The Birdhouse →

Our Vision

Our vision is a lush and vibrant urban landscape where people are cooperating with nature to attain health and wellbeing born of genuine concern for each other and the environment.

Our Mission

The BirdHouse is a community garden in Hollywood, serving as a hub of exchange for those attracted to caring for the land and people, through arts and ecology. Our purpose is to engage each other in finding creative solutions to the most pressing issues of our times. Through permaculture, systems thinking, medicinal plants, art, singing, science and storytelling, we aspire to a new story of interdependence, to restore shared wisdom, and to have fun doing it. 

Our Projects

The BirdHouse selects and develops projects that support our mission to engage each other in finding creative solutions through permaculture, systems thinking, medicinal plants, art, singing, science and storytelling. Early projects have focused on the development of physical structures, and the establishment of biological resources at the BirdHouse Community Garden.

In our built environment, we seek to maximize energy gains by harnessing the power of the sun, the land’s topography, and the relative arrangement of the system’s components. In our biological systems, we value diversity, resiliency, and nutrient cycling, composting our garden trimmings along with food waste from community members.

Part think-tank and arts lab, part urban greening experiment and sustainable land use model, the BirdHouse is born out of cooperative intentions, all circling around the question: What does it take to live a life that the planet Earth now demands?

This inquiry finds its way into the various activities and projects we host, the workshops in permaculture, food and plant medicine, singing and storytelling – All an attempt to grapple with, and find language for, how to be response-able in this time of trouble.

Really it’s about how to love a place, and take care of it, and how to take care of each other in the process. Creating the conditions for ideas to hatch and things to grow. We are partnering with the place itself to build an abundance of diversity of interdependent insects, plants and animals. There is a vision we are nursing, that our canyon, our watershed, can become a lush and vibrant place that feeds a whole and complete system – A living thing, embedded in the urban environment of Los Angeles.

—John & Bella

Greener Stems | Pomona, CA →

Greener STEMs create experiences in the Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, and Los Angeles counties of California. Meetings are made available to small and large groups. Lessons are aimed to expose participants to natural phenomena and hands on exercises that utilize universal principles of elements. By determining our position in nature and exercising our will, we build our character and strengthen our integrity. We learn how to be a working person in a working world of life. Experiences are suited to compliment traditional/public schooling, homeschooling and unschooling learning strategies. 

Mission:

Inspire, empower, and motivate young humans to align with plants while creating a responsible and sustainable world.

Permaculture Academy →

Mission:

At the Permaculture Academy we aim to train  the next generation of thought leaders that will steward systems that are regenerative and environmentally, socially, and economy sustainable. 

As an internationally recognized school of Permaculture Design we focus on practical, tangible, and actionable principles and tools that honor permaculture's pioneering history while also maintaining a clear focus on the future. 

We providing a diverse and innovative space for students to discover their deepest purpose and to learn the very real and very needed skills of:

Self-reliance

Modern Homesteading

Scientific Sustainability 

Community Resiliency 

 All while being immersed in a diverse and supportive community of fellow permaculture enthusiasts. 

The Ron Finley Project →

BRINGING CULTURE & COMMUNITY TOGETHER

Ron envisions a world where gardening is gangsta, where cool kids know their nutrition and where communities embrace the act of growing, knowing and sharing the best of the earth’s fresh-grown food.

Ron is realizing his vision for community gardening and rejuvenation. Let’s grow this seed of urban gangsta gardening into a school of nourishment and change. Help spread his dream of edible gardens, one city at a time.

It’s time for Americans to learn to transform food deserts to food forests. Help them learn to regenerate their lands into creative business models. Let’s make Ron’s philosophy mushroom across the country, and the world.

In part of this effort, Ron is planning to build an urban garden in South Central LA that will serve as an example of a well-balanced, fruit-and-veggie oasis  called “HQ”. Inspired by the idea of turning unused space such as parkways and vacant lots into fruitful endeavors, this garden and gathering place will be a community hub, where people learn about nutrition and join together to plant, work and unwind.

