Permaculture Convergence Aggregator

by charliewilson | May 22, 2023

Permaculture Convergence Aggregator

The Permaculture Convergence Website will provide a history of permaculture convergences in the world. It will capture resources and promote support services to permaculture convergence organisers.

Project Aims

Bring to life a website to celebrate past convergences and offer support to future convergences.

The grant helps to support the website development, cover domain, hosting and project costs, micro enterprise development and service design.

Funded with 5, 400 GBP through capacity plus

Funded with 12, 200 GBP through next steps

STATUS : ongoing

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Team

Capacity+ team: Kate Swatridge, Luis Tiago

Next Steps team (current team): Aimee Fenech, Ewan Findley, Xavier Bruzaud Grille, Candida Shinn, Daniel Mello Mattos

Reporting Officer: Aimee Fenech

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Area

Network Weaving, Next Steps project

objectives – Capacity+

We will to create a system that would make it easy for any individual, community or initiative to find accurate and up to date information about the various convergences we had until today online.

We will try to recover the lost information and provide a long term safe digital place to host that content.

We will also support the digital circle to spread its work and sustain in the long term for this digital infrastructure, finding ways of extra funding (donations ).

We will also continue to support the creation of new relations with those who are already in the movement.

We will continue weaving the work that the permaculture research convergence proposal group has done.

OUTCOMEs – capacity+

A website to catalyze collaboration in the international permaculture community, gathering online content of the permaculture convergences existing local, regional, and at a global scale. It will contribute as a online hub to support permaculture by mapping the diversity of content existing past convergences, has a historical hub and enableling new visions for future convergences.

objectives – next steps project 2023

1. Receive a handover from the previous team about work already done.

2. Put together a strategy on how to approach this project and define/update objectives for year 1.

3. Identify costs for the services needed from the Digital Circle during this first year.

4. Put together an MVP for the website.

5. Put together a micro-enterprise development strategy document.

OUTCOMEs – next steps project 2023

We aim to release the first version of the website by Mid-October.

objectives – next steps project 2024

1. Develop a Business strategy and implementation plan to continue the work beyond funding

2. Develop a Counseling prototype service within the micro-enterprise.

3. Maintain the website content including events and it’s infrastructure.

OUTCOMEs – next steps project 2024

resources created

contact links

digitalcircle@proton.me

Diversity and Decolonisation Community Pot

The diversity and decolonisation community pot supports diversity and decolonisation work within the CoLab using two methods of access: diversity stipends for participation of people from a diverse background to contribute to existing projects and diversity grants which cover training and aligned events.

Project Aims

For the diversity stipend: to provide funding assistance to individual CoLab members access to paid work within CoLab projects teams already in place.

For the diversity grant: to provide funding to groups working on training and education with the theme of diversity and decolonisation.

Funded with 15, 000 GBP through next steps

STATUS : ongoing

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Team

Aimee Fenech, Jyo Maan

Reporting Officer: Aimee Fenech

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Area

Diversity, participation and engagement, Network weaving, Next Steps project

objectives 2023

Support diversity & decolonization activities, training & participation in the International Permaculture Colab.

OUTCOMEs 2023

Stipends provided in 2023:

2 Stipends to work in the Tepla Gora Eco-Market Team
1 Stipend to work on reviewing diversity course within the Learn Team
1 Stipend for individual to manage the Diversity Grant within the Next Steps Project Manager function

Grants provided in 2023:

3 person team to work on Stories to Decolonize Permaculture
2 person team to work on online training course material – Designing Work Spaces for All
2 person team to work on digitizing the In-person Workshop around Inclusion in Workplace to online workshop

objectives 2024

Support diversity & decolonization activities, training & participation in the International Permaculture Colab.

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

Designing Work Spaces For All online course

Form for Stories to Decolonize Permaculture

contact links

contact@perma.earth

Welcoming and Community Garden Conversations

Welcoming and induction in the CoLab community using different modes of engagement (eg one to one, on-boarding, events etc). Monthly onboarding calls, adhoc one to one calls, mid-yearly events to promote and highlight projects and initiatives in the colab and the wider network.

An invitation to come to the table, weaving projects and connections for resilience, collaboration, and scaffolding.

Please note that from 2024 the Welcome Gardening Project also encompasses the Skill Mapping and Community Platform Facilitation projects.

Funded with 15, 000 GBP through next steps

STATUS : ongoing

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Team

Jyo Maan, Aimee Fenech, Daniel Atwell

Reporting Officer: Jyo Maan

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Area

Circle incubation and nourishment, Diversity, participation and engagement, Network weaving, Next Steps project

objectives 2023

1. Co-design facilitated calls in line with the frequency outlined in the higher objectives:
– Monthly onboarding.
– Mid-yearly community weaving.

