Welcoming and Community Garden Conversations

by charliewilson | May 12, 2023

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, ad-hoc 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 : complete

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Team

Jyo Maan, Aimee Fenech, Nenad Maljkovic

Reporting Officer: Aimee Fenech

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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

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. PARTIALLY MET: Brief follow up some months in, how are people doing, are they active, if no, why not, ~~what additional support could be available?~~ – additional support aspects have not had the time to follow.

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

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

The welcome gardening team holds monthly onboarding calls for new colab members and existing members who have been inactive for a while. We offer one-to-one calls for members who wish to discuss their engagement within the CoLab in more detail.

During this year we have been testing different engagement patterns to bridge the gap between entering a new space and becoming active and engaged in the CoLab activities. In the beginning of the year, we organized campfire meetings and we moved into other types of activities which included producing two videos to highlight how the membership benefits and illustrate how the CoLab works. By undertaking such activities we are now engaging the most active members, creating spaces for their voices and experiences to be heard. In addition, it is also a fertile ground for anyone coming into the Colab, to learn of its inner workings and be drawn to the ones that are the torch bearers of International Permaculture CoLab community.

Our work also includes taking care of the CoLab slack workspace and making the community skills database a useful and used resource in the CoLab ecosystem.

objectives 2025

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 2025

September Updates

The monthly and adhoc onboarding calls for new CoLab members and existing CoLab members who would like to refresh their overview of the CoLab continue on an ongoing basis currently hosted by Aimee but soon to be hosted by Jyo and Abhisek as they complete their onboarding traning. Another training round will be open soon, this is your opportunity to join the team of onboarders to welcome and inform new members as they come into the space.

We are working on a guidelines document for community platform admins that is platform agnostic since the CoLab will be moving to a new open source platform in the coming months.

One of our platform admins Nenad will be leaving the team and he will be handing over to other members of the team. If this is of interest to you please contact the Welcome Circle.

We have been conducting a review of our services through surveying the members and results from this will be published soon.

Final Update

The Welcome Circle is now open for new members, we are providing training for volunteer onboarders and holding space for members to step into responsibility of joining our platform admin team over time.

We will be hosting the end of year Next Steps Form for 2025 and we hope to see many of you there. A recording will be available on the CoLab YouTube channel.

resources created

How the CoLab works: Governance

Benefits of CoLab Membership

contact links

Welcome Circle 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

2025 communications officer role was added to the team, increasing the budget by £3400

STATUS : complete

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Team

Kate Swatridge – research, outreach
Charlie Wilson – comms, copywriting, reporting officer
Hans Ryding – research, outreach
Aimee Fenech – training & supporting, outreach
Siobhan Vida Ashmole – June 2025 and onward, communication strategist

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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.

1a. Writing monthly newsletters.

1b. Releasing new and edited webpages (projects, services, resources, etc.), on a half yearly basis.

1c. Add adhoc events and job openings as request in #colab-communications-engagement.

1d. Quarterly roundup of NS project updates.

1e. Representation in the General Circle monthly meetings (good for weaving).

1f. Video to introduce CoLab.

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

2a. 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.

2b. 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.

3a. Review persona work from year 1.

3b. 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.

3c. Collate information about current outreach.

3d. Collate feedback and consent from relevant teams on updates to the website pages, including circle pages, services, resources and onboarding.

3e. Finish work on the website started last year (review and implement).

3f. 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).

3g.Mail out to target organisations by persona type. (collate email list, draft copy of email, possibly translate to eg. Spanish).

3h. Publish and curate resources from NS and other working groups artefacts.

3i. 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

4a. Outreach prototype with Nordic permaculture (capped budget as per slack convo about this at 22 hours).

4b. 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.

5a. Training to CoLab members who wish to represent CoLab / promote services.

5b. Representation in the General Circle monthly meetings (good for weaving).

Outcomes 2024

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

1a. The monthly newsletters have been published every month, on time. It has new sections promoting diversity, and both an engagement and events section.

1b. There are new “About permaculture pages” that have been added to the website. There are web pages now for Learn services, Funding services, and Digital services. The project pages were updated in September and will be updated again in December. A page of downloadable resources has been added to the website. A CoLab blog page has been added. Other web pages receive reviews and updates when needed.

