SHIFT BRISTOL - Key Persons
Alan Kellas has worked as a doctor, in self help, complementary and hospital NHS settings, mainly as a community psychiatrist for adults and children with complex needs. He did Shift's Practical Sustainability Course 2013-2014, and has been involved in West of England partnerships between health care and nature organisations, Green social prescribing, medical education about Blue health, and has a small mentoring practice for people and their projects. (Blue Social Prescribing / Place & Ownership)
Alex worked as project manager of the Practical Sustainability Course from 2019-2022; after completing the PSC as a student. Alex works as a human rights translator and interpreter for Amnesty International. She is also a board member of Sims Hill Harvest Community Supported Agriculture project, and a resident member of the Merry Hill Self-Build Housing Development. She continues her life-long joy of learning through applying permaculture principles to her allotment and love of foraging.
Alex Toogood lives at Tinkers Bubble, an off-grid land-based community in South Somerset, where they work the land without using fossil fuels. The 40acre site includes coniferous and mixed broadleaf woodland with coppice understorey, grazed orchards, and vegetable beds. Woodland management involves felling trees using hand tools, coppicing, extracting timber by horse, and running a steam-powered sawmill. Land activities are managed communally, and the residents live in self-built houses in the woods. Alex is also a curator of the UK Communities Conference; with a particular interest in how we can re-imagine and experience-otherwise what it means to be human in relation to land, ourselves, and each other. (Woodland Management / Community Living)
Alice Cutler Clarke has around 20 years experience working for social and environmental justice and is interested in how people can work together collectively. She co-founded of Trapese Popular education collective, Do It Yourself, Handbook for Changing Our World. She worked at Bristol Refugee Rights for 11 years where she was Head of Services. She has just completed an MSc in Public Health and is now working with Kindling on violence prevention programmes. She is also on the board at Windmill Hill City Farm. She has lived for ten years in housing cooperatives in Bristol. (Co-ops)
Alice Gray is a permaculture farmer, teacher and consultant who helps to manage a community vegetable farm (Tyddyn Teg) in Snowdonia, North Wales that serves over 200 families via a weekly veg scheme. She is a certified Permaculture Educator who both organises and teaches full PDC courses and enjoys co-operating with and supporting other teachers. In addition, she works as a permaculture consultant in the international development sector and has been part of projects in Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Kashmir, South Sudan and Ireland. Alice gained much of her permaculture experience during 10 years living and working in the Middle East (primarily in Palestine) from 2006-2015, during which time she helped found and run an experimental permaculture farm as well as qualifying as a teacher and working as a consultant. She returned to the UK in 2015 to help with the establishment of Tyddyn Teg and has since enjoyed honing her skills as a grower and learning to function as part of a workers' co-operative - applying permaculture design to the visible and invisible components of a productive community farm. She lives in a caravan in a muddy field with her partner and 3 cats, alongside other Tyddyn Teg co-op members. (Permaculture : In action & Water)
Becs Griffiths from Rhizome Clinic holds a BSc (Hons) First class degree in Herbal Medicine. The National Institute of Medical Herbalists also awarded her the Arthur Baker Award for best final clinical examination in the UK and the Dorothy Carroll Award for top final clinical examination at UEL in 2009. In 2010 she established Rhizome Community Herbal Clinic, an established & trusted herbal clinic in Bristol, providing the highest quality healthcare using plant-based medicine. She continually furthers her herbal and clinical knowledge and has studied Appalachian Herbal Medicine with Alabama herbalist Phyllis Light, Chinese diagnostics and Chinese herbs with Dedj Liebbrant, at the Intuitive School of Herbal Medicine with Nathaniel Hughes. She is currently taking an accredited antenatal and doula training course with Amanda Rayment and Dominique Sakoilsky. (Herbal Medicine)
Andy Hamilton Andy Hamilton is a locally based forager and author. He's written a number of books including The National Trust's First Time Forager, the best selling Booze for Free and his spiritual, scientific and experimental delve into our past New Wild Order. He's been teaching on the Shift course for well over a decade and in Bristol for two, he specialises in teaching about the edible, medicinal and mixological uses of local, everyday plants and getting to know yourself through connecting with your local landscape. He's a keen and active member of the Association of Foragers and the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild. (Foraging)
