Jonah Fertig, of the Cooperative Development Institute, will present an exploration of cooperative models that are meeting community needs and build resilient community ecosystems. Participants will hear stories of other cooperatives and be inspired to incorporate new ideas, models, and concepts into their cooperative design. We will look specifically at cooperatives in Maine and the Northeast and how these cooperatives are building democratic, participatory leadership structures for community energy, food systems, makers spaces, housing and more. 

An original founder of Cooperative Design Lab, Jonah is working as a cooperative developer with Cooperative Development Institute in their rural cooperative services program. Jonah co-founded Local Sprouts Cooperative in Portland, Maine and helped to develop it from an idea into a successful worker-owned cafe, catering business and learning programs. He has been a perennial initiator of cooperative projects including the People’s Free Space, a community space and project in Portland, ME, Burdock Gathering, a community learning gathering in Central Maine, and Greater Portland Community Land Trust, to name a few. He lives at Celebration Tree Farm in Durham, Maine with his partner and two children.

In this talk Jonah will talk about some cooperatives, how they make decisions and what structures and policies they have in place to help them function day to day.

All campaigns are important and complicated on some level. To be successful, we each have to be able to distill our campaign down into something we can explain quickly. During this webinar, Claire Miller of Toxics Action Center will walk through easy, tried-and-true methods to make your story compelling, concise, consistent and control your message. After exploring these principles, we'll share share examples and provide a structure to write your own story. Participants will leave with a concrete way to write and pitch their story.

Facilitated by the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, this webinar will explore innovative ways that grassroots groups can use grant funding to support their work in each of the Fund’s five key issue areas. Participants will hear directly from past grantees and learn how a small grant can equate to big impact in your work. We will also hear from organizations like the Vermont Community Garden Network, about available technical resources and ways they can best support your work.

“What could an inclusive community garden, food forest, or permaculture project look like?" 
“How can we attract and retain members from different class, race, and gender backgrounds?”
“Why should we focus on creating a more just, equitable food system?”

This webinar is targeted towards community groups across New England that have asked themselves one or more of these questions. Facilitated by Shane Lloyd of Class Action, this webinar will help groups address the above questions, identify barriers that diminish their work and offer tools to build alliances for social change. We will also hear from groups working on the ground and learn from their first-hand experiences in this movement. 

This webinar is brought to you in partnership with our friends at the Vermont Community Garden Network.

Are you interested in getting below the headlines to hear what really happened at the Paris COP 21 negotiation and what it really means for Climate Protection?

You can't manage what you don't measure! The first step to a community energy efficiency plan is benchmarking  current energy use. Sign up for this webinar for an update on ENERGY STAR's free benchmarking software, Portfolio Manager, now easier to use and more fun than ever!

This webinar will cover the nuts and bolts of developing a co-op. Panelists will focus on business planning, legal and governance structures, and financing as key topics for consideration. The session will provide participants with an overview of relevant co-op resources and technical assistance providers from across the New England region. 

A resilient gardener is one who takes the time to observe, interact with their garden, continually gain a renewed understanding of that garden’s quirks and challenges. As community and volunteer leaders, we can take lessons from the resilient gardener and build the capacity for our people and programs to respond and adapt to change. Libby Weiland of the Vermont Community Garden Network will explore how can we build integrated solutions that allow us to keep functioning, recover quickly from challenges, and adapt to change. Participants will learn how to creatively solve problems and find solutions using a resilience framework.

Homeowners and businesses interested in installing a solar system have multiple options in New Hampshire. They can purchase a system outright, finance-to-own, or they can lease a system from a third-party owner. There are pros and cons to each strategy: this webinar will give consumers the tools they need to make an informed decision about what option make sense for them.

This webinar is part of the Local Energy Solutions Training Series.

In this webinar we’ll explore strategies to connect and integrate cooperative economics with grassroots political power-building for a more just and sustainable economy. The panelists explore connections between community organizing and building models for the future that meet our own needs.