HQ will create a myriad of jobs for local residents, and this plot of land will be a self-sufficient ecosystem of gardening, education, cooking, business learning and management. The community will get their hands dirty together, shovel together, work together and be healthy together.

Moonwater Farm | Compton, CA →

Moonwater Farm is an urban microfarm in Compton, CA, providing access for youth and residents of South Los Angeles to organic farming, livestock raising and healthy food preparation and preservation. We are interested in re-establishing connections to homesteading history and developing opportunities for learning, training and potentially employment in the food systems of Los Angeles.

We invite you to come visit! Teachers or families - we offer workshops on a wide range of subject matter that creates hands-on opportunities, engaging learners of any age. We do farm tours that focus on practical food growing, making and preserving as well as livestock care and maintenance. Use our contact page to reach out and plan your field trip.

Social Justice Learning Institute →

At the Social Justice Learning Institute, we are dedicated to improving the education, health, and well being of youth and communities of color by empowering them to enact social change through research, training, and community mobilization.

We envision communities where education empowers individuals to use their agency for the purpose of improving each other’s lives.

SJLI Core Values

1. We privilege the ideas, voice, and leadership of our youth and community members.
2. Everyone must be afforded equal opportunity in order to achieve equitable treatment.
3. We do all things in love.
4. No one is hopeless.

Our Goals

Our goals are simple. We work to:

• build capacity for individuals and communities to advocate for their needs
• train and build leaders
• educate and empower youth and community members to identify and rectify injustice; and to
• deliver effective programs, resources and support that help advance our mission

To meet these goals, we work with youth, residents, local schools, districts and city officials to increase educational opportunities through innovative programs and sustainable practices. We also develop and manage programs that advance academic, food, and environmental justice.

RootDown LA →

RootDown LA is a youth-run non-profit committed to bringing better food & nutrition education to neighborhoods in South L.A.

At RootDown LA, we believe supplying a community with healthy food is not enough to help residents make sustainable dietary changes. Without a genuine demand for that healthy food and a population of people who can reinforce demand over time, our efforts to maintain a supply fall flat.

Luckily, in 2007, a group of highly-motivated youth living in South L.A. got serious about improving nutrition programs for their families and peers. Not long after, RootDown LA was born. With these youth at the forefront of our engaging programs and strategically located veggie gardens, we've successfully developed a model that has convinced thousands of people in South L.A. (and beyond!) they'll wanna eat their veggies!

Garden School Foundation →

The Garden School Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to provide meaningful education for underserved youth in Los Angeles through garden-based learning in outdoor living classrooms. We work with Title 1 schools to sustainably implement our curriculum of experiential standards-based lessons in all academic subjects, as well as cooking and nutrition, to strengthen the connection between education, health, environmental awareness, and thriving communities.

Since 2005, we’ve been turning asphalt into ecosystems, working to create a healthy, educated and aware future generation that cares for their community, their bodies and for the earth. We currently serve at 6 elementary schools and one high school throughout Los Angeles, reaching over 2,500 students and their families. Our Seed to Table program brings to life what’s taught in the classroom and gives children the tools they need to lead healthy, fulfilling lives.

UC Cooperative Extension - Master Gardener Hotline →

Since 1981, the University of California Master Gardener Program has been extending UC research-based information about home horticulture and pest management to the public. The UC Master Gardener Program is a public service and outreach program under the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, administered locally by participating UC Cooperative Extension county offices.

The UC Master Gardener Program is an example of an effective partnership between the University of California and passionate volunteers. In exchange for training from the University, UC Master Gardeners offer volunteer services and outreach to the general public in more than 50 California counties. Last year 6,116 active UC Master Gardener volunteers donated 398,265 hours, and 5.4+ million hours have been donated since the program's inception.