TCN Newsletter Issue 9: December 2014
Village Infrastructure Guild
“ReInhabiting the Village” as a Living Resource
Jamaica Stevens is the founder of ReInhabiting the Village, a community resource hub, a book in the making, and tool for the contemporary social change catalyst and global villager. I have been following ReInhabiting the Village for the last few months and watching it evolve has been a privilege. I caught up with Jamaica recently and asked her some questions about how to get involved with the project, and what to expect from it.
TP: Hey Jamaica, How’ve you been? I know you are a very busy bee right now, and I want to thank you for cross-pollinating all of these projects in the global transformational community.
JS: Thanks, Taylor! I am full indeed. It feels like a powerful time of potential, and it asks for full engagement along with a deep willingness to do the personal work to stay strong and flexible in these times of change. I do my best, and yet I am always growing, learning, always a student.
TP: When did the ReInhabiting the Village project begin, and what inspired you to take this on?
JS: The idea for this project first came in March of 2014, from the consultancy work I was doing with projects and festivals who were shifting their approach to fortify healthy team relationships and whole systems thinking organizational practices. As I was working with groups I was creating PDFs full of information to guide our process. As I worked with several groups, I also began to access the wealth of documents, PDFs, manuals, etc. that other groups were using to approach similar ideas. And through my work helping to establish the Tribal Convergence Network, I have been honored to learn of so many amazing people who were developing resources and working to create solutions in their particular field. This all lead me to be inspired to bring together these documents, these collaborators, these projects to share with a wider audience what I was seeing emerge. To tell a collective story of people doing what they can with where they are to create change in their lives.
TP: What exactly can we expect from ReInhabiting The Village? What can we touch, read, learn from, and share?
JS: “ReInhabiting the Village: Co-Creating our Future” is a multi-media platform. The Book is filled with heartfelt and practical stories of the ingredients necessary for building healthy communities and a healthy planet. Using a rich graphic element filled with visionary art and inspiring photography, this article format book features the voices of our contributing authors who share their wisdom and expertise.
The workbook component has worksheets, useable template documents, practical tips and checklists, and other tools for building strong projects, events, and organizations.
The online resource directory is a data base and informative tools that will have filtered categories based on a cross sector of interests from permaculture, urban gardening, holistic education, alternative energy, art, relations and facilitation, governance models, living economics and more! This directory will feature projects and organizations who are working to share innovative and inspiring approaches to these subjects.
TP: What is going on right now with this project? What stage is it in?
JS: We are in the final two weeks of our kickstarter and actively calling for people to get involved and support. Check out our link at http://kck.st/1rWpaei.
Concurrently our Editorial team is in the submission phase contracting and receiving the works from our contributing authors, and in the design phase of the overall graphic layout and visual art curation with our Graphics Team. We are also working with our web developer to look at the layout for the resource directory and gathering up resources that will be featured.
If people have resources they want to feature, they can contribute as well! We welcome all aligned voices and wisdoms! Go to our website at http://reinhabitingthevillage.com/resource-directory-submission-form/ and share your aligned project or organization, tribe or community.
TP: What is the timeline for completion? When can we start learning how to ReInhabit the Village?
JS: Well, the project will launch in May of 2015, yet we are ALWAYS learning how to ReInhabit the Village. This is not a new way of living and not a new idea. To live in interconnected, simple and healthy ways, creatively and in right relationships with each other, actively stewarding our shared home is the original way humanity flourished. The Village is an expression of compassion, of caring for each other’s well being. Of devotion to our future generations and honor of those who have gone before us. The Village is knowing we are safe and our needs are cared for and we belong to a people and a place that we are bonded to, woven with. It is humbling to admit that we NEED each other, but now more than ever we have to see that this is a global truth. We all have gifts and we all have challenges and it is only by sharing our gifts,supporting our growth, and finding a way together through these challenges that we are all lifted up as vital and strong people committed to a thriving and abundant planet for all.
Photo Credit: Dustin Engelskind
TP: How can people reading this interview contribute or help?
JS: Join us on this journey and help us reach our Kickstarter goal on Dec. 13th!
1. Visit: http://kck.st/1rWpaei
2. Become a Backer
3. Share the Project with your friends and networks and ask them to become backers!
4. Like the Facebook ReInhabiting the Village Community Page
TP: Thank you so much for your work, and I want to mention how excited I am about the revolutionary resourcery soon to be traversing the globe. We are so glad that this digital living document will be coming into being that it will be able to be built upon and expanded with more wisdoms and voices with every new connection that we make in the years to come: from indigenous elders around the world to youth and multi-sector leaders from all quarters!
JS: Thank you so much for supporting this project! I am so grateful for all of the involvement and community excitement. It really does take a Village to Raise a Village!
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Article Written / Interview Performed by
Taylor Proffitt
TCN Community Member, TCN Newsletter Team
Network Ambassador at Project Nuevo Mundo