Ava Riby-Williams is a queer, British Ghanaian/Indian visionary, living in London. She acts out life purpose as a Creative Facilitator, Artist and Wellbeing guide who celebrates diversity and finds divinity in all of life. She uses arts and healing based practices to guide groups into deeper contemplation of issues concerning identity, oppression and liberation- on personal and collective levels. (Group Dynamics : Power and Privilege)
Ben Gibson is the founder and head grower at The Fungi Folks, a mushroom farm nestled in the hills of South Wales. He was initially captivated by the medicinal potential of many native fungi, and has since fallen deeper down the Fungal rabbit hole progressing from his bedroom cupboard laboratory onto the farm where he now runs The Fungi Folks. (Mushroom Cultivation)
Ben Moss studied permaculture on the Sustainable Land Use course at Ragmans Farm in 2002 taught by Patrick Whitefield. He co-founded Bristol Wood Recycling Project in 2004, where he still works, as Director and Co-operative Secretary. Ben lives with his family in a caravan in the woods on their smallholding in the Chew Valley where they operate a social enterprise - Strode Waterfall Land and Story Project - and the early stages of a forest garden and agroforestry production system. He's also co-founder of Chew Valley Plants Trees. (Woodland Creation / Circular Economies)
Beth Lindfield has taught on the PSC for the last three years, where she has brought to life the craft of willow weaving and basketry for our novice student weavers. She is a considered and compassionate tutor, who understands the needs of people as well as she understands the unique qualities of working with willow. (Craftsperson / Weaver)
Brian Williamson has been leading the coppice restoration program in Westonbirt, National Arboretum for the past twenty years, having started his coppicing life as a full-time hurdle maker and charcoal burner. Previous to this he worked in mainstream forestry and wildlife conservation. He was a founder member and early Director of the National Coppice Federation (NCFed) and regularly leads workshops and seminars on the benefits of coppicing'. (Woodland Management)
Bryher Bloor Alongside ShelterCraft Bryher works for the Landworkers Alliance, providing supporting farmers to move towards regenerative agricultural practices. In her previous work Bryher was a Campaign Manager for the Green Party - working to elect Green leaders, influence policy and get issues of sustainability and resilience into the public dialogue.
Bryher worked as project manager of the Practical Sustainability Course from 2017-2021; fresh from co-ordinating volunteers for the Permaculture Association International Convergence and several years working with forest schools. She has since worked as a Campaign Manager for Green Party during its 2021 election campaign and is now an Outreach Coordinator for the Landworkers Alliance's 'Future Farming Resilience' project. Through collaboration and connections fused during Shift Bristol roundhouse builds, Bryher co-founded ShelterCraft with a team of experienced builders, teachers, organisers and facilitators in 2022.
Job Titles:
- Designer and Director of Whitefield Permaculture
Caroline Aitken is a permaculture teacher and designer and director of Whitefield Permaculture courses and design consultancy. She teaches and speaks at venues around the UK and is passionate about soil regeneration, agroecology and healthy, sustainable food. She has previously worked in horticulture, small-scale farming, green catering, illustration and design. Her current work involves designing permaculture and agroecology systems for farms, estates and eco villages, and she was the Programme Development Lead on BSc Regenerative Food and Farming at Schumacher College, Dartington. Caroline currently lives on a smallholding with her family on the edge of Dartmoor, Devon where they produce fruit, vegetables, honey, eggs and firewood for their home. She trained and worked with Patrick Whitefield (author of The Earth Care Manual) for several years and co-authored Food From Your Forest Garden with Martin Crawford. She is currently completing a PhD. (Permaculture Design / Forest Gardening)
Charles Soares After completing his first roundhouse on the Practical Sustainability Course in 2016, he went on to pursue his passion for timber framing, natural building and carpentry with a focus on sustainably sourced local timber. Charles joined the roundhouse build team in 2017, and went on to be a founding member of Sheltercraft.