1c. These are included on the website, and now also on the newsletter.

1d. These have been completed and published in a timely manner. The Q4 roundup will be produced in December.

1e. Charlie attended General Circle meetings each month.

1f. This has been completed. There were contributions from several CoLab members. Charlie did a lot of recording and Hans did the editing.

Objective 2. Research ‘engagement with network weaving practices and processes’ from local to international, focusing on pinpointing needs. –

2a. A quick picture-forming exercise revealed that for this objective, we want to find good ways to reach permaculture people and projects on the ground so that we share the wealth of resources, events and services offered by the International Permaculture CoLab. We designed and published a survey to find out how permaculturists communicate. Analysis of responses is in progress, with a report coming soon.

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

3a. This has been completed. The persona pages are active on the CoLab website and will be used for outreach work when sending emails etc.

3b. This work is done on an ongoing basis.

3c. A document reporting the current situation was collated and subsequently a marketing strategy document was produced and published.

3d. This work has been done and is ongoing.

3e. This has been completed.

3f. This has been started. We are in communication with Permaculture magazine and plan to produce articles next year. We are also surveying CoLab members about which platforms they use.

3g. This has been done. We sent an email to permaculture associations in Europe and Australia. So far there was no response.

3h. This work is being done and is ongoing.

3i. Initial version has been created, further updates are planned.

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

4a: Contact was made and the results were collected as a case study, however the outreach was not successful in getting any new customers or members. Primarily because we overestimated how developed the organisations were. Outreach with EUPN was very successful and now we have a relationship going between Digital Circle and EUPN.

4b: Participated in skillshare sessions on behalf of Pemaculture CoLab in a session about digital permaculture organised by EUPN – we are getting better at cross collaboration since then.

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

5a: We have been designing training for CoLab members who wish to represent CoLab in their other networks. To be delivered in Year 3 (CoLab Champions).

5b: This has been ongoing with positive feedback from other circles to the work done within this project.

objectives 2025

Objective 1: Communication strategy development and implementation (including recruit a communications strategist)

1a. Recruitment of a communication strategist.

1b. Development of a communication strategy for the CoLab – includes onboarding.

1c. An implementation plan and actions within the strategy.

Objective 2: Enhance communication within the (CoLab) network and externally to connect individuals and organisations (including a website review – for maintenance of website content post-2025)

2a. E-mails and slack posts to keep Next Steps members updated – including quarterly updates.

2b. Review of website content for post-2025 by October 2025
Checking in that people have access and are offered training by the Digital Circle to update their own project pages.

2c. Keep the project pages updated – so that they can be used to promote the project to a potential funder in the future.

2d. The events page. We need more events to increase engagement. As a prep work – update the aligned network page. Email out to allied networks to invite / prompt them to submit events.

Write a monthly “submit your public events here” message on Slack (hand over to an active team member when unavailable).

Objective 3: Bring attention to the work and wealth of resources available for the wider permaculture movement from the CoLab

3a. Focus on promoting the existing assets on the Downloadable Resources page and on getting more people to download them. We need to improve the names & descriptions of the resources and to add a monthly featured resource on the CoLab newsletter and LinkedIn.

3b. Social media campaigns – make them more relevant to CoLab work and permaculture when possible. Currently existing social media campaigns are: promoting the CoLab web pages, a climate action campaign, a diversity campaign, significant dates, and sharing newsletter items.

3c. Monthly newsletters. Newsletter archive page updated.

3d. Outreach to external parties. Review our outreach efforts from last year, such as reaching out to Permaculture magazine and decide which to finish and continue.

Objective 4: Cross network training and knowledge sharing events (CoLab Champions)

4a. Review the design document prepared in 2024 and update and improve it as necessary.

4b. Schedule and do the training for the new CoLab champions.

Outcomes 2025

Objective 1: Communication strategy development and implementation (including recruit a communications strategist)

1a. Finished. The role was advertised on various outreach channels. There were two applicants. One of which was interviewed. After a discussion within the team: Vida Ashmole was hired as the communications strategist. The deciding factor was her extensive previous experience both with marketing strategy and within the CoLab.

1b. Ongoing. A first version of the communication has been published containing: LinkedIn Strategy, YouTube Strategy, Newsletter, Co-Marketing Partnerships, PR Campaign, Microenterprises Services, Membership, AI Strategy, Internal Partnerships, Branding, Best Practices and Maintenance.

