Earth Day: Center for Faith and Action Activities

Earth Day: Center for Faith and Action Activities 
On April 22, Earth Day, there will be a fundraiser concert for The 
Center for Faith and Action at James Lees Presbyterian Church.  The 
wonderful Four Shillings Short, a husband-wife duo who sing Celtic and 
world music and play up to thirty instruments, will be performing. 

The Clifton Green Fair will include booths/tables of information and 
demonstrations from a number of local Green groups.  There is no 
charge for any group that wants to participate with an exhibit. 

Clifton Unitarian Church is providing food for sale for the event. 

Participating groups would set up at 5 p.m. in order that those 
attending can wander and learn prior to the start of the concert at 
seven. 

Groups that might want to participate can  contact by phone at 
741-1129.

Straw Bale and Natural Building Training in March and April: Scholarship Opportunities for Sustainable Clifton participants and others

Green Go Construction:

Straw Bale Building Workshop

Who should attend?

Anyone interested in learning more about Green Housing & Building options:

Architects, builders, sustainability educators, and green enthusiasts in general.

Attendees with participate in all aspects of construction, but workload is designated around physical ability. Scholarships are available - see details below.

Did you know? The first straw bale building to be built in Jefferson County is scheduled to be built in Clifton in 2008. Neighbors are invited to participate in the training and in learning how to do cooperative, low-cost high quality natural building.

Session Activity Weekend Schedule:

Preview Luncheon: Thursday, March 27 12-2 pm Lunch & Learn

Adena Center at Webster University, Louisville: Galen Bldg, Zorn @ River Road Open to the Public, $5 Lunch / Donation requested. Please RSVP: 502 410 2786 or http://www.webster.edu/louisville/CERegister.html

Course Sessions:

One: March 29-30 Foundation and drainage

Two: April 5-6 Wall construction, door and window detail

Three: April 12-13 Roof construction and assembly

Four: April 19-20 Earth plaster and stucco

Cost $400 per person/ $500 per couple for entire workshop

$125 per single weekend/ $200 per couple

Foxhollow workshop upcoming in 2008

Scholarship Discounts of 50% available- see below.

Location:

2700 Hillside Terrace

Louisville, KY 40206

*Spring follow up-" Design and interior finishing" to be announced

For more information and to sign up:

http://www.enpoweredhome.com/Events.html

(502) 608-9145

This Workshop qualifies for CEU credit for the Program in Sustainability Studies of the Adena Center at Webster

University.

Half price discounts available:

Students
participating in the Adena Sustainability Studies Program and partner community projects such as Sustainable Clifton, Sustainable Business Networks, Sustainable Louisville and others are eligible for scholarship support for a 50% discount on the course cost.

If you would like to apply for CEU credit for this course, the Certificate in Sustainability, or scholarship support please contact 502 410 2786 or adena@webster.edu

More Information: www.adenacenter.blogspot.com

Ecological Working Group: Clifton Gardens Action Days Pics

Compost Bin Building Days

Planning Meeting for Sustainable Clifton Arts & Gardens at Sacred Heart Village site:

Changing Transportation: The Keystone Issue for Sustainability And Economic Justice

from http://www.faith-action.org/classes.htm

Changing Transportation: The Keystone Issue for Sustainability And Economic Justice

JAMES LEES MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Center for Faith and Action
1741 Frankfort Avenue (Frankfort Avenue at William Street)

Transportation infrastructure and lack of public transportation options are prime factors in our oil dependence, loss of agricultural lands, poverty and economic difficulties. reordering our transportation priorities will save lives, drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, serve the underserved and protect our economy.

David Coyte is a social and environmental activist who is on the boards of the Knob Valley Audubon Society, Protect Our Woods (Indiana) and the Coalition for Advancement of Regional Transportation.

