Why are the Courses Free this year?
We have been so glad to have such interest in our courses this season so far!! But the really important thing is WHY are we holding these courses for FREE?
We believe that creating spaces for sharing knowledge and skills builds resilience and inclusion to make our communities stronger.
But why for free?
We are piloting a few courses this season to test demand and process as a part of our transition to a Community Interest Company (CIC) focused on building community connection and resilience using food as a lever for systems change. Your feedback from these early sessions is valuable for defining our direction of travel and reining our course offer.
This knowledge should not be paywalled. Key skills must be accessible to all: an individual’s ability to participate should not be limited by our current social and economic system. We will be aiming to get grants and donations as time goes on to support more courses.
Knowledge of ancestral skills that are crucial for our survival and mutual thriving should not be gatekept, by people or corporations. Food growing and seed saving are a part of our common human heritage.
I read recently of an initiative that framed their sessions as being offered “in the spirit of The Gift”. I love that.
I believe that we need to shift away from our dependence on capitalism, which only values us according to the monetary value that we bring to the economy (ie: a few individuals). This narrative diminishes the contribution of crafts, of heritage skills, of art, and of the labour of women and minority groups. Sharing knowledge for free starves the machine of predatory capitalism (which only wants our money, attention and energy, and wants us isolated and unhappy to buy more and more) and instead pivots to building community, relationships and mutual flourishing.
Some courses will be run by local experts joining us to share their knowledge and will charge a fee or request a ‘pay as you feel’ contribution as a gift in exchange for their time and travel costs. Trust me, they are worth every penny.
This is an unconventional way to approach an initiative, but we have to rewrite the playbook to refocus on what really matters: community, connections, ecological systems and the health and wellbeing of the web of life. That’s what building resilience means.
Is there a session or subject that you'd like to see offered at Little Woodbatch? Get in touch and let us know! Email daphne@littlewoodbatch.co.uk