1c. Ongoing.

Objective 2: Enhance communication within the (CoLab) network and externally to connect individuals and organisations

2a. Ongoing. All quarterly updates have been sent out in a timely manner.

2b. Ongoing. We have reviewed the funding circle pages, and created new drafts. Further work is pending more information and feedback from the funding circle. All teams have been given access to update their project pages on the perma.earth website.

2c. Ongoing. Project pages are currently being updated.

2d. The Allied Network page has been updated. An email and Slack message has been sent out to Allied Partners to encourage them to post their events. Events from external sources have been added to the Events page to fill it up and make it look more appealing. A monthly message needs to be sent out on Slack to remind people to use the Events page, so far this has not been done.

Objective 3: Bring attention to the work and wealth of resources available for the wider permaculture movement from the CoLab

3a. The Downloadable Resources page has been thoroughly updated. A “Resource of the month” has been added to the newsletter and to the LinkedIn.

3b. All of the content for the current social media campaigns has been created. They are being scheduled on LinkedIn. The comms strategist may add some new campaigns.

3c. The monthly CoLab newsletter has been released each month in a timely manner. It includes content from the CoLab and our allied network. It includes a diversity and decolonization piece and a resource of the month. It also includes events and engagement opportunities.

3d. Ongoing. We intend to write an article for the autumn issue of Permaculture Magazine, due on Aug 15^th.

Objectve 4: Cross network training and knowledge sharing events (CoLab Champions)

4a. Finished. Document has been reviewed and updated. Possibly will be updated further following the finished training to reflect learnings etc. from there.

4b. Finished. A CoLab Champions training was completed on 6^th of May with a number of participants, who are now officially CoLab champions (Yay!)

Final Update

We had various threads of work for this team, from a maintenance perspective we are the team that keeps up the CoLab website, blog, social media and newsletter going as an ongoing body of work. This year we also included work on a new diversity page. We have also teamed up with the Funding Circle to produce communication assets such as a easily understood writing, a 3 page overview/ profile, a pitch deck and content for a page on the website; which can be used to communicate to funders. We also worked successfully to increase our external organisational partnerships and as a result we have representation of the CoLab in various networks including the Permaculture in Europe, the IPC Council and the EuPN. With other networks such as the GRC, the Fito Network we were able to set up event promotion.

We have started working on materials for the CoLab members to participate in the outreach at different levels depending on personal capacity, contributing towards inner confidence to recommend and speak about the CoLab and share CoLab resources into their networks.

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

New – learn team services page

Updated funding circle services page

Events page updated

New – onboarding page

Updated home page with links to “persona” pages

Downloadable Resources Management Process

Permaculture Comms Survey Questions

Yearly Comms Calendar Important Dates

Case Study: Nordic Permaculture Academy

Which Permaculture Communication Platforms do People Use – Survey

Downloadable Resources Impact and Reach – Survey

CoLab Marketing Content Policy

Engagement Tools and Marketing Guidelines

Introduction to the CoLab video

contact links

contact@perma.earth

Open Badges / ICAAFs Project

We aim to develop and strengthen a decentralised accreditation system which empowers learning providers, permaculturists, farmers, and ecosystem restoration practitioners, and the regenerative field as a whole to issue credentials in the form of ‘open badges’; while also operating as a unifying network for regenerative education.

These badges can replace academic credentials, quality certifications such as ‘Organic’ or ‘Fairtrade’, attendance certificates for events, and create entirely new streams such as greater recognition of experiential learning, better recognition of indigenous learning practices, and new monitoring and evaluation processes for land or social/community permaculture projects.

One of the most exciting potential outcomes of the iCAAFS project is the ability for learners to carry over credentials from within the iCAAFS ecosystem of un/learning providers in order to build up to ‘Diploma’, or “Degree’ milestone badges which recognise the lifelong learning pathway of an individual and/or community. This objective requires the commitment of a number of key partners, but we intend to test a prototype milestone qualification by the end of this project lifecycle.

iCAAFS is firmly rooted in permaculture ethics, regenerative practices as well as an intention to embrace indigenous and decolonial forms of un/learning and knowing.

iCAAFS is at present developed to a minimum viable prototype which includes basic documentation of philosophy and use, prototype badges design, platform use, basic business plan, and testing of technology needed to implement.

