The Land & Leadership Development Community

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The Land and Leadership Development Community is for those who want to continue learning in an ongoing community of practice that applies framework thinking to regenerative land management, policy work, human and environmental health, and planning at a local, regional, or global scale, while working on their own inner development as a leader. We define leadership as anyone working to make things go well in the world, whether their efforts are recognized or not. Please contact Didi Pershouse before paying if you have questions about whether you are eligible to apply. We welcome donations to our scholarship equity fund by anyone wishing to support this work.

Read on for more details.

The Land and Leadership Development Community

We are a group of people who share a set of aims and a living-systems approach to achieve those aims.

We know:

  • We are smarter and stronger together than we are alone
  • There is a power that people develop when they count on one another that can lead to wiser decisions, and more lasting change in the world.
  • Continual learning, personal development and community development are not only meaningful and fun, but also essential for true ongoing regeneration of living systems (ecosystems, economies, health care systems, food systems, political systems, etc.)
  • The work of other species and the flows within and between living systems are mostly invisible to us unless we: practice asking better questions and observing the world around us more deeply; and are willing to question our assumptions, monitor results of our actions, and continually learn and develop ourselves.

As a community, we are growing a shared understanding of how living systems work (and how to create conditions that allow life to do its work) based on our own experiences of energies within those systems. (Energies = flows of water, carbon, sunlight, and nutrients; the work of all species; human beliefs, behaviors and patterns; evolution and biodiversity, etc.)

If you have spent hours playing with rocks in a mountain stream, you know that you can redirect flows of water--and use the power of water to change an entire landscape--by moving a few stones. Likewise, by seeing relationships and understanding the nature and power of sunlight, grazing animals, human beliefs, microbes, etc., we can find points of intervention that redirect whole systems (economies, public health, food systems, etc.) to create landscapes and communities that work for all life, rather than getting distracted by working on parts and pieces.

Our international community gathers together weekly for a 2-hour session, alternating mornings and evenings, so that people can choose to attend weekly or every other week. See below for a list of dates. All meetings are recorded, and members have access to all our previous recordings.

Didi Pershouse designs the events, and serves as a resource to the group as a whole. We work together not just as a learning community, but also as a “meta” learning community that sometimes attends other events together. We will hold regional retreats in the future, as opportunities for in-person gatherings open up.

COST

The cost for a six-month membership for those in the Global North economy (eg: North America, Europe, Australia, NZ, parts of Asia and parts of the Middle East) is $450 or 600 recognizing that there are different economies within the Global North. The cost for those in the Global South economy (eg: Africa, India, South America, Southeast Asia) is $30 or $60 for a six month membership, recognizing that there are different economies within the Global South. (Please be respectful of our intentions and do not sign up for a Global South payment plan if you live in the Global South but have a Global North salary/inheritance/lifestyle.)

Many of our current members adjust their payments and contribute to an equity fund to make this work. Add on extra to your payment below, or you can donate through PayPal. We all benefit from being able to learn about how things work in different areas of the world.

Please contact Didi Pershouse if you have questions about what makes sense to pay.

ARE YOU READY?

This may not be the right time in your life for this kind of work. Our discussions are highly focused, and we work towards integrity, personal agency, and being fully awake. This requires a strong center from all participants and a commitment to the work of of self assessment and ongoing personal and community development. Please consider whether this is a good fit for you.

A few of the many WRONG REASONS TO JOIN:

  • You want to collect good ideas that you can put into a workbook. (This work is living work. The design changes every time.)
  • You like talking about theory, but aren’t currently working on any projects related to this work.
  • You want a place to think about projects, but don’t want to work on self development.
  • You want an expert to tell you what to do and give you lots of great advice
  • You are looking for a place to process lots of emotions (we have other communities that are great for that.)
  • You want someone to be the great Earth Mother for you and take care of everything.
DATES AND TIMES FOR 2024
Our schedule currently alternates Wednesdays 5:30 PM Eastern USA Time Zone (New York USA) and Thursdays 10:30 AM Eastern USA Time Zone. See below for upcoming dates. This schedule may change. To convert these (Eastern Time Zone/New York USA) times to your local time, click here for a handy converter.

We meet every week, with alternating morning and evening times to accommodate different time zones, since we are an international group. We generally have at least two meetings per topic, always with a new discussion and perspectives. Come as frequently as you can. The more you come, the more capacity you will develop, but there is no need to "catch up" between meetings unless you want to (this is a community of ongoing reflection and practice, not a sequential course). Meetings are recorded, and community members have access to current and previous recordings.

Click here for a list of upcoming dates.


Your Instructor


Didi Pershouse
Didi Pershouse

Didi Pershouse is the author of The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities and Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function. She is a contributing author for Health in the Anthropocene, Climate Change and Creation Care, and the Regenerative Economy Collaborative.

As the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine, she developed a practice and theoretical framework for systems-based ecological medicine—to restore health to people as well as the environmental and social systems around them. After 22 years of clinical work with patients, Pershouse now travels widely in North America and Europe as a speaker, teacher, and consultant.

Pershouse is a skilled facilitator, who brings people with diverging views together into effective working groups with common aims: improving soil health, public health, food and water security, and regional resilience through simple changes in land management. Both online and in-person, her participatory, inquiry-based workshops engage farmers and ranchers, policy makers, investors, and scientists in living-systems thinking and deep listening, to allow for emergent strategies. She was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day in 2017.

In 2018, she founded the Land and Leadership Initiative, and the "Can we Rehydrate California?" Initiative. She is currently a Planning Commissioner for her town, a member of the Vermont State appointed Payment For Ecosystem Services and Soil Health Working Group, a working member of the Northeast Healthy Soils Policy Working Group and is on the board of directors of the Soil Carbon Coalition and the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. She led a successful effort to conserve the Zebedee Headwaters Wetlands while serving as a Vermont Conservation Commissioner.

She is currently working on projects with the UN-FAO Farmer Field School program and the Climate Resilient Natural Farming Initiative in Andhra Pradesh, India (involving over 800,000 farmers). You can learn more about her work at www.didipershouse.com


Course Curriculum


  Schedule and Zoom link
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  RECORDINGS (Not for Sharing, Please!)
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