Paid Programming Tiers
EartHand Gleaners works hard to provide low barrier, affordable and deeply impactful programming through our various skill development, artist residency and land-inquiry projects while respecting the skill holders who lead workshops and paying fair and appropriate compensation.
Generally, you will find three different types of tickets/fees for EartHand paid programs:
Level One/Community Patron – this standard fee is for those participants who can afford the cost of providing the selected program. The fee covers: the artist/host fee, supports administration costs of the organization, a program coordinator and a few dollars towards the artist in residence fees for the following year.
Level Two/Volunteer Supported Placement– covers a portion of the artist/host fees, a nominal amount towards organizational administration costs and relies on volunteer administrative support.
Level Three/Sponsored Placement – covers a portion of the artist/host fee and is supported by Community Patron tickets, other fundraising efforts and volunteer administration.
Our goal with this fee structure is to provide equitable access to EartHand programs. Therefore if a program has 9 spaces, wherever possible we offer 3 spaces in each type of fee/ticket and program costs are set to account for a balance of the different ticket types.
Please pay as much as you are able, this will allow us to get a better sense of what our overall membership can afford and aid in the making of budgetary decisions that keep us fiscally responsible while supporting those community members needing a financial break in order to participate.
For more information and context please read this blog post by Executive Director, Sharon Kallis.
Stewardship Community Credit System
Our Credit System as partial payment is on hold until we can recalibrate our stewardship and paid programs to co-function again post 2020 pandemic disruptions.
EartHand’s ethos is that of a community-powered cycle of renewable local provision. A cycle that facilitates creative-making without reliance on alienated extraction and consumption. What this looks like on the ground is a cycle of community members working together: planting, gardening and land stewarding, harvesting, creative-making, composting, seed collection, planting, gardening… (you get the idea). Along the way there is skill-sharing, tea parties, burgeoning friendships and laughter.
EartHand has developed a credit system to advance the adoption of full engagement in the community cycle. Labour required for the community-powered cycle will be rewarded with credits. Credits will be applied as part of the payment for workshops.
EartHand’s two sites, Means of Production and Trillium North are our main material resource sites. This allows us to offer the urban experience of using local materials that we grow and harvest; promoting a healthy relationship to the land and plants. Essentially every hour of workshop or class time will require an equal amount of time assisting in the care and stewardship of these sites, or other community-enhancement volunteering that enables all of this work to move forward.
EartHand is not a school, not a store, but a community that supports each other in our ‘learning and living local’ creative efforts. As EartHand programs grow and move forward it is important we don’t lose site of this – of the need to participate where we live and play – otherwise we begin to perpetuate the consumptive and extractive behaviour we wish to change.
We are happy to acknowledge the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation participation in the EartHand project through their generous allocation of ecological and artistic knowledge and resources.
We are grateful to the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people on whose traditional territory we live and work and for their generous sharing of their deep understanding of this land which has been their home since time immemorial.
Finding Community Credit Opportunities:
check out the volunteer/ community credits listings on the current years Events Listings page, click on an event to find out more and book your spot. When you register, your credit is easy to track and we will have your contact information in case we need to send more information about the day.
How Credits Work:
Credits accumulated are valid for a full year from December 1 to November 30 of the following year. On December 1st every year your credit balance is reset to zero. This is based on the labour demands of the land stewardship growing cycle and EartHand’s fiscal calendar.
Credits required for a workshop may be earned after the event but MUST be banked within four months.
Enrolling for a class or participating in a registered work session, automatically registers you as a community member with an account. Your account is maintained recording credits earned and classes taken.
Credits can be gifted!!
You can gift your credits to someone else in the EartHand community, in fact, we encourage you to use this as an alternate exchange method when sharing with other EartHand members. Just email Sharon and request the transfer – the gift request must come from the member with the credits and the credits must be in the person’s credit bank at time of the request.
Stewardship Credit vs Community Credit?
Two different ways exist to get a credit-
1. Stewardship credits are assigned for participating in outdoor stewardship opportunities offered throughout the year. Each session = 1 credit
2. Community credits take the shape of special seasonal volunteer tasks such as taking seeds and starting plants for EartHand, skill sharing as a volunteer at an event or assisting at studio prep sessions (the extra benefit being they are also often learning opportunities). Some of these will be worth multiple credits, if not stated otherwise, participation = 1 credit
If you have concerns about physical or schedule limitations impacting your ability to participate, don’t worry! Talk with Sharon to customize tasks that will be within your capacity and hopefully make the best use of your skills.
PLEASE, be a good community member- sign up for the credits required when you register for a workshop and then show up. If life gets in the way and you have to cancel, cancel your ticket and choose another date for your volunteering. Thank you for holding up your end of this community arrangement and making it easier for us to do our work for the EartHand community.
We lift each other up, supporting makers at all stages of skill-development and learning together!
What about special events and celebrations?
Our open houses and other special free events require no credits, but may actually be opportunities to bank a credit- check the volunteer/community credit listings for the volunteer sign up if you can assist with demonstrations to the public or being a community host at an event. Otherwise just come and be a part of the community gathering!