Fisher Center and Fisher Center LAB Present
Social Design Thinking at the Intersection of Land and Food
Monday, April 24, 2023
Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
How can we thoughtfully implement lasting change at the intersection of land and justice? The regenerative social design process offers a rigorous and ecologically-inspired framework to develop such whole systems solutions.7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
This session describes an overview of the regenerative design process, and then dives into two social change case studies. The first is a food justice example of designing the Jail-to-Farm-to-College an Employment Program at the Franklin County House of Corrections in Greenfield, Massachusetts. It illustrates a process for articulating goals and analyzing social constraints and opportunities within complex institutional dynamics.
The second case study unpacks the Regenerative Communities Program, a project of the Ecological Citizen’s Project. We’ll learn about the program’s whole systems aim of creating land, energy, food, and income sovereignty and its “real world" execution within social constraints.
Attendees will have time to consider a challenge at the intersection of land and food in their own community, and then apply a social design framework to identify resources, constraints, and concrete next steps.
Jocelyn Apicello has taught high school students in Japan, people experiencing homelessness in NYC, and currently teaches courses in public health, research methods, community engagement, climate justice and food sovereignty at William Paterson University and in the New York State prison system with the Bard Prison Initiative. She also serves as an academic and garden advisor for her students experiencing incarceration as the Urban Farming & Sustainability Faculty Advisor. Jocelyn received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Brown University in 2000 and her DrPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health’s Department of Sociomedical Sciences in 2013. Jocelyn is co-founder and Co-Director of the Ecological Citizen's Project.
Abrah Dresdale (she/her), MA—often called a force of nature—is a social designer, consultant, and educator. Regenerative frameworks and social justice practices inform Abrah’s culture shift work, namely through the organization she co-founded and directs, Regenerate Change. She has been Faculty and developed new courses for the Sustainable Food and Farming program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (since 2011) and for Omega Institute’s Center for Sustainable Living (since 2015). She was the Founding Faculty and Coordinator of the nationally acclaimed Farm and Food Systems program at Greenfield Community College. She later established and led the Jail-to-Farm-to-College & Employment program in Massachusetts’ Franklin County Jail. As an anti-racist and network weaver, Abrah has helped to catalyze numerous networks focused on systemic change, from local food sovereignty projects to bioregional climate justice efforts to a national prison food justice movement.
For more information, call 860-992-6472, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/social-design-thinking-at-the-intersection-of-land-and-food-tickets-603931143307.
Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
Location: Reem-Kayden Center Laszlo Z. Bito '60 Auditorium