We are now rolling out iCAAFS to stakeholders representing the most diverse use cases we can imagine in order to test its limitations and discover new possibilities; as well as co-design the detailed documentation and strategy with the end users. We are also developing and launching an iCAAFS onboarding course in order to streamline the un/learning process for new badge designers and issuers.

We intend to set up an advisory board of indigenous and decolonial leaders to inform the direction and philosophy of the iCAAFS project. Partners, badge issuers, and un/learning providers will be invited to participate, create autonomous working groups, and propose designs/projects for iCAAFS for the long term direction. In order to do this we need to co-create a functional participatory organisational design and governance.

Funded with 15, 000 GBP through next steps

STATUS : complete

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Team

Siobhan Vida Ashmole, Andrew Langford

Reporting Officer: Siobhan Vida Ashmole

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Area

Training and eLearning, Next Steps Project, Grassroots permaculture project

Objectives 2023

1. Enrol 2-5 case study partners in the iCAAFS program.

2. Document onboarding and badge development process with each new case study partner, obtain feedback early and often, refine this into a case study which can be shared for training and educational purposes.

3. Develop detailed onboarding documentation and codesign this through feedback with initial partners.

4. Identify training course location for best reach and impact.

5. Develop and launch onboarding training course.

6. Together with initial indigenous, BIPOC and decolonial education leaders, create a set of advisory board goals and guidelines for attracting members.

7. Develop funding strategy for advisory board to compensate for work fairly.

OUTCOMEs 2023

iCAAFS is at present developed to a minimum viable prototype which includes basic documentation of philosophy and use, prototype badges design, platform use, basic business plan, and testing of technology needed to implement.

We are now rolling out iCAAFS to stakeholders representing the most diverse use cases we can imagine in order to test its limitations and discover new possibilities; as well as co-design the detailed documentation and strategy with the end users. We are also developing and launching an iCAAFS onboarding course in order to streamline the un/learning process for new badge designers and issuers.

We intend to set up an advisory board of indigenous and decolonial leaders to inform the direction and philosophy of the iCAAFS project. Partners, badge issuers, and un/learning providers will be invited to participate, create autonomous working groups, and propose designs/projects for iCAAFS for the long term direction. In order to do this we need to co-create a functional participatory organisational design and governance.

Objectives 2024

1. Complete enrollment of 2-5 case study partners in the iCAAFS program who represent diverse use-cases and scope by May 2024.

2. Finalise and launch onboarding training course by March 2024. Obtain Feedback from case-study partners by May 2024.

3. Develop Onboarding Webinar content which will be used to attract and sign up new users to the iCAAFS course by May 2024, and through the course, enrol them as users of the iCAAFS platform by Oct 2024.

4. Create accessible templates for onboarding with badge templates (graphical), metadata templates, and badge design templates (conceptual) by July 2024.

5. Test and revise business plan in May and November 2024.

6. Continue to work on funding strategy for iCAAFS as a whole, identify grant/fund opportunities outside of Next Steps and evaluate relevance to goals and objectives by May 2024. Add to this as needed. Apply for relevant funds throughout the year.

7. Together with initial regenerative education leaders, create a set of governance working group goals and guidelines for attracting members. Formalise a small starting governance team by Oct. 2024 and have regular (monthly?) checkins.

8. Develop and launch the iCAAFS website as independent from Gaia U with respective sales and landing pages for various offerings by Dec 2024.

Outcomes 2024

September Update:

This quarter, we focused on refining the Open Badges Design course, producing onboarding webinar content, and introducing badge templates for the community. A key development in our business model was the decision to sponsor a few case study partners over the next 15-18 months. This idea came from feedback that even small shared fees might be a barrier during the early launch phase. These partners will test the system and provide valuable feedback for case study documentation.

We’ve already signed up Ikhwelo Healers Collective, an indigenous knowledge collective of healers working on advocacy, social justice, climate change, permaculture, and environmental conservation in Southern Africa; who will use the badges for membership and plan to expand into a points-based system to track participation. This partnership is particularly exciting as it aligns with our focus on indigenous knowledge and un/learning. We hope this connection might extend into shared governance and advisory roles.

