Ómós Áite - Growing our Approach to Place-based Learning

Resilience in a Time of Accelerating Change

Working in Community Climate Action can be really difficult. This webinar brings together people with a wealth of experience to share their insights, discussing issues such as:

• What keeps us motivated in challenging times?
• Why understanding complexity is important and how to navigate it.
• Composting our failures and building on our successes.

Nicola Winters from Sonairte – the National Ecology Centre is in conversation with Julie Lockett from Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Thomas Riedmuller from The Hollies and Chris Chapman from the Burren College of Art. With an introduction by Dolores Whelan for Imbolc/St. Brigid’s Day.

This webinar was recorded on Friday 2nd February 2024

Understanding Complexity

What is complexity?

Complexity is used to describe circumstances where many unpredictable factors influence what is happening – the unknown unknowns.

The most useful tool for understanding systems is the Cynefin Framework which describes five types of systems and the different approaches that are most effective for each.

This article in the Harvard Business Review gives a good overview of the Cynefin Framework and how it can be applied.

Why is navigating complexity important?

It is useful to be able to identify and navigate all types of systems, but we operate in the complex realm on a daily basis, especially in the Community Climate Action space.

In a natural ecosystem, complexity can be understood as all of the interconnectivity between the living organisms and their environment. These relationships are interwoven and external factors (like deforestation elsewhere can change weather patterns) can have an unpredictable effect on the ecosystem. To survive and thrive, the ecosystem must be adaptable to those external pressures. The resilience of the ecosystem is its biodiversity, the dense web of connections, so that if some of those connections are broken, the entire web does not collapse. Monoculture crops are an attempt to enforce simplicity on a natural system, but we have learned that this simplicity is a vulnerability.

Similarly in organisations – particularly those that work in Community Climate Action – resilience is strengthened by having multiple layers of relationships that are intertwined, so that if some part breaks down, the rest of the web will support it.

In practice, this can be messy and frustrating. Complexity can be overwhelming and we can be resistant to embracing it. The vastness of the web, the unknown external forces and the unpredictable outcomes all lead to uncertainty.

We, as humans, struggle to accept uncertainty and try to impose a simpler, more predictable order. We try to make rules to ensure things happen a certain way, we constrain relationships (like excluding those with a conflict of interest from decisions) and simplify things so that they are easier to understand. We make strategic plans that are vulnerable to assumptions about things being more predictable than they are.

The only problem is that it isn’t always easy to know what to do instead. Resource at Burren College of Art has developed creative facilitation approaches to how we can work collectively in complexity and applied those in contexts such as climate change narratives, the future of the Irish language and potential reform of the education system.

How do we successfully navigate complexity?

Complexity is discussed at length in the webinar on Resilience. The Cynefin Framework describes approaches in a general way, but people working in the Community Climate Action space have shared their most important lessons.

Can we make a living?

Here we discuss the lived experiences of people who run centres that promote Community Climate Action in 2024. We had in-depth conversations with representatives from many place-based centres, asking what challenges they were facing, as well as a full day session on what constitutes financial viability and resilience. We also gathered information from centres on a range of topics that revealed some interesting trends.

What would a flourishing centre look like?

For a Community Climate Action centre to flourish it needs many things:

• Financial viability – needs to generate income, whether through funding or sales, it needs to pay the bills, pay staff and carry out its mission.
• Diversity of income – ensuring multiple income streams for resilience.
• Balancing paid staff and volunteers – ensuring core staff in place for as long as possible committed to holding and guiding the centre’s mission with a supportive framework for volunteers.
• Reflective practice/composting – able to fail at some things and compost these to regenerate work.
• Balancing function with compliance – finding the right governance structure to minimise administration.
• Succession planning – ensuring a younger and diverse group of people is being welcomed and supported to continue and progress the work of the centre.
• Adaptability – responsiveness to the continually evolving context of the climate crisis – these often being early adopters, exploring, implementing, trialling solutions. (This can mean financial support comes later as such practical place based research is outside institutions that traditionally fund research such as third level.)
• Capacity – ability to fulfil the escalating need for the work of place based sustainability education centres.
• Supported & inspired – via a peer learning solidarity network, to maintain commitment and energy on a national and international scale.

