We are writing as a family to share with you the film project we are undertaking, as well as ask for your support.
What?Our family is embarking on a 40,000 mile round the world journey through 40 countries by land and sea, filming a multitude of communities, projects and pioneering individuals who are applying permaculture design and other deeply considered models of sustainable living. We will be producing a fun and valuable, educational documentary film series which will be released online regularly throughout the journey. The film’s purpose is to serve as a powerful educational and inspirational resource highlighting practical solutions for individuals and communities everywhere. The series is intended both to stimulate those people already involved in the multitude of fields connected to conscious, considered and community-based living, as well as engage those new to these fields.
We will be relying on our previous knowledge and experience in the fields of permaculture design, natural building, alternative education, personal development and community living to engage critically with what we come across. Considering a wide range of components of holistic living exemplified by permaculture projects, eco-villages, research institutes, sustainable communities, indigenous cultures and pioneering individuals, we shall distill successful elements of design and interrelationships, focusing on practical and positive solutions.We are very interested in processes, hearing and documenting what has been challenging for people and communities, and highlighting the best practices distilled from enduring experience. By intelligently investigating working solutions, we intend to promote Permaculture and related concepts as truly viable and professional responses to our current world circumstances.
(Im)Permanence film project is directly focused on documenting successful and replicable living systems which are supporting abundance around the world.
Why?The project is part of a larger design. We have been vision questing for over a year around a family project we wish to begin implementing in the US in 2013. In order to stack functions and functionally interconnect our interests and desires, we intend to use this project as a platform to refine and crystallise our vision and build a network of support and connection around the globe whilst creating a comprehensive resource for a huge network of people.
Logistics:The journey is scheduled to begin in October 2011 in Scotland, UK, ending in the north-east of the US in Summer 2012. (You can find more details at the (Im)Permanence website, which is nearing completion.) Our fund-raising campaign to raise $22,000 necessary to complete the project begins as we launch the site in the next fortnight and ends 29th May 2011.
Our Strategy:We are running a crowd- sourcing campaign to raise the necessary funds for this trip. We desire to have regenerative design touch all aspects of our lives, and engaging with economics in this creative way is aligned with our highest ideals (our collective potential for positive world change) and directly relates to the message of (Im)Permanence...together we can create so much more!
Our crowd-sourcing fund-raising campaign offers various “rewards” relating to the scale of donations from individuals, making this a mutually beneficial and engaging model, rather than a one way transfer of energy!
Statistically, only 5% of people respond to such campaigns, so to raise the $22,000 total necessary to complete the project, (the equivalent of 440 people offering $50) we need to reach a large number of potential financial supporters. We begin the campaign with our friends and contacts, with the hope they shall carefully consider the appeal and share personally with their network. We wish to send details of the campaign out across interested networks, hence seeking backing from appropriate organisations, such as yours!
How it relates to You! We recognize and appreciate the work of your organization as contributing to the benefit of all. We would like to share mutual gratitude and enthusiasm with you as we seek creative and appropriate solutions relevant to the daily life of individuals and communities across the globe. We are currently seeking the backing of several organizations like yourself to help spread the word across wide networks, to ensure both the project’s success and distribute the valuable resource generated by the project.
How you can offer support:We deeply appreciate your consideration in offering support in the following ways:
- Most importantly, spreading the word about the project to your wide network of contacts and subscribers. Share a link and information about the the project and crowd-sourcing campaign with your network, perhaps website presence or inclusion in newsletters and network emails.
- Agreeing to be an official supporter for the project, enabling us to list the logo and link for your organisation on the (Im)Permanence website as a chief sponsor. (We anticipate a following of around 10 000 people by the end of the project)
- Donating $1 or more to the project via the (Im)Permanence website. Companies or organisations offering $500 or more of financial backing will be offered prominent exposure on the project home page and film credits.
- Sharing ideas and resources with us including: particular topics you would like to see addressed in the film content, names and contacts for projects you recommend visiting along the intended route (see map detailing the intended route on (Im)Permanencewebsite) and other ideas you think would make the film series more wonderful and successful in its mission to serve as a valuable learning/teaching resource.
- As a backing organisation your logo and a link to your website will be featured on the home page of the project website and in the credits of the releases. We anticipate a following of over 10, 000 people from our extended networks and those of the people we meet along the journey.
- Collaboration in the creation of and access to valuable educational resources, including film, interviews, photography and written materials to be open sourced and utilised throughout action learning networks worldwide.
Thank you for taking the time to read this
Towards our future!
Richard, Michelle and Grace
Who?
Richard Perkins www.integralpermanence.org Currently makes a living teaching Permaculture creatively, along with selling the odd yurt. Richard is an active Permaculture teacher/ practioner and consultant in the UK and abroad, and a registered Diploma Tutor for UK Permaculture Association. Having studied up to MSc level (Integrative Eco Social Design- Gaia U), Richard holds a Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, HND Organic Crop Production and Horticulture with extensive self- studies in the academic fields of Anthropology, Sociology, Ecology and Philosophy. Richard has been developing an ever broadening practical and digital skill- flex in diverse aspects of self reliance and regenerative design. Recently concentrating on teaching PDCs in the UK and abroad, integrating strong elements of community building, NVC work and combined Action Learning Internships, Richard aims for a middle way between "heart" and "mind" styles of teaching he has come across. Richard has worked on extensive system design and implementation from food forests to water cleansing and irrigation systems, business design to soil building, edible landscaping to community building through to integrative system development. 2008-9 was spent living/ working/ managing the Panya Project (a sustainability and education site) in Northern Thailand whilst working on his MSc in Integrative and Collaborative Eco Social Design and Communication with Gaia University, where Michelle and Richard met. Now living on the canals in UK with their baby daughter Grace. We are currently planning this journey to end up in the US where we plan to settle and implement our vision, Triskele Farm.
Michelle Asher Born in the US, Michelle attended Washington University, St Louis, where she studied pre-medicine, majoring in Psychology and minoring in Dance, a lifelong passion. After working on an ambulance in Boston, she decided to pursue alternative medicine. During this time, she also began practicing insight meditation and non-violent communication (NVC), with a particular interest in sharing these passions with prison inmates and ex-cons as a member of the Freedom Project community. She received a Masters in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine in 2007, after which time she travelled to Southeast Asia to practice meditation at several monastaries/meditation centers in Burma and Thailand. At this time her interest shifted to applying these practices in daily life and found a home at the Pun Pun community in northern Thailand, focused on seed-saving, self-sufficiency and natural building. Teaching yoga, conscious movement and introduction to NVC during permaculture courses at nearby Panya Project, Michelle eventually moved there to help facilitate food forest implementation and deepen her practical application of permaculture alongside her partner, Richard. Michelle remains passionate about communication, dance, healing/helping and gaining practical clarity in everyday life and employs these skills in rural UK where she is currently a full-time mom and part-time acupuncturist, five rhythms dance instructor and non-violent communication facilitator. She is inspired by the potential of cooperation and collaboration possible when living with others equally committed to living from the heart and being of benefit.
Grace Asher Born 22 October 2010, Grace is rapidly integrating diverse knowledge streams and practical skill-flexes, enthusiastically embracing the cultures she has already encountered at her young age. Despite still being wobbly on her own limbs she sings, snowboards/ extreme sledges avidly, and happily rode the train across north Africa on her most recent adventures. Spending most of her time nestled sweetly in her parents bosoms, Gracie is already expressing keen desire for TOTAL world peace, advanced food forest design and natural swimming pools. She is also very cute!
