Occidental Arts and Ecology Center

OAECs 2023 program accomplishments are mostly expressed through ourmany inter-related programs, projects and partnerships. Arepresentative sample of this program work includes:1. The Resilient Community Design / Permaculture Program,2. The WATER Institute and Beaver Restoration Project,3. The Mother Garden Biodiversity Program,4. The Wildlands Program,5. The Movement Building Retreat Program,6. The Performing Arts Program,7. OAECs partnership with dozens of racial, social, economic,environmental justice organizations and alliances on education,training, advocacy and alliance building campaigns, and8. OAECs Fiscally Sponsored Projects ProgramEach of our programs, projects and partnerships use the same methodsand strategies to achieve our public benefit mission, including:1. We Model Resiliency - OAEC is a resiliency demonstration site,modeling dozens of practical personal and community-scale solutions tocommon challenges in the sustainable management of soil, water, foodproduction, the restoration and preservation of biological and culturaldiversity, and more effective ways to self-govern and manage economy.OAECs programs benefit from our more than twenty five years ofexperience in developing and caring for our own 80-acre site, as wellas supporting hundreds of other land-based projects and organizations.2. We Train Changemakers - The transition to a just and environmentallysustainable economy will only be achieved if more individuals becomeecologically literate "changemakers." OAEC continues to developworkshops and advocacy campaigns that help train, support and inspireindividuals and social movement leaders to apply an ecological lens totheir existing social change work.3. We Help Build the Capacity of Communities to Transform TowardResilience - OAEC strives to achieve a "social change multipliereffect" by training and building the capacity of whole communities tobecome more effective agents of rapid change. We work to fosterecological literacy and to empower diverse communities - schools, localgovernments, public agencies, foundations, environmental and socialjustice organizations, farms and ranches, and policy coalitions - todesign their own place-based strategies to create the just transitiontowards a more regenerative culture and economy.4. We Work to Change the Rules of Governance and Economy - We work tolegalize and require sustainable economy, and to make illegal anddis-incentivize activities that subvert it. Sometimes on our own, butmost often through broader advocacy alliances, we seek to change policyin the arenas of governance in which we are most likely to succeed - acity or county council, school board, water agency, or statelegislature or agency - on issues that are ripe for change and move ustoward a just and sustainable future.