Chris Johnstone is co-author, with Joanna Macy, of Active Hope - how to face the mess we're in with unexpected resilience and creative power, a book now published in eighteen languages. He is also one of the UK's leading resilience trainers, with four decades' of experience teaching in this field. After a first degree combining medicine and psychology, he trained as a medical doctor and worked for many years in the mental health field. He has pioneered the role of resilience training in mental health promotion, coaching practice, activism and online education. More recently he's been developing the concept and practice of ‘thrutopian wellbeing'. His online courses reach thousands of people, with participants in over seventy five countries. For info see https://collegeofwellbeing.com and https://activehope.training (Regenerative Toolkit : Active Hope)
Job Titles:
- Scientist With the Met Office
Chris Vernon has previously worked as a climate scientist with the Met Office, he is a chartered engineer, member of the Institute of Physics and holds a Ph.D. in glaciology focusing on the Greenland ice sheet. Chris also holds masters degrees in computational physics and Earth system science, and studied energy systems and environmental decision making with the Open University. He now lives with his partner and two children in West Carmarthenshire on a One Planet Development in a self-built, off-grid, zero-carbon house. They produce seed commercially, have a two acre orchard, keep bees, chickens, turkeys, geese and ducks. He is also a director of Cwm Arian Renewable Energy and Wales Seed Hub and a member of One Planet Council, a voluntary organisation which supports and promotes the One Planet Development policy. (Permaculture Homestead)
Job Titles:
- Member of the Seasonal Board of Advisors
- Group Dynamics / Bristol Commoning - Lead Tutor
Danny Balla is a creative facilitator dedicated to ecological justice, community empowerment and facilitating systemic change. He explores human relationships with the world and each other through a combination of activism, participatory arts projects and community building, and has supported many organisations as a professional facilitator and trainer. His background is in immersive theatre, storytelling and film, and he is passionate about inclusive, experiential tools for participatory democracy. Based in Bristol, Danny is a dedicated Shifty and has been part of the Shift Facilitation Team for over 5 years. He is also a Director of Coexist, through which he is launching a project called The Bristol Commons - a community-building initiative bringing people from diverse groups into dialogue together through a cultural programme of events and community conversations around Rebuilding the Commons. He is also a founder of arts-activism collective CoResist, and a contributor on organisational change programmes such as Craigberoch's Decelerator Lab and a Programme Lead and Trainer at the transformative youth organisation LIFEbeat. (Group Dynamics / Commoning)
Job Titles:
- Regenerative Toolkit / Ecological Citizenship - Lead Tutor
For the last 25 years I've been exploring, through various pathways, how humanity can become ecological citizens - positively contributing to our places and ecosystems, living within planetary boundaries, and helping to create a thriving future for humanity and the wider living world. I started out as a marine mammal biologist and wildlife guide, then becoming a sustainability trainer, deep nature connection practitioner and working within the Transition towns movement to support community led climate resilience. Most recently I've been diving into the wonderful world of biomimicry - becoming a systems level Biomimicry educator, supporting people and groups to reconnect with, learn from and emulate nature's patterns and principles.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Seasonal Board of Advisors
Dr Emilia Melville has spent time working in several organisations in the community energy sector, including being a founder-member of Bristol Energy Co-operative in 2011, working for Carbon Co-op in Manchester, and Bristol Energy Network. Her work in community energy is underpinned by a systemic understanding of energy, from her engineering degree, and combines with her research on commons. Emilia is an experienced facilitator and researcher, whose interest is in democratising the changes we need to make to address the climate emergency. She is currently a director of Praxis Research and a Research Associate at the University of Bristol. (Commoning / Green Energy)
Duncan Jackson is a permaculture designer completing a permaculture design consulting course at the Regenerative design institute, California in 2010. He formed The Food Foresters in 2012, a permaculture design and implementation company, which have been involved in designing and implementing growing systems for communities and schools as well as private clientele. The Food Foresters have also run workshops in permaculture, foraging, basket making and forest bathing. (Permaculture : Permablitz Practicals, with Kasia Poltorak)
Job Titles:
- Member of the Coordination Group of Food Sovereignty UK