What is getting in the way of this flourishing? Here we look at specific challenges being experienced and include some resources that may help.

Keeping the lights on

Place-based centres have running costs, often including debt that needs to be serviced. There is capital funding available for those with the skills to make an effective application, but the possibilities for operational or maintenance costs are very limited and none of these cover paying off a debt. The lack of multi-annual funding, credit or sustainable traded income is a challenge felt across the community, voluntary and social enterprise sectors. Like others in the sector, independent actors in communities are acting like ‘emergency first responders’ to complex evolving climate and biodiversity crises often with low levels of recognition or sustainable support.

Ciaran Lynch from Cabragh Wetlands says a major challenge they have always had is being able to generate operational funds. They are very good at getting capital funding but ongoing support is almost impossible. They need funding for general administration and being able to pay tutors. As a result a lot of training and education is delivered voluntarily.

Similarly, Thomas Riedmuller from The Hollies says that they are not paying themselves for the administration side and capacity is an issue for things like doing audited accounts. Only one third of all their income comes from The Hollies, the rest has to be subsidised by working elsewhere. Half of the residential team in the Hollies centre work outside of the centre. This has a parallel in rural farm businesses where farmers maintain off-farm jobs with many negative impacts for rural sustainability.

For Green Sod Ireland, funding is the biggest challenge, saying that trying to secure government funding is like hitting your head off a brick wall. They would like to do a lot more if they had more money.

Stephen Campbell, General Manager at the Organic Centre in Leitrim says funding is an ongoing challenge but it is part and parcel of being a social enterprise/charity. Running costs have risen in recent years so it is our focus to review the work we do and prioritise what is important to our customers while being a sustainable business. We have a committed full-time staff and we are blessed to have a great group of volunteers and community scheme workers that allow us to fulfil the range of work the Organic Centre does.

Fergal from Moy Hill Farm spoke about the challenges as new entry farmers starting out on a regenerative farming journey. They started with nothing so buying the land, the infrastructure, buildings, finding markets was all on them personally. There is no support and getting out of debt can then be an issue.

The Wheel provide funding advice, financial management training, one-to-one support and signposts all funding opportunities to members.

The Wheel also carry out advocacy on behalf of members and consult with members regularly about their issues, including continually calling for multi–annual, flexible and less bureaucratic funding.

They submit pre-budget recommendations and call for those seeking election to sign a pledge to support the sector.

Income from Education

Most of the place based centres provide educational courses as part of their business model.

Suzie Cahn from Carraig Dúlra, established 2006, has experienced a huge increase in demand for regenerative, permaculture, and local education outreach projects that parallels the deeping of the climate crisis and people’s awareness of it. However, she says the low levels of capacity resulting from a lack of investment in place-based learning centres, mean few can meet this demand.

For some centres, school groups are, in many ways, an ideal audience and potential income stream. New curricula have many sustainability, nature connection and environmental components and a visit to a place-based centre can help to deepen the understanding of both issues and solutions. Such experiences can provide the kind of understanding that cannot be learned in classrooms and there is increasing evidence that these experiences can shape the values of young people for the rest of their lives.

Enabling both schools and place-based centres needs dedicated resources.

Ciaran Lynch from Cabragh Wetlands says it is a challenge getting schools to come. They used to come in the past, a lot more than they do now, and he believes there are two main reasons for this. During the pandemic schools got out of the habit of taking trips and travel costs have increased significantly. If Cabragh Wetlands charge more for their visits, the schools cannot afford to hire a bus and pay the fee so they do not come. Effectively, they have to find a way to subsidise the schools’ visits.

