrated design immersed in action-learning, assessing self and land: surveying, mapping, analyzing, designing, implementing, evaluating feedback and re-designing as needed. Designing ourselves into nature's patterns, we offer educational experiences of integration, collaboration, consensus, and self-empowerment within the context of Permaculture land-use design.

Living intentional community for 17 days, all individuals cooperative as large and small design clusters. All chores are shared and meals are vegetarian. Days are structured with input, observation, brainstorming, research, mapping and designing. Guest presentations by experienced, local residents and field trips to working sites permeate the course offering integrated approaches to land, animals and structures. Those successfully completing the course collaboratively present their design work and design report to the client and interested public.

Course Topics to Include:

- maps and mapping with seat-of-the-pants engineering skills

- soils, slopes, watershed & hydrology assessment

- mid atlantic regional systems

- watershed awareness; Chesapeake Bay status and threats

- assessing and restoring forests and watersheds

- wetlands and streams

- regional all-season food systems

- annuals to forest gardens.

- investing in communication as social currency

- communication tools & techniques as renewable energy

- consensus facilitation

- conflict resolution, non-violent communication., and trust

- nutrient management: body & soil

- techniques & strategies for feeding the soil

- nutrient-rich foods: harvesting, preparing, and eating

- water & air: regeneration & resiliency

- forests and reforestation

- enhanced ground water absorption & air purification

- rainwater harvesting, catchment & distribution

- thermal patterns & keyline usage

- designing with our allies: the trees, plants & fungi

- edible forest gardens

- suntraps and windbreaks

- green building as growing living form

- perennial and annual guilds

- microbial pathways and multifunctional systems

- personal sustainability: body & soul

- guilds for community & ecovillage design

- economics designed for the good of the whole

- engendering regional exchanges of goods & services

- barter systems, local currencies & worknet-exchanges

- land trust and alternative economics for coherent ecovillages

- healing modalities: Reiki to Deep Tissue Massage,

- Art of Colour & DNA Repatterning.

- wild plant identification walks

- personal space and reflection

- appropriate scale & energy needs

- hand scythes, pedal power, & ram pumps

- passive solar absorption & convection

- bio-geo-thermal conditioning

- biodiesel, ethanol, methane

- animal communities & everyone's needs

- chicken tractors, rotational grazing, wildlife forage patterning

- IPM as intentional community living

- pollination and insect habitat, pests & predators relationships

- eco-social design of healthy human habitat

- natural interface of shelter and immediate outside habitat

1. -growing functional living form and future dwellings
   

2. -interconnected systems for health & ease
   

3. -building intentional neighborhoods and community
   

Tuition & Registration

Course Tuition is $1750 U.S. dollars, which includes instruction, camping, and meals. Register on-line via the link above.

Minimum $100 deposit to reserve space with a $50 non-refundable processing fee. Tuition is due in full no later than 1 week prior to the start of the course on July 10th

Make checks payable to School of Living and mail to:

Heathcote Education Committee, 21300 Heathcote Rd., Freeland, MD 21053.

Financial Aid

Limited financial aid is available. To apply for Financial Aid download the application here and email to: education@heathcote.org

Lodging & Food

Standard lodging is basic camping accommodations. Please bring your own tent. Smaller private or shared rooms with beds are available for individuals, couples, or groups for an additional cost. To inquire please email: education@heathcote.org

or call: 410-357-9523.

Site Details - Heathcote Community

Heathcote is an intentional community of 12 adults and 4 children living cooperatively on 110 wooded acres in northern Baltimore County, on land held in trust with the School of Living since 1965. We have several organic gardens, hiking trails, stream-side hammocks, and a new strawbale residence featuring many aspects of green design and natural building. We strive to live sustainably and share with others through education and service. www.heathcote.org

Course Inspiration

The Mid Atlantic is an important region of the U.S. that faces urgent problems. In many ways, it is a microcosm of the problems facing the entire U.S. The focal point of the region is Chesapeake Bay, an abundant ecosystem that is severely degraded due to human impacts. Federal, state, and local governments have devoted significant funds into restoring it, with limited success. Runoff from industrial farms continues to be a major source of pollution, while residential and commercial development continues to destroy the remaining natural ecosystems. The human population in the Mid Atlantic is concentrated in urban and suburban areas, including major cities such as Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. Large numbers of people in this bioregion suffer from poverty, pollution, and oppression. In the Mid Atlantic, as in most regions across the U.S., social breakdown mirrors ecological breakdown.

We believe that Permaculture is a powerful tool for solving the ecological and social problems of modern U.S. culture in an integrated fashion. Our Permaculture design course focuses on design applications for the Mid Atlantic region, offering extra modules on best management practices for protecting local watersheds and the Chesapeake Bay. It also includes modules on urban sustainability, social and economic justice, and skills for personal transformation. Dancing Green's teaching methods have a strong focus on collaboration and hands-on skill building. Our goal is to empower our graduates to be agents of change in their local communities by giving them the knowledge and skills needed to design healthy ecological, social, and economic systems for the Mid Atlantic region and beyond!

Certification Applicability

Participants who successfully complete the course will receive a Permaculture Design Certificate. Design Certification is applicable towards Gaia University Degree Programs.