Ele Saltmarsh is the youngest member of the coordination group of Food Sovereignty UK, as well as the international campaign's manager and heading up the youth group of the newly formed English branch of La Via Campesina. (Landworkers Rights / Place & Ownership)
Florence Hamer is a full time traditional craftswoman and woodworker currently based in Bristol, where she; makes, sells and teaches endangered crafts; specialising in green woodworking and basketry. In 2023 she was awarded 1st place in the contemporary category of the ‘Basketry of the Year' competition held by the Basketmakers Association. And also had a basket selected for the shortlist of the ‘Bespoke Product Design' category in the 2023 ‘Wood Awards'. She is hugely passionate about endangered and traditional crafts; how they relate to our built environment and the guardianship of these skills. She has a degree in Renewable Energy engineering from the University of Exeter as well as a NVQ level 3 in Heritage Woodland Occupation. In 2020, she completed the ‘Building Arts Programme' with the Princes Foundation and QEST (Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust). (Craftsperson / Weaver)
Geoff Hannis is a green woodworker with five years experience having quit his previous job as a software engineer. He is based in Bristol at Grow Wilder with his business Tree to Treen. From his timber-framed workshop nestled in the heart of the site, he makes objects from locally sourced woods, and provides courses in green woodwork, as well as blabbing about the joys of working with your hands and why wood is so important as a material to anyone who happens to be walking by. Instagram: @geoffhannis. (Green Woodworking)
Hannah Padgett has over ten years experience involving communities in the design of the objects, environments and messages that fill their everyday lives. She has worked in areas such as street design, active travel, social health and public art, supporting key stakeholders and public champions, local authorities and institutions, businesses and individuals to come together to co-create outcomes that are informed by the people that use them. Hannah was a PSC student in 2018/19 and currently makes use of her shifty skills at the Ecological Land Cooperative as Community Development Manager, as Founding Director of Hay Regenerative Soils CIC and as an artisan cheese maker. (Community Engagement / Community Land Trusts)
Heloise Balme has been involved in sustainable food since 2018, and worked for The Community Farm in Somerset before joining Bristol Food Network, where she is a director, as well as General Manager, running the organisation day-to-day. (Food Networks / Food Policies)
Job Titles:
- Organiser at Three Hares Market Garden
Humphrey Lloyd is a grower and organiser at Three Hares Market Garden. Here they run an organic salad and veg operation founded on the principles of food sovereignty, located in the Chew Valley. Growing a broad range of produce and supplying their local community through a weekly Salad Drop scheme, as well through direct sales to restaurants and grocers. They are certified as organic with the Soil Association and we grow in a way that maximises both biodiversity and productivity. Tackling food poverty and working to improve the accessibility of high quality fresh produce is also central to their ethos. They are proud and active members of the small scale farmers' union The Landworkers' Alliance. Three Hares Market Garden is a tiny part of a global movement that is transforming our food system from the bottom up. (Organic Horticulture / Seed Saving / Local Food Systems)
Jackson Moulding has worked in the field of community-led housing over the last 20 years. His background has focused on group self-build, self-finish, environmental sustainability, practical design, energy efficiency and renewable energy. Having been part of the development team for The Yard, where he built his own home, he has supported two self-finish projects, and has set up a pop-up build space where he is constructing modular timber frame homes SNUG Homes. Through Ecomotive, Jackson provides training in construction skills, along with consultancy and group support. He was a founding member of the National Custom and Self Build Association, and the Bristol CLT, and he remains a director of the Ashley Vale Action Group, which manages the Wildgoose Space, and owns Bridge Farm. (Green Building : Self Builds /Community Land Trusts)
Job Titles:
- Sustainable Construction Strategist
Jenny Ford is a sustainable construction strategist working across many aspects of the built environment. She works with clients and stakeholders to raise awareness of and enable the transition to more low carbon, circular practice within new build, retrofit and reuse projects. She is motivated by material stories - past, present and future; the complexity of social, environmental and economic impacts; carbon literacy and supply chain/procurement practices. She is working toward bringing a circular construction material facility and building showpark to Bristol. She founded a not-for-profit members organisation called No Small Thing to showcase and share circular and regenerative activity in the region. (Retrofitting / Green Building)