Sean O’ Farrell at Cloncannon Biofarm delivers the Leaving Cert Biology/Ecology and the Agricultural Science ecology modules, as well as programmes for Transition Year and Junior Cycle Science. Cloncannon Biofarm is a Science Foundation Certified Discover Primary Science Centre. Over the past 3 years we have been engaged in Social Farming. The need for these diversifications came from the incremental reductions in Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) payments. In recent years the number of students visiting has tended to get a little smaller, probably due to increased transport costs, as we have not increased our fee per student. Having adequate resources for marketing is also another concern which is being addressed

Having adequate budgets for a dedicated marketing staff and promotional budgets for marketing courses is a challenge experienced by many centres. A huge amount of effort goes into developing, promoting and running courses and it can be disheartening if they don’t go ahead or are undersubscribed, as well as being financially damaging. Many centres get enough queries to demonstrate demand but may not be able to prioritise timely promotion, once courses are developed and tutors booked. This has been an increasing issue as small centres compete in what is now called the ‘attention economy’.

Jeanne Merer, former education coordinator for Seed Savers, says it is always the challenge of bringing people in and keeping the marketing going – as soon as you don’t do the marketing, you don’t get people in. It is important to keep people excited, not getting comfortable with what’s been working. The Irish market is limited, you have to either renew your workshops or up-level constantly.

Many centres have staff who double up on many roles and may not have adequate time or skills for effective marketing. Some struggle with the ethics of the advertising world.

This 12-part self-paced online series is attempting to support those on tight budgets with little time to share an ethical approach to storytelling, branding, website design, social media, podcasting, online events, graphic design, PR and more Share Permaculture — marketing course with Morag Gamble.

An ambitious Creative Climate Action project is attempting to redefine what constitutes a ‘good life,’ THINKHOUSE, in collaboration with Purpose Disruptors and supported by Creative Ireland, has launched the Good Life 2030 Ireland project. This exciting initiative invites the advertising industry and the public to envision a future where sustainability and well-being take centre stage.

Áine Bird from the Burren Beo Trust, who contributes to the webinar ‘Engaging our Communities’ looks at What is the significance of place? Why should we care? in section 2.2, page 13.

Funded Jobs

Centres can increase their capacity by applying for funding that includes staff costs, whether specific projects or government department funding streams (CE schemes, JobsPlus etc.)

Another challenge for a small organisation if moving from a voluntary organisation to being an employer, is all of the additional administration this entails, especially when capacity is the issue that sparked the need for additional staff. Despite the challnges, Justin Byrne from the Irish Environmental Network says that he sees organisations really blossom when they can move from 1 part-time staff member to 2-3 full time staff.

Ger English from East Clare Community Co-op says that one of the things they’re looking for is additional staff to consolidate what they’re already doing. This would enable them to develop new ideas around local food, developing training programmes in their community garden and also improving their promotional activities.

As funded roles tend to be of a fixed duration with no guarantees of further funding, job security and long-term planning is a significant issue that is a current risk and limit to future development and scaling of impacts of place based learning centres at a time when the need for them is rising.

Project- or Programme-based Funding

Despite the challenges outlined above, funded projects and programmes remain a significant source of income for many place-based centres. They are an opportunity for centres to carry out a piece of work or be involved in a consortium that furthers their goals.

Funded projects generally include a sum for overheads as a percentage of the overall project budget. This sum is often vital for keeping the centre going, covering some or all of the general running costs.

Projects are however, generally designed to fit the criteria of the funder and this can result in compromises. The focus on a project, especially the reporting burdens, can detract from the core work of a centre. Joanne Butler from OURganic Gardens cites project based funding (as opposed to core funding) as one of their biggest challenges, but often a necessary income stream.

Once a project is complete, the struggle can be to continue to develop outcomes from the work without sustainable funding. It may be possible to apply for a follow-on project, if a timely funding stream happens to be available, but these applications take significant time and resources and the results are not guaranteed.

Funded projects often overlap and gaps between projects creates an operating environment that is inconsistent which can make retaining staff and managing the workload difficult. People who work on projects often have no security of employment and may leave to take more consistent work elsewhere.

