Recently, we held a small summit to gather people and ideas on the topic of WWOOBS. This is an idea that has been brewing in Hugh’s mind for many years: echoing the WWOOFing movement (Willing Workers On Organic Farms), what if we could create a movement of WWOOBers? (Willing Workers on Organic Buildings)?
Where do we begin? What are we talking about?
One of the first things we did at the summit was to come up with a 10-second elevator pitch, or a strapline, something that could explain succinctly what this new movement is all about. This is what we came up with::
Getting people to work on natural building sites doing good things to benefit themselves, the environment, and the community.
It still needs a bit of tweaking – what kind of people? All sorts – students, retired people, unemployed people, ex-offenders, people who want a career break … And what does “good things” mean? Maybe social housing, community buildings like schools, environmental projects …
At the summit, we had just four guests. They all came with their own expertise and experience: a qualified psychiatrist who now runs therapeutic craft courses; a holistic therapist who is a social worker specialising in mental health; an ordained priest who has moved into the world of social finance, understanding large-scale investment into the charitable sector; and a smallholder with a background in project management for charities, who sometimes hosts WWOOFers, . They asked us sharp questions from a range of different angles, and helped us to think about the next steps forward.
Interesting ideas:
Questions to move us forward:
We don’t have answers yet! This is just the beginning of the conversation, the first seeds (we hope) of a new way of creating homes and other buildings that really fit into their community.
If you are reading this, and it excites you, chimes with your own plans, projects, ideas or dreams, or you think you might have some expertise that could help move this forwards, then please get in touch! (Use the contact form here.)