OCCIDENTAL ARTS AND ECOLOGY CENTER
15290 Coleman Valley Road, Occidental, CA 95465 www.oaec.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) is a nonprofit organic horticulture, arts and ecology education and community organizing training center in Northern Californias Sonoma County. OAEC is located on an 80-acre site with organic gardens and orchards, coastal prairie grasslands, and mixed forests. OAECs mission includes working to: 1. Preserve and restore native and agricultural biodiversity and healthy ecosystems, with a particular focus on the northern California bioregion, 2. Preserve and propagate biodiversity in open-pollinated and heirloom varieties of food, fiber and medicinal horticultural and agricultural crops, 3. Support appropriate-scale ecological agriculture and sustainable local food systems, 4. Cultivate ecological literacy, especially within watershed communities, social change movements and public schools, 5. Create and model practical, sustainable, regional-scale alternatives to global corporatization and the economic paradigm that is dependent on growth and

An education and advocacy center and organic farm working towards the restoration of bio-cultural diversity by cultivating ecological literacy and building the capacity of leaders to guide their communities to an ecologically regenerative, economically viable, and socially just future.

OAEC 2018 program accomplishments are partially expressed through our many inter-related programs, projects and partnerships. A representative sample of this program work includes:1. The Resilient Community Design / Permaculture Program, 2. The WATER Institute, 3. The Mother Garden Biodiversity Program, 4. The School Garden Teacher Training Project, 5. The Decentralized Water Policy Council Project, 6. The Legalize Compost Toilet Project, 7. The Performance Arts Program, 8. The Wildlands Biodiversity Program, 9. OAECs partnership with Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project, 10. OAECs partnership with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. Each of our programs, projects and partnerships use the same methods and 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 to common challenges in the sustainable management of soil, water, food production, the restoration and preservation of biological and cultural diversity, and more effective ways to self-govern and manage economy. OAECs programs benefit from our more than twenty years of experience in developing and caring for our own 80-acre site, as well as supporting hundreds of other land-based projects and organizations.2. We Train Changemakers The transition to a just and sustainable economy will only be achieved if more individuals become ecologically literate changemakers. OAEC continues to develop workshops and advocacy campaigns that help train, support and inspire individuals and social movement leaders to apply an ecological lens to their already inspiring work.3. We Help Build the Capacity of Communities to Transform Toward Resilience OAEC strives to achieve a social change multiplier effect by training and building the capacity of whole communities to become more effective agents of rapid change. We work to foster ecological literacy and to empower diverse communities schools, local governments, public agencies, foundations, environmental and social justice organizations, farms and ranches, and policy coalitions to design their own place-based strategies to create the just transition towards a more regenerative culture and economy.4. We Work to Change the Rules of Governance and Economy We work to legalize and require sustainable economy, and to make illegal and dis-incentivize activities that subvert it. Sometimes on our own, but most often through broader advocacy alliances, we seek to change policy in the arenas of governance in which we are most likely to succeed a city or county council, school board, water agency, or state legislature or agency on issues that are ripe for change and move us toward a just and sustainable future.

Through our collaborative network of sustainable agriculture stakeholders, CalCAN now wields more influence than ever. Wrapping up our tenth year as a coalition, there are now more legislators familiar with our campaign priorities and more funding available to farmers for climate-friendly practices. We passed a bill that will more robustly and equitably implement the states Climate Smart Agriculture programs. We secured funding for technical assistance for farmers applying to the states Climate Smart Agriculture programs with will increase access and equity. Additionally, we released a report outlining a comprehensive roadmap for climate and agriculture policies for Governor Newsom, and are developing relationships with his staff.We also expanded our communications and network building activities with the addition of a new staff person, a Campaign Organizer. We organized four Climate Smart Agriculture farm tours for legislators, farmers and other partners. We published 33 profiles of Climate Farmer Leaders and a fact sheet on the states Climate Smart Agriculture program progress to date. We also facilitated the engagement of farmers and others in the policy process by organizing a legislator education day, organizing a dozen meetings between legislators and their constituents, and conducted two dozen strategy meetings with partners throughout the year.

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