2. Offer adhoc one-to-one calls to members of the CoLab when needed e.g. if they express a wish to become active quickly in one or more circles or working groups.

3. Raw meeting recordings, chat history & any notes accessible through a shared drive for half yearly community contributors gatherings.

4. Digestible artifacts, eg. Pre-call welcoming email with the Communications Coordinator: who we are, what we are doing, what you can expect and what we expect of you and after an onboarding call: what now, who to talk to, where to go, skills mapping update request.

5. Closing triangles – matching people coming in with spaces and people in the ecosystem to help them orient themselves e.g. project / person looking for funding refer to Tanya in the funding circle, add person to the channel and show them how to find the funding opportunities database.

6. Brief follow up some months in, how are people doing, are they active, if no, why not, what additional support could be available?

7. Retrospective of on-boarding and engagement process to turn learnings into process improvements ongoing and annual.

OUTCOMEs 2023

Midyear community weaving completed.

objectives 2024

1. Promote and participate in Conversational Community Gardening. – present in research, education, digital and human technology, on-boarding & engagement.

2. Welcoming and induction in the community using different modes of engagements.

3. Maintenance of existing community database and making this accessible to the community.

4. Community platform facilitation.

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

contact links

Welcome Gardening Web Page

Communications, Outreach and Engagement

The Communications, Outreach and Engagement project is quite broad and wide-reaching.

It has several aims;

To enhance communication within the CoLab and associated networks. To connect individuals and organizations. To try to create a sense of belonging.
To do engagement research into network weaving practices and processes, from the local level to the international level.
Focusing on network weaving, in particular offering cross-network training and knowledge sharing events.
To do outreach work from the CoLab to the wider permaculture audience. This will bring attention to the work we are doing in the CoLab and the resources we offer.
To prototype bringing in national and regional networks in order to support the CoLab and the wider permaculture movement. Aiming to bridge projects across bioregions through resources and cross-community engagement.

Funded with 21, 000 GBP through next steps

STATUS : ongoing

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Team

Kate Swatridge – research, outreach
Charlie Wilson – comms, copywriting, reporting officer
Hans Ryding – research, outreach
Aimee Fenech – training & supporting, outreach

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Area

Network weaving, Diversity, participation and engagement, Next Steps project

objectives 2023

Objective 1: Identify our audiences and prioritize audiences for the first part of the work as a prototype. Until August.

Objective 2: Put together a persona/s for the identified prioritized audiences. Until end of October.

Objective 3: Collate information from around the colab about services, circles and projects in order to update the website – to be used as a basis for the outreach package – ongoing work until end of year.

Objective 4: Collate information about current outreach. Until end of year.

Objective 5: Collate feedback and consent from relevant teams on updates to the website pages, including circle pages, services, resources and onboarding. Until the end of the project.

Objective 6: Writing monthly newsletters. Releasing new and edited webpages (projects, services, resources, etc.), on a half yearly basis.

OUTCOMEs 2023

Objective 1: This was completed. A taxonomy was created.

Objective 2: We identified several personas and which were the most important to target. Persona pages have been created on the website speaking to each persona with a different “voice” and offering them different links. These need to be reviewed and finalised.

Objective 3: A major overhaul of the website has been completed. This took a major part of our time and budget for the year. It was realized that the website was going to be a major tool for outreach work and that it needed a lot of work done on it. This work will continue in the second year of the project but to a lesser degree. Services pages have been added. A resources page has been added. The circle pages are up to date. The projects pages have all been updated, with new projects added.

Objective 4: I am not sure that this objective was met. It will be added to Year 2 objectives.

Objective 5: Consent was obtained and updates were given from teams. This was sometimes a difficult task with a lot of chasing up needed.

Objective 6: The monthly newsletters were all completed and sent out on time. Many new web pages have been released. Some of them will be added to the resources tab below.

objectives 2024

Objective 1: Enhance communication within the (CoLab) network and externally to connect individuals and organisations.

Writing monthly newsletters.
Releasing new and edited webpages (projects, services, resources, etc.), on a half yearly basis.
Add adhoc events and job openings as request in #colab-communications-engagement.
Quarterly roundup of NS project updates.
Representation in the General Circle monthly meetings (good for weaving).
Video to introduce CoLab.

Objective 2: Engagement research into network weaving practices and processes across from local to international – focusing on pinpointing needs.

Picture forming – What is the objective of this exercise? – Who is engaging (with CoLab) and how are they engaging (from inside / outside). How and what are we measuring? How do non-engagers (with CoLab) engage with one another and with resources (more generally) (so that we can work out how to help them engage with CoLab resources). What are the needs of different users? Output useful to this team and others.
Plan work according to outcomes of picture forming and needs and according to budget allocation.

Objective 3: Outreach work from CoLab to the wider permaculture audience.