Chris Brown from the Permaculture Association of Britain describes the problem – Funding has been a permanent challenge at PAB. No sooner do you secure funding for one project, you have to start fundraising for the next one. And of course no-one funds you for the time you spend fundraising, so you somehow have fit that into your project time. The longest funded projects we had were three years, which gives you two full years to focus on the work before you need to start worrying again. But with one and two year projects, you feel you’ve hardly started before you have to start hunting funds again. And of course there’s no guarantee that funding will come, even when your project has been very successful. So you know that everything you’ve built up in your project and all its connected partnerships and relationships can simply end. It’s very hard to focus on delivering the project work, and not get distracted by the need to secure further funding.

Eileen Flanagan from Cloughjordan Ecovillage says that it is a constant juggling act. There is a strong temptation to take a “normal” job so I don’t have to worry about how to pay the bills in six months’ time. It is very hard to plan or budget for anything and it is very challenging for my mental health.

Many centres across Ireland exist due to a deeply committed founder or pair or group of founders who felt compelled to meet the climate and related challenges as early adopters and activists. The impacts they have achieved with extremely limited resources are from narrative and qualitative evidence significant but impact measurement is something that they have rarely had adequate budgets to dedicate to.

This report by the National Economic and Social Council – Exploring Place-based Opportunities for Policy and Practice in Transition contains valuable data-driven analysis.
Chapter 5 (page 62) Lessons and Learning for Place-based Just Transition in Ireland. Sections 5.2.1 Human agency and just transition, 5.2.2 Building capacity for a just transition, 5.2.3 Co-creation as an approach to community engagement for a low carbon economy, 5.3.1 Capacity building, 5.3.2 Governance, policy and practice, 5.3.3 Driving and monitoring the transition are of particular interest.

Diversifying

Diversification is one way of generating income beyond education – many centres have several income streams. This diversity can increase resilience, providing alternative income as circumstances change. For example, Green Sod Ireland are working with universities, collaborating with corporate sponsorship and are now fully licenced as a carbon offset provider.

As with other challenges, diversification requires that each organisation or enterprise requires resources and time, learning new business related skills and research identifying viable markets. In particular, they need enterprise development time. If capacity is already a problem, diversifying can put further strain on that capacity and potentially add further operational issues and risks..

Feargal from Moy Hill Farm says that they produce poultry, sheep, fruit and vegetables on a diverse farm. However, the Department of Agriculture policies and supports push them towards simplification and as a result they are now getting out of sheep farming.

It is interesting to note the trends in diversification among place-based centres. From our surveys 60% have accommodation available and one third of those make it available to tourists and the general public. 10% have a cafe or restaurant on site. 45% make their facilities available to the general public for events not organised by the centre and a further 30% make it available to those that meet certain criteria.

Charity Status

Having charitable status can bring benefits such as public trust, access to certain funding streams, the ability to accept charitable donations. Charities are governed by the Charities Regulator and their requirements can be onerous on a small organisation.

One approach, researched and agreed upon during the set up phase of Carraig Dúlra in 2007 by Mike and Suzie Cahn, was to claim the title a not-for-profit and set up as simple social business and then act like a charity. For example, Carraig Dúlra practises transparency by publishing accounts that document where income goes (no profits are generated and they continue to invest in the social and environmental mission). The organisation regularly consults volunteers, tutors and participants about future directions. They are also working collaboratively with what a business might have seen as competitors. Currently, they are considering new legal forms that may match their practice better and make them more attractive for funders that are now interested in their work. They are watching developments in cooperative legislation with interest.

25% of the centres surveyed have charitable status, 33% are Companies Limited by Guarantee and 12% are cooperatives.

The Social Enterprise Toolkit contains a wealth of information on setting up and running a social enterprise.

This article gives a brief overview on what to do to set up a charitable trust in Ireland.

This factsheet from The Wheel gives more comprehensive detail on the processes and requirements for setting up a charity.

