College Programme

Welcome to the Off Grid College, a four day short course in practical sustainable living.

Aquaponics in Permaculture

with Graham Wood, Gihan Soliman

Learn the essentials of Aquaponics by designing a system best suited to your needs, selecting plants to grow, care of fish, and incorporation into a permaculture design. The session structure is flexible to meet participants needs, but the core topics covered will be:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Aquaponics
What is Aquaponics its History and Relevance Today
Biofilters and the Nitrogen Cycle
Aquaponics System Design Options
Use of Alternative Sustainable Tech.

Changing minds: what works?

with Marc Gardiner

Fri 10th, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm at Resilience College

Presentation: An introduction to strengths-based & solution-focused (SF) thinking - origins in therapy, strong evidence-base in any change work Small group practice: having a go at one or two core solutions focused questions in real conversations with each other Why does it work? A few clues from neuroscience Implications of SF for change movements & conversations http://www.zebra.coop/ Future-thinking: what will change look like?

Ecobrick workshops

with Lucie Mann

Fri 10th, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm at Resilience College

Ecobrick workshops involve people making their own ecobricks. Hopefully by the end of the session there will be enough ecobricks to make a stool. Learning the skills involved and discussing on plastics and how to bring this to their communities. Ecobricks are a way to show people just how much plastic is in our everyday lives. And offers a way for the conversation to be started on how to change. We hope the workshops will give people skills to take back to their communities and share the knowledge.

knowledge that can be taken home and shared with everyone in their community. a completed ecobrick a deep understanding of why we must change from reliance on single use plastics a skill and knowledge to share with their communities a personal checklist of environmental understanding , and it's reliance to the uk

https://www.ecobricks.org/

Introducing Systems Journalism: Creating an Ecosystem for Independent Reporting

with Brendan Montegue

How the system of capitalism continues to interact with natural systems - and whether this will cause irreversible change to the climate system - will determine the history of humanity. So can 'systems thinking' transform the way journalists understand and report this world of systems?

Quote: ''It’s incumbent on us as a community to develop our own media and to be very clear about whose interests it serves and how it serves those interests."

Brendan has recently published an article on this topic ahead of launching the idea at Off Grid Festival. https://theecologist.org/2018/jun/05/introducing-systems-journalism-creating-ecosystem-independent-media

Practical Solar Energy

with Ian Westermoorland

Sat 11th, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm at Resilience College

"Ever wondered just what goes on in inside a solar panel? Ready to take clean power into your own hands? Stumped by watts, amps and volts? Fascinated by the future of energy? Spend a couple of hours with our us and you'll walk away with hands-on experience of making a solar panel or bike generator, plus a deeper understanding of what renewable energy is - where it comes from, and how to make better use of it."

Participants will learn:

The basics of electricity: voltage, current, power How solar panels work How to build your own solar PV systems Understanding the future of energy: where it will come from, and how it will be used"

https://www.demandenergyequality.org

Sustainable event management of festivals and community events

with Russ Spollin

Thu 9th, 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm at Resilience College

History of sustainability in an events context Sustainable event management systems Case studies (of a variety of festivals and community events) on sustainability performance Current and future trends and actions within the events sector Questions

You can also find Russ's Sustainable Event Surgery, solution focused drop in sessions in the Village Hall http://offgrid-festival.co.uk/resilience-village/village-hall/

The Cannabis Revolution: One year on

with HempTank

Sat 11th, 9:30 am - 11:00 am at Resilience College

HempTank was conceived at Off Grid last year. We would like the opportunity to share our knowledge and experience with the rest of you. We will be educating people throughout the weekend on the subject of hemp.

Time for Climate Rebellion!

with RisingUp!

Sun 12th, 9:30 am - 11:00 am at Resilience College

Rising Up! offers an introductory workshop that covers the basics of Rising Up! itself, the importance of movement care, how to become more engaged and find solutions to the crisis we are in. We will also discuss the research that has been done to get us to where we are now, the methods and the strategy of how to effectively create change, the different roles and forms direct action can take and why it is not only important but also “The most fun and meaningful thing we could do with our lives. Changing ourselves and our togetherness, as we change the bigger picture. Join us as we figure this out- our great adventure”.

We also are going to be bringing creativity and play with our interactive and informative Walkabouts, an example would be the Activist Library, the Sandwich Board Collective, Democracy Anywhere and various skits that highlight the role of direct action and climate chaos. Through this we wish to have a presence throughout the festival and encourage conversation and reflection on some of the matters that really matter!

https://www.risingup.org.uk/

Universal Basic Income, Commons Rights, and the Charter of the Forest

with Myc Riggulsford

Sat 11th, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm at Resilience College

Starting from the Charter of the Forest this talk will cover our Commons Rights, sustainable living techniques and a new economics based on fair access to vital services for all members of society, especially those currently marginalised and excluded. We will look at the nature of land rights and how we are losing our Natural Capital, prompting a discussion about the way we want society to progress in future, by including not excluding artists and makers, smallholders and off-gridders by providing them with access to the basic necessities of life via a Universal Basic Income. These ideas are currently being talked about at the theoretical level by many governments and countries around the world, especially those that recognise that young people are economically excluded and that robotics and automation threaten to further concentrate wealth and remove work opportunities. We are also losing our Natural Capital through biodiversity losses, and the ability of the world to sustain us. Off Grid is the right place to discuss this.

Participants will learn: • What Universal Basic Income offers and why we should be entitled to it today • A legal basis for our rights to Universal Basic Income under the Charter of the Forest • Sustainable living practiced in the past, especially by the Celts, and why we should still do this today • A new economics framework, Doughnut Economics, and why GDP isn’t a measure of real growth • Feminism, Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services • What Commons Rights exist today, and what rights we all should have • How the Charter of the Forest can build community resilience and may help fight GM crops and other threats