Deborah Benham Hear Deborah talking on the Accidental Gods podcast. (Ecological Citizenship / Biomimicry)
Jo Kamal is an activist and farmer who cares passionately about the future of food growing. They are involved in the project Pathways To Land aims to address intersectional barriers that racialised minorities face in securing farmland, especially those with less access to finance, to make thriving and remaining in the sector a genuine possibility for them. Their podcast touches on topics of colonialism, race and the perspectives of young people today. (Landworkers Rights / Place & Ownership)
Ped Asgarian originally studied environmental sciences at University, but spent the next decade mixing travelling with the operational and commercial management of small to medium sized business in the food retail sector. Having spent seven years as managing director of The Community Farm - a CSA and social enterprise working to revolutionise and innovate the food system for the betterment of people and the planet - Ped was thrilled to accept the position of Director of Feeding Bristol. He is very excited about the impact this charity can have in solving the many issues of our local food system. Ped is also a founding member and sits on the board of Bristol Food Producers, an organisation aiming to upscale local food production and distribution. (Access to Land / Place & Ownership)
In the midst of the Covid pandemic Leanne Anyinsah was the mental health lead at a Fire Service and a part time therapist. To promote her own wellbeing and to stay connected with others and the outdoors, she met for family walks every Saturday - rain or shine! She also noticed how clients also benefitted from connecting with nature, and by working together with others and their unique set of skills and adding a spin to the average walk, they gave up their spare time volunteering to provide free walks to the Bristol community. The demand grew very fast, and they soon set up a non-profit organisation Soul Trail Wellbeing CIC. Providing free nature walks and a listening ear meant it was accessible to all, regardless of background or income. Soul Trail is now part of Bristol Green Social Prescribing, delivering varied projects to diverse communities. (Green Social Prescribing / Place & Ownership)
Joey Callender Wood is a chef and social enterprise co-ordinator, supporting and training refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, people experiencing homelessness and mental health difficulties, in kitchen settings. She has seven years experience working as a chef and baker in commercial and community kitchens, as well as project, volunteer and event management. As a socially and environmentally conscious chef and teacher, she is keen to continually learn and improve practices at the grass roots level to work towards sustainable and just food systems for all. She is Community Food, Volunteer & Engagement Manager for Coexist Community Kitchen. (Fermentation / Community Engagement)
Jose Barco has previously been a Community Organiser in Bristol in 2016, he is also a Art of Hosting practitioner, trainer, social entrepreneur and Columbian musician. Jose is the founder of Community CoLab. He is passionate about people power, social change and social justice, creating spaces for meaningful participation, collaboration and self organisation in communities and organisations in Colombia and the UK. (Group Dynamics : Power)
Jyoti Fernandes is an agroecological smallholder farmer with a micro-diary at Fivepenny Farm based in Dorset. The farm is part of a local smallholders' ‘Peasant Evolution Producers' Co-Operative' that shares processing facilities and markets the products of the members' smallholdings collectively. She coordinates the Policy, Lobbying and Campaigning work of the Landworkers Alliance and is a co-founder. She is also a spokesperson for the global small-scale farmers coalition La Via Campesina, which represents over 200m people in more than 180 countries. (International Landworkers rights and movements)
Kizzie's background is largely in freelance gardening on a domestic scale, and also growing organically and biodynamically on a commercial scale, here in Bristol, in Herefordshire and in Brighton, where she lived as a student. In 2018 Kizzie became a 'Shifty 9-er' as a student on the Practical Sustainability Course. In 2020 she left Bristol and slowly moved north into the mountains of Snowdonia - gardening, foraging, printmaking, swimming up currents - but after a colossal bike adventure along the coasts of Southern Europe, early in 2022, she has returned to Bristol to set down roots and become co-facilitator of the Practical Sustainability Course - She rocks!
Since 2004 Laura has volunteered with a host of community engagement and sustainability groups; including co-founding Transition Keynsham, Frack Free Somerset and participating in Climate Action camps and demonstrations. In 2010 she co-founded Shift Bristol with Sarah Pugh and went on to project manage the Practical Sustainability Course, until starting her family and moving to Frome in 2013. In 2020 Laura returned to Shift Bristol to help navigate the changing goal posts of the Coronavirus pandemic.