For CoLab members who have shown interest but haven’t signed up yet, we’re open to collaborations without shared fees at this stage and encourage members to reach out to the iCAAFS team or contact Vida on vida@gaiau.org

December Update:

This quarter has been a period of transition for iCAAFS, which continues to be incubated and co-funded by Gaia University. Following the passing of Liora Adler, co-founder of Gaia University, earlier this year, significant leadership changes have been implemented. Jennifer Morgan stepped in as co-leader of Gaia University in September 2024, with plans to assume full leadership in 2025. This shift has brought renewed governance structures and a leadership board to support iCAAFS in its journey toward becoming a self-sufficient entity by 2026. Plans are also underway to align iCAAFS with a like-minded membership association, ensuring independent governance while leveraging the expertise and network of seasoned educators and designers.

This transition has simplified objectives around governance, funding, and strategic planning, with the advisory board providing robust support to the project.

Key achievements this quarter include:

Adding the iCAAFS website as a downloadable PDF asset, with plans for a live launch next year.
Expanding webinar content and showcasing iCAAFS at the PAB Educator’s Gathering through a presentation on modular education.
Drafting case study partner contracts and engaging in promising discussions with new collaborators.
Finalizing additional course content & publishing a course PDF for the CoLab to further strengthen the onboarding program.

We are excited about the infusion of fresh energy and ideas, even as it introduces short-term adjustments, and look forward to welcoming new contributions from the Gaia University team in the coming year.

Objectives 2025

1. Host a collaborative design session/s with key partners in order to create a prototype high-level ‘Milestone badge’, which contains credentials from multiple stakeholders and un/learning providers, and is based on, in part, Gaia U’s Bachelor’s and Master’s design scheme.

2. Onboard 2-5 new case study members representing diverse use-cases and scopes into the iCAAFS program and collect structured feedback from them on the onboarding process and initial platform usage by 31st October 2025, to identify areas for system improvement.

3. Establish a co-governance structure for iCAAFS by defining roles, responsibilities, and decision-making processes in collaboration with key stakeholders and documenting these in a governance framework document by 30th November.

4. Define and document at least one model for continued CoLab access to iCAAFS badge services after December 2025, outlining the process and any associated requirements, by 31st October 2025.

5. Deliver a presentation to the CoLab community by 31st October 2024, explaining how Colab members can utilise and benefit from iCAAFS badges, including use cases and potential integrations.

Outcomes 2025

September Update

This quarter, we welcomed a new cohort from Green Silk Road. Eight participants from six different organisations across Asia, from the Auroville Foundation to HASAT Coop in Türkiye, took part in an orientation session. They were introduced to iCAAFS, explored how badges can support their projects, and learned to use the tools provided by the iCAAFS team. Participants also joined a Q&A, and received access to the iCAAFS badge creation course, badge templates, and the Open Badge Factory platform. Feedback forms have been shared with the group, and responses are being gathered.

In addition, the preparation, scheduling, and design of the participatory design session for a Modular Milestone Badge have been completed. This session will explore how a modular PDC can be designed using the iCAAFS Open Badge system. Permaculture educators and those interested in modular badges are warmly invited to join:

https://calendar.app.google/iKWkoRWove44PkoV8
When: September 19th, 6:00 PM CET

We remain on track to complete our remaining objectives this year, with strong foundations already in place to bring them to completion.

Final Update

This year marked a significant step forward in developing the iCAAFS badge ecosystem and its role in supporting modular, accessible learning pathways for the wider permaculture community. The team completed a full collaborative design process that produced a refined prototype for a Milestone Badge and strengthened the foundations for a future modular Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC). The work was supported by a detailed governance framework and a clear access model that will allow CoLab teams and partners to continue using the system beyond the funded period.

A major achievement was the onboarding of new case study participants: two CoLab teams and nine external organisations. Their feedback helped improve the clarity, usability, and real-world relevance of the system. Case studies also played a key role in demonstrating how badges can document skills, support learning journeys, and help practitioners communicate their capabilities more effectively.

The project also invested in refining its documentation, strengthening its brand identity, and improving the way it communicates the value of modular learning and verification. These steps have helped make the work more accessible to educators, organisations, and practitioners who are exploring new ways of recognising learning and experience.