Thursday, April 1, 7-8:30 p.m.
Donations welcome

David is also the Economic Dimension Working Group Co-chair for the Sustainable Clifton project www.sustainableclifton.blogspot.com

JAMES LEES MEMORIAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1741 Frankfort Avenue (Frankfort Avenue at William Street)

To register, call us at 896-0172, write us at 1741 Frankfort Ave, Louisville, KY 40206, or eMail us at directorfaithaction@yahoo.com

Sustainable Clifton Ecological Working Group: Clifton Gardens Update 3/22/08

Sustainable Clifton Ecological Working Group: Clifton Gardens Update 3/22/08

First: The weekly Clifton Gardens/Ecological Working Group meeting will be cancelled this Sunday, Mar 23 since it is Easter and the Clifton Center will be closed.

We will meet again the following Sunday, Mar 30, 4 pm at Clifton Center, 2117 Payn Street, Louisville, KY 40206. Come all and bring any design ideas you may have, since we now have permission to use a parcel of the land at SHV! ( Whit, Sam, and Matt will be in Austin Texas for an ecological learning opportunity at the Rhizome Collective, and therefore will not be present, but the rest of the Garden group will be at the Clifton Center - and new faces are very welcome! ).

Update on Sustainable Clifton - Sacred Heart Arts and Gardens Site:

On that note: Matt Edwards, Whit Forrester, Sam Kaviar, Mike O'Leary, John Eberman, Emily, Boone, Jarrod Orange, John Baker and David Silverman met with Martha Workman from Sacred Heart Village this Thursday to receive formal permission to use a parcel of the land adjacent to the Sacred Heart Village campus.

Not only did we receive verbal permission to go ahead with the construction of the garden, but our permission is for use of a piece of land which is much more suitable in every way: it is larger, flatter, receives more sunlight, is at a lower elevation than the SHV campus (so rainwater collection should require no pumping), is more accessible to the SHV residents, less intrusive to neighbors, and is in full view of a main road. Attached is an aerial photo showing the two sites. The one that we have permission for is the larger rectangular outline adjacent to Payne St. Note that it is roughly 4 times the size of the smaller, earlier proposed site.

Next Sacred Heart planning meeting: Thursday, March 27 at 4 p.m.
We will be meeting again with SHV to discuss more detailed plans for the layout and interfacing of the garden with SHV this coming Thursday, March 27 at 4 p.m. Feel free to offer up any design ideas you might have to present at that meeting. Just give Matt a call at (502) 649-6104. Perhaps we can arrange an open brainstorming session prior to the Thursday meeting.

Next Workdays:

Sunday, April 6th 11 AM - 4pm at the Sacred Heart Site, followed by Ecological Working Group Arts and Gardens planning meeting, 4 - 6 p.m. across the street from the Clifton Center, 2117 Payne Street, Louisville, KY 40206.

I'm ready for some workdays! How 'bout you folks? I (Matt) would like to propose a compost system construction day as a learning and community-building opportunity for anyone who would like to get involved. Whit, Sam, and I will surely have some good ideas form our visit
to the Rhizome Collective in Austin by then. I'm thinking Sunday, Apr. 6th starting at 11 AM and running up to the usual meeting time at 4PM-- perhaps we could have the meeting there on site? As I said, bring all of your ideas! This is a process of co-creation and mutual learning!

Matt

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Social Working Group March Meeting

Hello Social Cliftonites!

The first Social Working Group meeting was great: it didn't involve any working at all!

About 20 people attended the potluck, where we shared good food and great ideas for spreading a sense of community. Several group members shared the sentiment that a strong social fabric not only makes for a more pleasant place to live, but a good base for addressing serious ecological and other issues.

Here are ideas for neighborhood activities people shared:

1. participating in community gardens
2. beautifying vacant lots as a group (a.k.a guerrilla gardening)
3. putting together a street fair
4. organizing card playing groups (hey, how about a tournament?)
5. planting fruit trees to improve neighborhood snackability
6. community canning of fresh foods
7. throwing an apple cider festival
8. finding a "sister" neighborhood, like a sister city
9. highlighting opportunities to treat the neighborhood as a living
and learing campus
10. attending community events - movie screenings, etc - as a group
11. meeting neighbors through coffee invites
12. walking groups (with or without our pets)
13. a neighborhood book club
14. more potlucks

Anything sound like fun? Thought so. Share your ideas, join in. Write to
socialclif...@gmail.com.

Next potluck, we'll see what sorts of resources we each have as community members to make some or all of these things happen for our burgeoning ecovillage.

