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.
We're looking forward to the Spring Expo to be held on Sunday, May 5 at the Museum of Art and History in downtown Santa Cruz. We'll present some 30 classes and a TimeBank SkillShare.
Our intention is to hold three Reskilling Expos yearly in Winter, Spring and Fall. 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
We're configuring TimeBank Santa Cruz as an experiential and participatory learning opportunity for exchanging services without money, as a charitable and educational social program.
These skills may otherwise be difficult to practice and, therefore, would be lost. The social permaculture, how we make and keep agreements with each other, is a reskill.
The TimeBank as a social benefit program syncs perfectly with the Reskilling Expo's mission of preserving our cultural heritage by teaching traditional skills.
TimeBanking may also offer us potential for carbon-reduction via its supportive social network which meets some of the participants' social and psychological needs for recognition, esteem and belongingness, needs that might otherwise be met through material consumption.
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.
We'll continue to convene talented educators in their midst 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.
TimeBank Santa Cruz is a System Of Reciprocal Service Exchange That Uses Units Of Time As Currency
• Earn TimeCredits by providing service.
• Spend your TimeCredits in the network.
• Use the TimeBank website to keep track.
Now accepting applications from individuals and nonprofit organizations
TimeBank Santa Cruz is a project of the Reskilling Expo.
Upcoming Events:
Spring Expo: Sunday, May 5
10:00 to 4:00
Fall Expo: Sunday, September 22
10:00 to 4:00
Support The Reskilling Expo
The Reskilling Expo is currently registered with the IRS as an educational public charity 501(c)(3) corporation. Your donations are tax-deductible and support the Expo and its projects: the Santa Cruz Grows Seed Library and TimeBank Santa Cruz.