Volunteers

All centres that we surveyed welcome volunteers and some say they rely heavily upon them to carry out their work. 40% arrange volunteers through organisations like the European Solidarity Corps, WWOOF or HelpX. 55% make individual arrangements for volunteering in exchange for food and accommodation. 25% have volunteers that do not receive food or accommodation in exchange and 55% put out open calls to their networks for specific tasks or meitheals.

Reliance on volunteering has its drawbacks. Ciaran Lynch from Cabragh Wetlands says that they have volunteers who are very good and have so far done the work willingly. However, there is always a question about how sustainable that is for the future and how long the dependence on voluntary work could continue.

Averil Rafferty from the Rediscovery Centre feels that people are expected to do so much for no pay. Some volunteers are doing 35-40 hrs a week. She says that when volunteers are doing it out of passion and love – they give so much more energy. For their centre, this seems to be the only option in the current funding climate. Some of their volunteers had great ideas to run initiatives but were hampered by insurance and paperwork requirements that they cannot meet.

Solidarity Network

Place based sustainability education centres are invaluable for active learning, testing and modelling climate actions and solutions. There’s a lot of energy and commitment, and overcoming challenges is part of what makes these centres authentic and inspiring. They thrive on solidarity and partnership, helping each other along the way. “You are not alone – even if it feels like that!”

Go to the Bigger than Ourselves page to find more centres.

Despite the challenges covered in this article, adapting to evolving context through a continued iterative process of surviving and thriving has given rise to a vibrant ecosystem of diverse learning opportunities across the island that could scale given more sustainable resourcing.

Communicating about Climate

Julie Lockett has been a member and co-creator of Cloughjordan Ecovillage since 2005 and a resident since 2011 where she is raising her two sons. She is an ecovillage educator, co-owner of Riot Rye Bakehouse & Bread School – a wood-fired bakery located in the ecovillage and an independent dance artist. She was also the co-ordinator for the Ómós Áite project.

PRINCIPLES & EXAMPLES I USE FOR TEACHING ABOUT THE ECOVILLAGE

I see myself as an interpreter of the ecovillage land and the activities taking place.

“Sometimes a landscape seems to be less a setting for the life of its inhabitants than a curtain behind which their struggles, achievements and accidents take place. For those who, with the inhabitants, are behind the curtain, landmarks are no longer only geographical but also biographical and personal.”
John Berger

USE PLAIN ENGLISH

I avoid using terminology and don’t assume knowledge of ecological or permaculture concepts:

• the timber we use for our district heating system is woodchip – a renewable energy. What do we mean by ‘renewable’ – we can grow more trees in our lifetimes. Can we create more oil/coal/gas in our lifetimes? If not, why not? How many years does it take for these to form?

DELIVERY

Teaching on an urgent, serious issue with a light touch.

The ecovillage is a response to the climate crisis and I am very passionate about the work we do here and think it’s important. However, I try not to take myself too seriously or to lecture people about what I think they should be doing. I present information with a light touch and try to make their visit as fun and engaging as I can. I try to meet people where they are at.

I am not looking to change visitors’ minds there and then but to present information for them to reflect on. I do feel energised when I see a young person’s eyes light up and see they are inspired by the ecovillage.

THE IMPORTANCE OF MODELLING AS AN APPROACH

“If you can see it – you can do it” I live in this ecovillage because I visited another ecovillage – Findhorn Foundation Community, Scotland where I saw another way of living right before my eyes. I spoke to the children and saw how confident, independent and self-reliant they were. This inspired me to raise my children here.

THE IMPORTANCE OF NATURE CONNECTION

I find it very effective to engage people’s senses. It bypasses the conscious mind and connects more deeply.

SMELL

In our Sensory Garden, I invite visitors to run their fingers through different herbs and ask them which herbs remind them of pizza (oregano), stews (sage), toothpaste (mint). They are amazed at the strength of the lemon scent from lemon balm.

When we stand by the district heating system chimneys, I ask them what they can smell – timber burning?

Stopping and smelling the wild dog roses in the hedging around people’s houses – our wildlife corridors.

TASTE

In the summer and autumn, visitors can enjoy our edible landscape where we can eat our view! I invite them to pick an apple from a tree and eat it. For some young people, this is a first and they sometimes refuse.