Interest in modular education has grown across the network. The team contributed to conversations and participatory design processes with partners such as the Permaculture Association Britain, supporting wider exploration of modular pathways in permaculture training. Internal engagement within the CoLab also increased, with more teams recognising opportunities to integrate badge-based tools into their work.

As this phase of the project closes, the foundations are now in place for continued development. A model for continued access for CoLab members was developed and submitted to the community for feedback and consent. There is strong potential for further prototyping, community testing, and expanded collaboration with educators and organisations who want to explore modular learning and recognition. The work will continue to evolve through the wider iCAAFS and CoLab community as interest and capacity grow.

iCAAFS welcomes further collaboration and inquiries for badge creation, modular PDC design efforts and verification services. You can reach out to Jenn on jenn@gaiau.org

resources created

contact links

https://gaiauniversity.org/en/icaafs-open-badges-decentralized-accreditation-for-regenerative-un-learning/

We invite anyone in the permaculture/regenerative field with projects and offerings in the following areas:

1. Un/learning (including all types of alternative, indigenous, action and experiential un/learning as well as more formal avenues working on climate/land/community)

2. Certifications of quality for products, projects or organisations (i.e. replacing BCorp, Organic, Fairtrade etc.)

3. Monitoring, Impact and Evaluation

We would love to hear from you, get you involved in iCAAFS codesign, and see your project using open badges. We especially invite elders from decolonial-indigenous backgrounds, and un/learning/M&E/certification providers who are willing and able to contribute to the overall project, to reach out about board opportunities.

You can reach the project lead, Siobhan Vida Ashmole at vida@gaiau.org

Digital Circle Provision of Services to the CoLab

Provision of tech services, hosting and access to ethical tools

Funded with 9, 050 GBP through next steps

STATUS : Complete

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Team

Ewan Findley, Aimee Fenech

Reporting Officer: Aimee Fenech

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Area

CoLab maintenance, Next Steps project

objectives 2023

1. Put together the invoice for existing services due for renewal in 2023.

2. Maintain services up and running, run updates, backups, troubleshoot as needed

– this includes Nextcloud accounts for Next Steps Project teams and other CoLab working groups

– keeping perma.earth up and running including troubleshooting, maintenance

– keeping slack up and running or an alternative communications tool

– keeping up existing email addresses used by colab communications

3. Increased digital tool awareness for CoLab participants.

OUTCOMEs 2023

We have developed a secure and resilient way to manage our team’s logins, account credentials and passwords so that we can manage this as a team through our asynchronous part time working patterns.

We have new exciting offerings in the form of FOSS applications that we need to make widely known through the CoLab and associated networks so that we may all benefit from this.

We’ve successfully provided fast support to CoLab members who rely on digital circle services.

objectives 2024

1. Put together the invoice for existing services due for renewal.

2. Maintain services up and running, run updates, backups, troubleshoot as needed

– this includes Nextcloud accounts for Next Steps Project teams and other CoLab working groups

– keeping perma.earth up and running including troubleshooting, maintenance

– keeping slack up and running or an alternative communications tool

– keeping up existing email addresses used by colab communications

3. Increased digital tool awareness for CoLab participants

outcomes 2024

We have a member of the team stepping back and another one being onboarded.

We continue to provide the CoLab with services including emails, web hosting, nextcloud and openproject for funded projects. After a review of the performance and user feedback we will be discontinuing openproject and will be testing a new tool in the coming quarter before we make the switch to leantime.

We have been assisting the communications offer and the communications and engagement team in their efforts to update the website.https://perma.earth/

objectives 2025

• Put together the invoice for existing services due for renewal

• Maintain services up and running, run updates, backups, troubleshoot as needed –
◦ this includes Nextcloud accounts for Next Steps Project teams and other CoLab working groups
◦ keeping perma.earth up and running including troubleshooting, maintenance, hosting transfer from Collective tools to DC Services
◦ keeping slack up and running or an alternative communications tool
◦ keeping up existing email addresses used by colab communications
◦ keeping up baserow for NS project

• Increased digital tool awareness for CoLab participants (includes demos)

• Team reporting

2025 outcomes

September Update

We are continuing to provide the services to the CoLab.

