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Building Community from Inside Out |
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Building community from the inside out with James Stark
 Over Forty people joined us for an evening of visioning our community on July 17th. This educational talk was inspired by a local hero. James Stark M.A., F.E.S. is currently working with his wife Penny Livingston-Stark as the Co-directors of the Regenerative Design Institute (RDI) and partners in Sustainable Living Designs. James also teaches in the RDI programs specializing in community development and leadership.
James Stark gave a talk about designing the village. He compared community building to having a garden, and approached it with a permaculture mind. He discussed approaching a community in a way that makes it stronger. Think of it as gardening the community or village building. More on James and the programs he works with can be found at http://regenerativedesign.org/
James co-founded the following community organizations:
• West Marin Growers Group (WMGG), which was created to ensure food security in Marin County. WMGG grew into the 5013c, Marin Organic, which introduced the Marin Organic Food Label and hosts the West Marin Farmers Market.
• Waste Free Now, which is committed to West Marin becoming waste free and hosts the innovative annual Recycle Circus including a "Stuff Exchange" for people to redistribute community resources.
• KWMR "Watershed Radio", which is a licensed 501c3 community radio station in the tenth year of providing a voice for West Marin residences and heard around the world live through web casting.
• CLAM - Community Land Trust Association of Marin, an affordable ecological housing land trust (5013c) created to provide affordable housing in the face of increasing gentrification.
• Permaculture Institute of Northern California
In 2002, James was nominated for the Beryl H. Buck Award for Achievement for Building Healthy and Sustainable Communities.
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