Here's the initial potluck invitation:

Our potluck will be 6-7:30 pm this Sunday March 16 at the Clifton Center (right after the ecological group meeting in the same place). It's on Clifton between Payne and Frankfort, behind Caffe Classico. We'll chat and eat and discuss some of our ideas for creating a more social neighborhood.

Please bring any and all ideas, and some friends and family, too, enough food for your party + three. We'll talk about what we like, what we'd like to change, and what groups of people you feel like you want to connect with but don't know how.

We'll finish at 7:30 on the dot.

For those who can't make it, it would be great if you sent along your ideas by e-mail so we can make sure they're not left out. We'll move the meeting days and times around so that everyone has a chance to participate.

PLEASE RSVP to jenniferola@wildmail.com

Okay. See you then.

Sustainable Clifton: Economic Working Group - Action/Learning Update

OVERVIEW:

Growing Wealth in Clifton: Producing and Adding value to natural and raw materials is the real source of wealth. Agriculture is a basic wealth producer. Canning would be adding value. Metal collection and  resource recycling is the urban form of mining. Cleaning, repairing, and marketing would be the value adding. We send lots of valuable resources  out of our neighborhood in the waste stream. Let's stop that and create jobs instead. As far as meeting to discuss these things, when is the next Garden meeting. We could piggy back on that.

Clifton Farm and Market - definitely a garden project. Focus on Marketing, Advertising, and Funding.

Clifton Kitchen: Commercial Kitchen for canning operation for Gardenand neighborhood produce. Can sponsor such events as the Clifton Cider Festival, which utilizes neighborhood fruit trees, and Coordinate canning and drying of Garden produce.

Clifton Currency: This idea has growing appeal for me. I envision a Clifton "Fort Knox" where we back up our currency with a stockpile of copper, aluminum, lead and other real resources that can be gleaned from the neighborhood. We can issue paper money - Clifnotes - or even mint our own coins. Storage of bales of metal can be incorporated into neighborhood structures like the community garden or even sculptures. THis could be fun and creative. Clifnotes could be exchanged for services in the neighborhood, neighborhood produce or services provided by other sustainability projects.

Clifton Home Services: A gutter cleaning, lawn care, and handyman service utilizing neighborhood youth in a job training scenario. Should be grant money available.

Clifton Car Coop: A local, membership based, vehicle rental for those that don't want to own a vehicle but need a car or truck occasionally. Need a location, maintenance/management staff and 4 vehicles. I envision one pick-up, one van, and two small efficient vehicles: This one will
take research on other systems, insurance, and work withan existing auto service company in neighborhood. A parallel issue would be making Clifton side streets legal for golf carts and "wheel chair" vehicles. We have an aging population that lacks mobility options.

Clifton Energy Production: There are a number of ways to go here: Rooftop photovoltaics and hot water, investing in renewable energy production somewhere in Kentucky, or even drilling to the large natural gas deposits that underly the region. (This last one would really piss off LG&E.) Getting LG&E support of improving HH efficiency is possible with new legislation, but would take negotiations and grant writing.

Clifton Farm: We can do alot with local land and greenhouses, but investing in agricultural property within an hour of Louisville should be considered. Someplace that could also serve as a vacation spot for investors is an added value. Swimming lake or river would be a great plus. THis could be created as a relationshiip with an existing CSA farmer.

Clifton Recycling and Repair: Mining the waste stream for metals and usable goods. Need a facility for storage, sorting and repair.

I am sure there are other ideas that deserve attention, but this will give us a place to start discussions.

David
893-5172

I have spent some time thinking about this and have come up with the above ideas. There might be lots of additional interest if they attached to, and developed around the Community Garden project. They work well with the garden and others can remain in the pipeline until we have someone show interest in them.

This, slightly edited, report from David Coyte, co-coordinator of the Economic Dimension Working Group of the Sustainable Clifton Ecological Design Education project. His email is dcoyte@juno.com. If you would like to comment or make suggestions on this report, please click the "comments" link below. If you would like to get regular updates or participate in this Working Group, please subscribe to sustainabilityeducation@googlegroups.com and contact David at the abbove address or phone number. Thanks!