She is passionate about self-empowerment and the power of network collaboration and is driven to further the positive influence and impact of Shift Bristol's activities on the local community and beyond. In 2022 she bittersweetly took up the Creative Director gauntlet from Sarah Pugh.
Lewis McNeill shares his 14 years of urban community orchards experience, that has spanned working as the 'Fruit-full schools' project manager for London, for Learning through Landscapes, and London project manager for the Orchard Project. Lewis joined LTL in 2010 for the four year Fruit-full schools project, before also joining TOP in 2011. As well as supporting diverse communities to design, plant and care for their own orchards, he delivers training on all aspects of community orcharding, and is a tutor for TOP's accredited Certificate in Community Orcharding. A deep interest in ecologically sustainable food systems is the logical conclusion of Lewis' lifelong fascination with nature and ten years as an environmental educator and activist. He can often be found with his head buried in books and papers about soil microbes and mulch, and visiting organic orchards in his spare time. He's currently working on his Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design and is known for his passionate and engaging talks and workshops on all things fruit tree! A self-confessed chutney and cider-fiend he puts London's fruit bounty to good use in the kitchen. (Orchards / Community Engagement)
Maddy Longhurst is an experienced community coordinator, campaigner and facilitator with focus on holistic placemaking, food system resilience and the protection of soils for nature recovery, health, and increasing citywide self reliance both systemically and personally. She brings the right people together at the right time, building bridges across difference. Maddy is also passionate about engaging young people in change making given that they are the ones inheriting all the challenges we've laid out for them. She is currently a Project Manager / Coordinator the for the Urban Agriculture Consortium, Director at Tiny House Community Bristol, and Gleaning Training freelancer at Feedback - Feeding People, Backing the Planet. (Commoning / Housing)
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Teacher
- Permaculture Design / Soil & Ecology - Lead Tutor
Matt Dunwell is a teacher and consultant specialising in soil health and fertility, Biofertilisers and Permaculture Design. After owning & running Ragmans Lane Farm since 1990, Matt has gifted the farm to the Ecological Land Co-operative, and is now starting a new chapter and return to teaching. Matt and Ragmans Lane Farm have has hosted numerous courses over the last eighteen years for teachers such as Bill Mollison, Mike Feingold, Chris Evans, Andy Langford and Jude and Michel Fanton from Australia, Starhawk and Penny Livingston- Stark. Jairo Restrepo and Juanfran lopez have helped introduce biofertilisers to Ragmans which are now used on the farm to build system health. He has farmed livestock (cattle, pigs, sheep and poultry), vegetables, mushroom production and apple juicing. He co-authored the first Local Food Directory in 1997. He was a Trustee of the Tudor Trust for over 25 years. He is currently exploring regenerative agriculture methods. (Permaculture Design / Soil / Forest Gardening / Regenerative Agriculture)
Mike Feingold has been teaching Permaculture to, and learning from, communities around the world including Nepal, India, Palestine, Kenya and beyond for over 20 years. He has also been maintaining Royate Hill Community Orchard and an inspiring permaculture allotment in Bristol for most of that time. He is a founder member of the Bristol Permaculture Group and organiser of the Glastonbury Festival Permaculture demonstration garden. He is passionate about finding new and inventive avenues to redistribute local food 'waste'. Mike is one of the UK ‘s leading activist in sustainable and experimental gardening. (Permaulture)
Miriam McDonald is one of the co-founders of Holistic Restoration. A stark realisation of the disparate climatic, ecological and social crises faced by the world drove them to look for integrated solutions. As individuals, they dedicated their time to working and learning across conservation, agriculture, forestry, academia and community development. Together Mim and Rob have combined their knowledge and melded their experiences to form Holistic Restoration, a fully integrated framework through which to view our complex and myriad roles in the ecosystems that sustain us and from which we can forge a path towards regeneration. Since April 2022, they have been researching and demonstrating holistic restoration at a farm in the Derbyshire Dales. A place where Regenerative Production, Wilding and Nature Connection weave together for the benefit of people and ecosystem. (Soil & Ecology / Keystone Species)
Job Titles:
- Policy Advisor at Bees for Development
