Permaculture for Planners, Architects & Design Professionals

Building Resilient Communities Through Ecological Design: Permaculture for Planners, Architects and Professional Designers

Are you looking for innovative ways to build resiliency in your community or region? Are you planning for future food, economic and ecological needs within your community or region? Have you considered how current plans and regulations may be in conflict with creating a sustainable, resilient community?

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Join Steve Whitman, AICP, and Lisa Fernandes, Executive Director of The Resilience Hub, for an informative and interactive workshop on building resilient communities through ecological design. Using their education and experience in permaculture design and planning, they will provide:

• A framework for working toward more ecological solutions for your community or region;

• Tools to identify barriers to sustainable solutions and opportunities to create more resilient solutions that are grounded in the culture and geography of your community or region;

• A range of case study examples; and

• An overview of the existing Permaculture and Transition Town movements, how they are participatory and self-organizing and how they could be allies and resources for the professional planning and design community.

Seven (7) CM credit hours have been submitted to the APA for approval.

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The cost of this unique workshop is $125 if paid in full by March 15 and $150 thereafter. Space is limited and we expect this event to sell out.

We will convene at 8:30 am on April 3rd (coffee/tea and morning snacks will be served). A 45 minute lunch break is scheduled to allow for you to enjoy a lunch you bring from home or purchase from a local food source in the East Bayside Neighborhood of Portland.

The Resilience Hub is located on Anderson Street in Portland Maine, just behind the Marginal Way U-Haul, very close to I-295. Ample off-street and street parking is available at no charge.

Co-sponsored by The Resilience Hub (http://resiliencehub.wordpress.com/), Resilience Planning & Design LLC (http://resilienceplanning.net/), American Planning Association Northern New England Chapter (http://nnecapa.org/) and the Maine Association of Planners (http://www.meplan.org/).

More About Your Facilitators:

Steven Whitman, principal in Resilience Planning and Design (http://resilienceplanning.net/) LLC, is a professional planner and educator based in New Hampshire and his work is focused largely on community planning and sustainability issues. Steve is a certified permaculture teacher, and is also an adjunct faculty member at Plymouth State University and Colby Sawyer College. Steve frequently teaches courses in the US and internationally in environmental planning, community planning, permaculture, natural building and sustainability. Steve lives in Plymouth, NH and participates in a wide range of grassroots efforts that promote community resilience.

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Since 2003 Steve has partnered with Jeff Taylor of Jeffrey H. Taylor and Associates to provide planning assistance throughout New Hampshire. This work was primarily focused on land use issues including the preparation of community master plans and land use regulations, but also includes facilitation, research and consensus building.

Lisa Fernandes began her professional resilience-building career in the Policy & Program Development Division of the City of Olympia Public Works Department. She organizes the 1700+ member Portland Maine Permaculture group and is the Director of its non-profit home, The Resilience Hub (http://resiliencehub.wordpress.com/). She is a trained facilitator and permaculture designer who believes that the strategies of resilience-building, re-skilling and re-localization are among the best we have for creating vibrant communities and for navigating future challenges.

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Lisa sits on the boards of the Eat Local Foods Coalition (ELFC), the Permaculture Institute of the Northeast and on the Grantmaking Committee of the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. Lisa participates in the Portland Mayor's Initiative for Healthy Sustainable Food Systems. She is also active in the Cape Farm Alliance, Slow Food Portland, Portland Food Coop, Hour Exchange Portland and is a Master Food Preserver and Master Composter. Lisa attended Boston College and The Evergreen State College and has worked in the public, private and non-profit sectors, including a stint owning a software design firm with more than 100 client companies across the region. Lisa and her family are actively converting their 1/3 acre property into a demonstration site for resilient and abundant "post-carbon" living.