Community
EarthWalk Vermont is proud to be partnered with a variety of community organizations around Vermont and New England. It is through these invaluable partnerships that EarthWalk is able to form relationships of mutual stewardship of our natural and human communities.
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2011 EarthWalk Partnerships:
Antioch Graduate School
Barre Literacy Center (Teen Parent Program)
Central Vermont Community Action Council
Central Vermont Council on Aging
Goddard College
Green Mountain Film Festival
Montessori School
Rite of Passage Journeys (Pacific North West)
Sterling College
Twinfield Union School
Twin Valley Senior Center
University of Vermont
Vermont Folklife Center
Vermont Youth Conservation Corps
Willowell Foundation
Below are a few descriptions of our community partner programs.
Barre’s Family Literacy Center-Teen Parent program
& Central Vermont Community Action Council (CVCAC)
NATURESKILLS 2010-2011 and 2011-12: an EarthWalk partnership with Central Vermont Community Action Council’s Family Literacy Center in Barre. Through the Family Literacy Center, pregnant and parenting teens (and staff) participate in NatureSkills, a programming on select Thursdays from 9:30-2:00 throughout the school year. This community program is made possible through generous funding from the A.D. Henderson Foundation, as well as, major support from CVCAC.
As an integral part of the Center’s holistic approach to education, as well as supporting academic credit toward their high school diploma, NatureSkills supports young women in strengthening and deepening their relationship with nature and self. This is an educational process that has profound implications around their healthy development as parents, community members and stewards of the earth.
The Teen mothers are guided by three generations of EarthWalk mentors; Angella Gibbons, Tomasen Weinbaum, Anika Klem and Elder, Jane English. We participate in activities such as fire building and tending, outdoor cooking, tracking, medicinal plant identification and earth crafts ~ all building confidence and skills while imbuing a sense of belonging in the natural world. Ways of celebrating inspired by indigenous cultures such as birthing bead ceremonies for expectant mothers and solstice traditions are incorporated into programming as are routines such as thanksgiving circle, singing and sit spot time. These traditions provide the space and context for participants to view the world in a different way and to feel and express their gratitude and wonder.
NatureSkills programming is also integrated with a Vermont Arts Council grant, Seeds of Change. Facilitated by local herbalist, Sandra Lory and area artists, the project celebrates the use of local plants and herbs throughout the seasons, culminating in the creation of a mural to be hung in downtown Barre in the summer of 2011.
Central Vermont Council on Aging
& Twin Valley Senior Center in Marshfield
Earthwalking for Seniors
A group of students, families, elders and staff from EarthWalk Vermont make a monthly visit the Twin Valley Senior Center in Marshfield.
We join the seniors for lunch and share songs, crafts, and stories of our experiences at EarthWalk. We also listen to the seniors’ stories of when they were young and enjoying the natural world. And then we walk out on the land, with a few seniors who are eager and able, to share and learn together about nature in the different seasons.
EarthWalking for Seniors is a health and wellness initiative in partnership with the Central Vermont Council on Aging. If you are a senior or other community member interested in getting involved, please contact Angella Gibbons at:
angella@earthwalkvermont.org