Monica Barlow is the policy advisor at Bees for Development, where they teach best practices in beekeeping to create sustainable and resilient livelihoods for vulnerable communities. They campaign for the protection and restoration of wildflower meadows and pollinator habitat in the UK, as well as supporting beekeepers who make the right choices and promoting their products. They also run inspiring courses and events. (Beekeeping)
Job Titles:
- Founding Member of Proper Job
Nicky Scott is a founding member of Proper Job, one of the UK's first community reuse centres nestled on the northeast edge of Dartmoor in Devon established in 1995. They are a Charity that aims to keep reusable items away from landfills, by putting them on sale in an Aladdin's cave of pre-loved treasures. Nicky is on the CitCN (Composting in the Community Network) and has been supporting community composting since 1995 and specifically in-situ composting of food waste with school kitchens and businesses since 2005. Nicky has designed, lectured and spoken at many conferences about small-scale composting systems. He's authored various books - mostly on composting! He is the chair of Growing Devon Schools Partnership. (Composting)
Robyn Hambrook is a Bristol-based director, teacher and performer. With over 20 years experience she is a passionate practitioner of clowning, physical theatre, circus and street arts. She has a MA in Circus Directing, a Diploma of Physical Theatre Practice and trained with a long line of inspiring teachers including Holly Stoppit, Peta Lily, Giovanni Fusetti, Bim Mason, Jon Davison, Zuma Puma, Lucy Hopkins and John Wright.
Over the past five years she has been exploring the meeting point of clowning and a deep desire to address the injustices in the world. This specialism has developed through her Masters Research ‘Small Circus Acts of Resistance', on the streets and in protests with the Bristol Rebel Clowns and in research residencies with The Trickster Laboratory. Robyn founded the Bristol Clown School. (Regenerative Toolkit : Clowning / Play)
Rosie has recently completed Shift Bristol's Practical Sustainability Course and feels she has seen "the value and power in small acts with a community as a way of building hope and resilience".
She's a craftsperson and maker, specialising in natural building and traditional heritage crafts and runs workshops for children and adults. She also works as a play worker around Bristol and is curious about how play can be a fundamental way of learning about the world and our surroundings. She often combines play with craft to show people that these traditional crafts aren't just fossils from the past, but sparks for the future to ignite new ideas and engagement.
Ruby Scott-Geddes is a foraging teacher, multi-disciplinary artist and creative educator currently based in Bristol, UK. Their foraging workshops share knowledge of wild food, medicine and craft, and nurture creative and personal connection to nature: "I think there's a lot of power to be found in foraging and spending time in the natural world: it's a source of rest, community, inspiration, and can be a reckonable act of resistance against oppressive systems that seek to dominate through division. Spending time within -and as part of- entangled ecologies reminds us we are whole, and allows us to imagine and to create more liberated futures." Ruby also works as a freelance mycological & botanical illustrator, creating illustrated foraging ID posters and other printed goods, and works by commission for organisations dedicated to social and environmental justice. (Foraging / Creative Practices)
Sara Venn is a horticulturist, social garden historian and social activist supporting food growing projects that bring folk together and provide food for local communities. She runs the relentlessly impressive and pioneering Edible Bristol. (Permaculture / Place & Ownership)
Shift Bristol was visioned and co-founded by Sarah Pugh in 2010. The Practical Sustainability Course is a progression of the annual Permaculture Design Courses Sarah delivered in Bristol and around the UK from 2004.
Sarah Pugh lived and worked in Bristol from 1997, starting out as a community gardener, fundraiser and activist. She founded the Bristol Permaculture Group - an active network of over 2,000 people practising sustainable growing and living in the city, and in 2007 set up the first Transition City; Transition Bristol.
She developed her love of teaching permaculture through facilitating Patrick Whitefield's Sustainable Land Use course and Mike Feingold's Permaculture Design course. Sarah then went on to lead her own style of Permaculture Design courses, which emphasised working together to develop productive, resilient and abundant urban landscapes and communities. She was a hardworking single mum to her boy, Albie and until 2020 she was the Lead Tutor and Creative Director of the Practical Sustainability Course.
