The Alchemical Nursery

Organization goals regarding green job advocacy
Our green job goal is the creation of a myriad of local green jobs through permaculture-inspired initiatives and the further development of our fiscal sponsorship program for social entrepreneurs. These will include not only employment through our own organization, but the creation of jobs and the growth of local economy through our advocacy work and other initiatives.

Long term, we are planning for the establishment of a Regenerative Trades School (utilizing Permaculture theory and structure) and the formation of additional worker collectives.
Alchemical will work with community members to develop and train people in areas including: soil/plant chemistry, remediation, water filtration, bio char, plant resin and latex production and processing, bio mass/bio fuel, herbal medicine, sustainable agriculture, natural building, etc. Alchemical will connect the capital and experts from "green" industry to the needs of the general population of the city. Through the hands-on educational process in the Permaculture Trades School, local entrepreneurs will create businesses producing local materials in high demand, such as roofing tiles and other common building materials currently imported from other cities. We will ground the science by connecting and incorporating it into a system that begins and ends in the earth, enlivening the economy and environment.

We see the creation of a truly sustainable and closed-loop system (“urban fractal” or ecovillage) as necessary for our survival, and we believe that to seriously move in this direction, we need schools to build the capacity and critical mass we need to actually implement these radical changes and build away from the current crumbling system. We are here to provide the kind of broad-based education that will first give our students the basic survival skills they need to live lightly on the earth and in healthy community, followed by options to apprentice in specific trades for further honing of skills and knowledge in a particular area such as herbal medicine preparation, raising livestock, natural building, or working with fibers for paper and clothing.

Organizational commitments regarding green job advocacy
We are currently involved in the Democratic Economy Network (DEconN) a local economy discussion group in the Syracuse region. This network will be comprised of local organizations that support a democratic economy which will collectively determine and support local economy projects such as the creation of a local currency and the promotion of local products. Recent activities have included a film screening of the BBC documentary about the Mondragon Cooperative in Spain, and the release of the Podium Project into the wild - a traveling podium and journal in which we seek to share the collective knowledge about the democratic economy of Syracuse. We are also fiscally sponsoring a burgeoning local business association called Syracuse First.