Review persona work from year 1.
Collate information from around the colab about services, circles and projects in order to update the website – to be used as a basis for the outreach package – ongoing work.
Collate information about current outreach.
Collate feedback and consent from relevant teams on updates to the website pages, including circle pages, services, resources and onboarding.
Finish work on the website started last year (review and implement).
Write outreach pieces to be published in permaculture magazines / social media and network websites & mailing lists. (what’s our aim? Increase membership, join mailing list, or increase engagement with resources).
Mail out to target organisations by persona type. (collate email list, draft copy of email, possibly translate to eg. Spanish).
Publish and curate resources from NS and other working groups artefacts.
Set up Outreach Database (and use for prioritising, categorising, tracking etc).

Objective 4: Prototyping to bring in national and regional/other networks to support the wider permaculture movements & the CoLab

Outreach prototype with Nordic permaculture (capped budget as per slack convo about this at 22 hours).
Outreach meetings with external community network eg. EUPN.

Objective 5: Network weaving and building on the work started with capacity plus in particular cross network training and knowledge sharing events.

Training to CoLab members who wish to represent CoLab / promote services.
Representation in the General Circle monthly meetings (good for weaving).

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

Taxonomy of the permaculture movement

Updated history of the CoLab website page

Project pages kept relevant and up-to-date

New – downloadable resources page

New – digital services page

Events page updated

New – onboarding page

contact links

contact@perma.earth

Impact and Evaluation Support for Community-Based Permaculture Projects

This project is offering support to several grassroots / community permaculture projects that want to improve how they evaluate their work and assess its impact.

We work with participating projects to identify areas that they want to work on, agree a pathway to do that work which will be supported by online materials and courses, 1-1 coaching, small group workshops and peer to peer learning through a community forum.
Understanding and assessing impact can help projects to improve their work, access more and better funding, and contribute to a collective evidence base of the impact of permaculture projects.

Previous work has shown that many community permaculture projects are aware that they should be measuring their impact and doing monitoring and evaluation but need help to get started. This project will help up to ten projects directly, and will use learnings to develop wider support in this area.

Funded with 9, 900 GBP through next steps

STATUS : ongoing

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Team

Kate Swatridge, Aimee Fenech

Reporting Officer: Kate Swatridge

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Area

Network Weaving, Prototyping, Next Steps Project

objectives 2023

1. Design the client support package (‘the offer’).

2. Define eligibility criteria for client projects and selection process.

3. Create application form.

4. Draft Terms of Reference / Commitment for client projects to sign up to.

5. Communicate (advertise) the offer and invite applications.

6. Select first three client projects.

7. initial meeting with each project, identify their needs. Seek commitment from their leadership team.

8. Research, plan and co-design a pathway for them, ready to start early 2024.

9. Identify stacking opportunities between the three projects and their needs.

10. Integrate individual pathways into a single workplan for Group 8 project team.

11. Design & setup micro-grant system. Criteria & what can be claimed for, how to apply, consent process, funds disbursement (10 payments over 3 years).

12. Project management, admin and reporting.

OUTCOMEs 2023

This project has not started yet, beyond some initial project planning. This was planned and is due to capacity constraints of the team. Work will commence in earnest in September.

This project will offer bespoke support to several permaculture projects that are wanting to start or improve their evaluation and impact assessment. This could include 1-1 support, access to online courses, and group workshops. More details to follow. If you are working with a project that would be interested in this service, please contact us. There will be an application / selection process depending on level of interest. The service will be free to projects but will require a time and enthusiasm commitment!

objectives 2024

1. Communicate (advertise) the offer and invite applications.

2. Start working with four to six new client projects by Sept 2024.

3. Continue working with existing clients throughout this year or until they feel ready to stop if sooner.

4. Document learning from engagements, and identify opportunities (for within CoLab and outside CoLab), in a project Learning Log, by Dec 2024 (To be continued in 2025).

5. Actively seek to integrate, learn from and cross-pollinate with other related initiatives, eg Permaculture Impact, Next Step MEL Research work etc. Ongoing.

6. Invite clients to apply for micro-grants, as and when needed.

7. Write up completed client engagements as case studies for perma.earth and Permaculture Impact websites.

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

contact links

contact@perma.earth

Permaculture Convergence Aggregator

Team

Area

objectives – Capacity+

OUTCOMEs – capacity+

objectives – next steps project 2023

OUTCOMEs – next steps project 2023

objectives – next steps project 2024

OUTCOMEs – next steps project 2024

resources created

contact links

Related

Diversity and Decolonisation Community Pot

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

contact links

Related

Welcoming and Community Garden Conversations

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

contact links

Related

Communications, Outreach and Engagement

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

contact links

Related

Impact and Evaluation Support for Community-Based Permaculture Projects

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

OUTCOMEs 2024

resources created

contact links

Related