Blog #6: Team Prompt

Students: Cate Adams, Emma Clopton, Isabelle Spirk, Julie Wright

1. What are the technological, social, economic, and political trends that will impact (help or hurt) your ventures?

Technological:
Technologically, there are several outlets we can effectively use to boost our mission and community engagement at the Permaculture Park. For one, our website continues to be a strong outlet for educational information. Many people, across the globe, have referenced our information provided on our website. As we continue to expand on the project, we will work extensively on the website, improving and updating new information throughout the next year. As we plan to look into understanding the connection between soil health and human health as well as the impacts of green space within an urban area, we will publish blogs on our findings. We also hope to create an interactive platform on the website for people across the globe to ask questions and leave comments on our posts.

Secondly, social media has become a powerful tool for spreading influential and informational content. Our goal over the next year is to become more active on social platforms, increasing our following. We intend to share educational content about environmental practices that can be easily adopted into daily life rituals, and post updates about our journey. Social media is often an outlet for spreading a lot of misinformation and negative feed; we hope to combat this problem by providing meaningful and impactful content, expanding the practices and ethics of permaculture and caring for your local community.

Social:
Relationships between Lehigh University and Southside Bethlehem can both help and hurt our ventures. In the past, many student projects that have collaborated with Southside Bethlehem residents have often been dropped by students, leaving residents to deal with any burdens of the project or issues it may have caused. However, there are also many residents interested in Lehigh University projects and how these projects can benefit the community. There is also an uprising trend in community gardens and sustainable living, meaning more people may be interested in the park and learning about permaculture principles and ethics.

Economic:
Economics in our venture will depend partially on funding for our project that we can earn from grants and also possibly Lehigh to compensate for cost of implementation for the projects we want to pursue to enhance the Permaculture Park and achieve sustainable outcomes. In the past, bLUeprint Grants and the Sustainable Initiative Grant have been sources of financial capital for the Permaculture Park and have resulted in outputs such as planting an orchard and constructing a deer fence. The outcomes of these funded initiatives include making the Permaculture Park more sustainable and able to better serve not only the Lehigh community but also the greater Southside community at large. For instance, keeping the deer from eating produce grown in the park’s garden allows nutritious food to reach people who lack access to such healthy options in an urban area. In order to continue this work and begin other projects, our project must receive the necessary funding. Our team will have to apply for grants, meet deadlines, and work with both Lehigh and local partners. We will also honor the ethics and principles of permaculture by supporting local businesses and organizations to promote a circular economy.

Political Trends:
Political trends will expectedly affect our venture by creating a drive to protect the environment while potentially but potentially also causing political tensions to deepen. In recent years, the environment has become not just a political topic of debate, but a highly polarized one. Individuals who may have positively strong feelings towards the environment, will support the work our team focuses on, especially the holistic design-system approach we employ in our ecological efforts. Some may avidly support our goals while others oppose/deny them. In many cases, people may simply just feel indifferent. We will have to navigate these political trends; networking and recruiting interested parties, while educating those who are unaware of permaculture principles and ethics, and talking with people who hold conflicting views.