HEARING

Can you hear the birds? We have planted trees – hedging in between our houses as ‘wildlife corridors’ – there is a lot more that can live in and from a hedge as opposed to a wall or a fence. This means we also get to see birds up close alongside our houses.

SIGHT

Which direction is south? Where is the sun at midday? How can we best design our houses to maximise solar gain in the winter? Which side of the houses has the smallest and which side the biggest windows?

In mid-winter, the sun rises and and sets in the south. In mid-summer, the sun rises in the north-east and sets in the north-west. When do we need to get the most heat into our houses in Ireland? In Ireland, it works best if use put the smallest windows on the north side to minimise heatloss and the biggest on the south side. Would this approach work say in the south of France? Some residents in the ecovillage are now finding their houses are too warm in the summer. If you return in 10 years’ time, you might see shutters on our south-facing windows as you see in the south of France. We now need to plan for very diverse and unpredictable weather conditions.

TOUCH/EXPERIENCES

In a polytunnel, visitors can enjoy the higher temperature and shelter from the wind that the plants enjoy. Polytunnels are a way of extending our growing season in Ireland and being able to grow food which requires a warmer climate.

In the summer, we stand in the sunlight and then in the woodland – it’s cooler in the woodland. If we plant more trees in our cities, it can help to cool our cities.

In an area of the community farm which is surrounded by hedges, can we feel the wind? Hedging is great for windbreaks – to protect the plants from being blown over and drying out.

NATURE DISCONNECTION

Many of the children and young people arrive wearing white runners and are frequently surprised to encounter mud when they’re walking around the ecovillage! This is a disconnection from nature, the expectation that you can wear white soled shoes whilst walking the land.

Wearing fake nails makes it more difficult to use your hands. In traditional Chinese culture, wealthy people and people with a high social status grew their nails long whilst people who worked with the land had short, clipped nails.

If we don’t have a connection to nature – a relationship with it – it means we are not going to care about it or work towards protecting it and ensuring it can flourish.

COMMUNITY AS A DAILY PRACTICE

For the ecovillage and its members and residents to thrive, It’s not enough to live in a community, it needs to be a daily practice where we live and work alongside one another in partnership with the land to build trust. Then as we face challenges, we have a foundation of trust; an established common ground to work from. For example, a lot of us share cars which couldn’t happen until we’d built up trust.

LANGUAGE

People can use the same words but mean different things. The term ‘ecovillage’ is an internationally recognised term. One of our challenges in our community is people mean different things when they use the term ecovillage. We have to work together to evolve our shared vision of what our ecovillage is. It’s important to remember that everyone is having their own experience here.

CONNECTING WITH OUR ANCESTORS

The revolutionary Tomás MacDonagh was a native of Cloughjordan. He was a teacher and a poet. The fully mature beech trees which line the community farm are 150-200 years old and Tomás MacDonagh would have seen these trees when he lived here.

HAVING FUN TOGETHER

Pacing ourselves

The amphitheatre is a great opportunity for the community to have fun together. Most of the work in the ecovillage is done on a voluntary basis in our spare time and there is an endless list of jobs to do! However, it’s vital to stop, take breaks and rest. If we don’t, we burn out and have to stop anyway as we can get ill. So it’s important to remember when you’re working on community projects or in activism, to stop and have fun together. (more on this in Minding Ourselves and Féilte sections of the People Care page.)

HONESTY

Learning from our mistakes.

Yes I have the privilege and status to be able to build a house in the ecovillage. People’s response to the climate crisis has been largely privatised: you need to own a roof to erect PV panels, you need a higher income to afford organic produce, you need the time to be able to grow your own food, etc.
We have made mistakes and will probably make more – these are rich learning opportunities. Some of the things we have tried haven’t worked and we learn from our mistakes, for example the solar array for our district heating system.

Resource

This is a great website with a lot of resources climateoutreach.org
Especially this section From Photos to Videos: how to communicate about climate change.