A month has sped by since our launch party. During this past month, in addition to continuing to meet local experts in natural building, water catchment, permaculture and architecture, we have officially welcomed Anita Budhraja and Jeff Goin onto our Advisory Council. Read more about them here.
Our Articles of Incorporation have been accepted by the New Mexico Secretary of State’s office, clearing the way for the 501(c)3 application to begin.
One of our board members broke ground on a prototype cob tiny house! This house has steel door frames, aluminum windows and a metal rafter structure. The custom woodstove is designed to be loaded from the outside. So cool! (I’m sore!)
Next up comes establishing a podcast where we get to interview all the amazing people we are meeting and thereby (re)create the space between the environmental illness community and the natural building community. This is, I am learning, an old alliance. As I deepen my learning in this direction, I keep meeting people who have been deeply inspired by legendary architect, Christopher Alexander.
Lest we be mistaken for refined academics, it’s important to remember regularly that it is the lived-experience of homelessness that has us working on this topic of clean, affordable housing. It is not just the possibility that a clean-housing community may come into being, it is the mandatory nature of the increasing need that we can see developing year by year. We must create this so that people can survive…and then thrive.
The next learning curve will be about financial structures and how Community Land Trusts become funded and established. What is the process? What are the obstacles? How can we succeed? How have others failed?
I continue to seek out vicarious lessons so that our learning can build on the life lessons of others. Feel free to reach out to tell us what you know, what to look out for and who to look up.
Onward!
Holly
crookedforestinstitute.org 