Very sadly and far too soon Sarah passed away in 2022, after a two year journey with brain cancer. Her infectious enthusiasm, proactive no-nonsense approach, and vision for collaborative action live on through the network of the thousands of lives she touched.
Sarah-Poppy Jackson is a freelance facilitator and mentor across the UK and online, drawing on inspiration from ecoliteracy, regenerative economics, seventh-generation thinking, servant leadership, systems theory, ecopsychology, and love. Her diverse background includes an Economics degree, corporate experience in marketing, sales, and events, and managing fundraising in public and charity sectors. After the 2008 economic crash, Sarah embarked on a three-year journey through South America, exploring sustainable living and teaching. On her return, she worked in environmental education and completed a master's degree in Regenerative Economics at Schumacher College/Plymouth University. A Schumacher Institute fellow, Sarah is co-founder and director of Catalista and the Strode Waterfall Land & Story Project. She stewards land using regenerative, permaculture, and agroforestry principles, recently certified by the Soil Association. Sarah is also the author of Reclaim Your Sh t!*-a zine on our relationship with water and waste-and a mother of a three-year-old. She holds accreditation with the Natural Academy in Ecopsychology and Nature-based Practice and is a member of the Nature & Health Practitioners Network and the Climate Psychology Alliance. (Regenerative Toolkit : Nature connection practices)
Scott Baines began to learn earth and survival skills in the wilds of Scotland, Canada, USA, Sweden and Norway. Being in contact with First Nations and Sami brought him a realisation spiritual and physically. This learning led him to the (early coined name) Rewild movement where he joined a collective and formed a tribe living in the wilderness in Scandinavia from here they organised DIY wilderness gatherings to create an environment for learning to happen. He returned to the UK to study sustainable land use, with leading Permaculture and Arborist teachers. Naturally through the Arboculture learning, Scott was drawn to Forest Gardens and Agroforestry systems, he went on to work on many different community projects in creating edible landscapes. (Woodland Management)
Shannon Smith is a fruit growing expert and experienced community orchard educator. She is a long-standing member of Horfield Organic Community Orchard, where she leads learning sessions and courses. (Orchards / Community Engagement)
Simon Crook has a life long passion for making things out of wood. Since being a student on the Shift Practical Sustainability Course in 2011, he has married his carpentry skills and low impact ethos to deliver numerous natural building projects. He has developed some skills to simply relay scribing techniques required to accurately join round timbers, loving the challenge of demystifying the complicated.
Sophia Foster has over 20 years work experience of project development work with marginalized groups. Designing projects, such as, an inner-city health project, social and therapeutic growing projects, and community art projects. For the last 7 years she has worked with a grassroots land-based community of people in recovery who use their Lived experience to shape the solutions needed to create change and sustain a culture of wellbeing. She is passionate about co-designing structures and processes needed to support healthy collaborative working within horizontal groups, and the development of collective social and ecological skills needed for a resilient future. She is often to be found participating at The Haven. (Community Engagement)
Job Titles:
- Member of the Seasonal Board of Advisors
Job Titles:
- Permaculture Design Course Tutor
Tammi is multitalented, dedicated, Permaculture practitioner. Alongside her teaching, she is;
Tim Foster has been teaching organic gardening courses in and around Bristol for 25 years. He has extensive experience of horticulture, gardening, landscaping, nursery-work, garden centre-work, tree-work and market gardening as well as a degree in horticulture and a BEd. He also has a keen interest in growing trees, wine-making and drawing. He has recently written two books, organic vegetable growing (‘Good Earth Gardening') and organic fruit growing ('Fruit for Life') (Organic Horticulture)
Yaz Brien has been involved in grassroots organising and social movements in the UK and Americas for over two decades, bringing a queer, anti-racist and feminist perspective to all the work they do. They hosted a radio show on Bristol's Ujima Radio for 5 years with a focus on active hope - covering topics related to the many intersecting crises we face, but rooted in conversations with people taking action within their local communities. Since 2019 they have worked for Transition Network to amplify stories of community led change from all over the world. (Transition Towns / Collective Visioning)