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Activist
Community volunteers are welcome to come and participate in any of the day-to-day activities at SAVI. We see any action that builds sovereignty and sustainability as a silent protest against oppression and exploitation. That means regardless of whether this is your first time volunteering, or you come everyday, you are an activist! |
Stewardship
Stewardships are designed for activists who desire to make a 2-6 month commitment to working at SAVI. Respectful and conscious stewarding of the land is foundational for our collective future. SAVI stewards are essential to this process. |
Membership
Cooperatively managing a project takes ongoing hard work; our Members fully embrace and embody that commitment. In addition to their hard work as stewards of the land, Members use democratic processes and cooperative principles to ensure SAVI’s long-term sustainability. |
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Teach22 Training Paradigm
Cooperative education elements are infused into everything we do. The Ujima Initiative (TUI) focuses on formal cooperative education including business management, finances, operating agreements, and how to navigate future challenges. SAVI needs wise stewards, and Teach22 pushes them to develop skillful hands and minds right now. Much like a language immersion course, activists begin farming and building the moment they step on site at SAVI. Every lesson is experiential. Our goal is to have activists and stewards:
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Sustainable Sustenance Farming Training
Activists and stewards are immersed in experiential farm training from the first day at SAVI. We fold them into daily farm tasks immediately, only delivering the basic didactic information necessary in the moment to have folks understand what they are doing. They quickly grasp farming in general, and the specifics of the farm projects at SAVI designed to feed and support SAVI stakeholders. From here, SAVI Members engage new activists and stewards in farming education circles. There, activists and stewards study the inter-related dynamics of land, growing, and food, while strategizing how to implement wise farming practices that are in alignment with sustainability and land regeneration. |
Basic Farm Building Training
When training and educating a builder, we find that it is helpful to intersperse demonstration, hands-on practice, and technical explanation in a 2:3:1 ratio. Demonstration - Building is a “team sport”. Activists and stewards are the extra set of hands to hold a post while it is being anchored, or the extra set of eyes on the level while a door header is being hung. They get to be an active participant in the process while they watch and learn as a task is being completed. Hands-on Practice - We highlight the word “practice” because the groundwork to mastering a skill lies in allowing the aspiring builder to repeat the task themselves in a low-pressure environment. Basically, we give activists the freedom to fail, and the chance to learn from those mistakes. We aim to keep our structures simple and low-cost to eliminate technical and economic barriers to those who want to build. Technical Explanation - “You’ve seen it done. You did it yourself. Now we will tell you why you did it!” Linking the previously embodied training to mental frameworks solidifies that particular knowledge and understanding “plank”. Activist builders can now stand on that plank to reach back and teach others, or build additional skills and knowledge through practice on this new foundation. Building Curriculum - SAVI builders move through the following stages to strengthen their basic skills:
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