Final Update

We continued providing digital services that met the needs of the colab striving for a high ethical standard while maintaining great value.

resources created

contact links

digitalcircle@proton.me

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 : complete

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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

We are currently working with two client projects, one in Democratic Republic of Congo and one in Malawi, with others in the pipeline. Each of these projects is taking their own path to evaluating their work, and discovering and communicating their impact. With one client, we meet weekly online with ‘homework’ each week, with the other we work more organically via WhatsApp and a shared digital folder. We are using some existing evaluation and impact tools and resources, and creating new approaches as needed.

This project team is actively learning throughout the engagements and is documenting learning, innovation and challenges. We are working closely with the Permaculture Impact project.

December update:

We have continued to work with Nutritious Trees project in DRC and Malawi Schools Permaculture Clubs to design their evaluation plans. We have been integrating with the Permaculture Impact project to develop data collection tools for these projects, which will be made available for other projects to use via PI. Examples are a simple food diary and food availability chart, both of which are suitable for people with low education levels and easily translatable to local languages by local project teams. We’ve also been working with MSPC to test a free digital data collection tool (Kobotoolbox) which can be used to collect data in the field via mobile phone or tablet (even offline and uploaded later).

We are pleased to have also started working with Anasi project in Uganda and ZimConserve in Zimbabwe, and also welcome Shegenerators in Kenya who we are in the processing of on-boarding. Following their application form and initial consultation, Anasi and ZimConserve have both been working on Change Pathways Maps for their projects.

objectives 2025

1. Be supporting or have supported seven to ten client projects by April 2025.

2. Setting up and managing micro-grants, as and when needed -for out of pocket expenses eg data / travelling costs

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

Outcomes 2025

September Update

We are still supporting several community-based permaculture projects to develop their evaluation and data collection plans. We are running Action Learning Groups and providing 1-1 help as needed.

Final Update

The Impact and Evaluation Support project has worked with seven grassroots community permaculture projects, providing tailored support to build their capacity to evaluate their work. The projects are located in Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe. We have produced seven case studies, each one describing one project and their evaluation story.

During the project, we developed and tested action learning processes for grassroots projects to develop their own outcomes evaluation plans. We designed and ran Action Learning Groups (Change Pathways Mapping, Make a Plan and Soil Evaluation) which helped participants to make progress and created space for peer-to-peer dialogue and learning.

We collaborated with the Permaculture Impact project, weaving our processes with their online courses, to best serve our participants. Throughout the project, we gathered extensive feedback on our processes, and existing Permaculture Impact courses and resources, all of which have been improved in response. We also co-created (with participants) several new tools and resources including a Simple Food Diary, basic templates for production and income records, a Sustainable Development Goals Mapping template, and a Soil Testing Evaluation Plan template. These tools are under Creative Commons license and multilingual. The first versions were written in English and French, but we are slowly building up our language library with the help of our participants (Swahili, Spanish, etc.). We also ideated several other tools and resources, which we hope can be fully developed in future.

This process helped to build a list of outcomes and indicators that are common across these types of project. We also supported projects to experiment with our tools and with 3rd party tools, e.g. the Kobo Toolbox data collection tool so that we can innovate in this space.

One of our proudest achievements is that we worked together with small projects that do not have many resources and together we managed to do great things! Even though they often faced technical and digital challenges, our joint work has created a meaningful impact in their own communities. We were very impressed by the appetite and aptitude of participants and we wish to express our gratitude to them for their commitment and for going with us on this journey.

resources created

contact links

contact@perma.earth

Welcoming and Community Garden Conversations

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

Outcomes 2024

objectives 2025

Outcomes 2025

resources created

contact links

Related

Communications, Outreach and Engagement

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

Outcomes 2024

objectives 2025

Outcomes 2025

resources created

contact links

Related

Open Badges / ICAAFs Project

Team

Area

Objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

Objectives 2024

Outcomes 2024

Objectives 2025

Outcomes 2025

resources created

contact links

Related

Digital Circle Provision of Services to the CoLab

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

outcomes 2024

objectives 2025

2025 outcomes

resources created

contact links

Related

Impact and Evaluation Support for Community-Based Permaculture Projects

Team

Area

objectives 2023

OUTCOMEs 2023

objectives 2024

Outcomes 2024

objectives 2025

Outcomes 2025

resources created

contact links

Related