Welcome to the Home Page of the Santa Cruz Reskilling Expo
Our mission is to strengthen the reskilling movement locally by regularly teaching sustainable daily-living skills, to promote skill-sharing for a resilient common future and to enhance the development of self-reliance in Santa Cruz County.
Our intention is to hold two more Reskilling Expos in 2012, one in Spring on May 20 and another in Fall on September 16. Each Expo will be a day-long symposium of workshops designed to impart skills that increase food security, conserve water and build local resilience.
Fourteen-minute documentary of the Fall, 2011 Reskilling Expo
TimeBank Santa Cruz received an enthusiastic public welcome at its Debut Presentation on February 5. Twenty-five new members signed up that day. We're launched. We plan to become an active, thriving and inclusive local institution.
A TimeBank is a system of reciprocal service exchange that uses units of time as currency. We can strengthen resilience through this network wherein members trade services hour to hour.
We're pleased to be partnering with the Museum of Art and History for these events. Under the leadership of Director Nina Simon, the MAH is undergoing a transformation. Their vision is to become a thriving, central gathering place for people who are passionate about art, history, ideas and culture.
In their midst, we'll continue to convene talented educators to teach best practices and local resilience. We enjoy working with this trusted community partner.
The Santa Cruz Grows Seed Library
is now open at the Museum of Art
and History at
705 Front Street in
downtown Santa Cruz. There's a second Collection at the
Live Oak Public Library,
2380 Portola Drive, Santa Cruz.
Our mission has been to create a free urban seed project committed to increasing the capacity of our community to feed itself wholesome food by offering seeds and education.
We contend that the lending of garden seeds will encourage urban food production.
The Seed Library celebrates
biodiversity through the time-
honored tradition of seed saving,
nurtures locally-adapted plant
varieties, and fosters community
resilience, self-reliance and a culture
of sharing. It operates on the honor
system. You become a member
when you withdraw seeds to plant.
We ask that you commit to growing
out and returning one variety per
year.
We depend on you to treat the seed
drawers with care. Read the
guidelines in the Library binder.
Each person may withdraw six
packets per season. Don't take more
than you need. Sign your seeds out.
Endeavor to learn Seed Saving so
that you can contribute. We need the
relationship of Library to Public to
be one of trust and reciprocity.
We encourage all members to learn
basic seed saving techniques.
Returned seed will allow us to keep
the Library well-stocked. We've
convened a Grow-Out Collective of
experienced gardeners who will
commit to growing certain varieties
out for Library use. New members
are always welcome.
“It is in the nature of seed to be saved and exchanged. Saving seed is an ethical duty.”
–Vandana Shiva
Why reskill?
We reskill to rediscover hidden talents, to reclaim lost abilities, to unearth the wisdom needed to create sustenance and bounty. We reskill to restore, cherish and preserve our quality of life and our environment.
Toward a
definition:
Reskilling is a remembering, reclaiming and revivifying of skills that were known fifty to seventy-five years ago. Reskilling imbues the community with the wealth of shared local knowledge of how to do, make and tend things oneself. It is a regenerative, restorative and ecologically-based methodology. All reskilled individuals would know how to grow some food and harvest some rainwater. Reskilling suggests relocalization; it brings the production of food, water, energy and essential goods closer to home.
The mission of TimeBank Santa Cruz is to build community resilience by trading services hour for hour among our members.
TimeBank Santa Cruz is a project of the Reskilling Expo.
Upcoming Events:
Spring Expo: Sunday, May 20 at the MAH
Fall Expo: Sunday, September 16 at the MAH
Support The Reskilling Expo
The Reskilling Expo is a registered nonprofit fiscally sponsored by the William James Assoication. Your donations are tax-deductible and support the Expo
and its projects: the Santa Cruz Grows Seed Library and TimeBank Santa Cruz.
