The Learning Council Programs
Agricultural Workshops
The Learning Council sees great value in agriculture and the vibrant agricultural community here in the North Fork. We offer classes to highlight the bounty and celebrate the wealth of knowledge in our valley’s land and farmers. The Learning Council holds perennial classes in Permaculture, Biodynamics, Herbal Medicine and practical farm skills such as cheese making, composting and more. We also collaborate with the Paonia Community Garden at Elsewhere and Valley Organic Growers Association plus offer farming and gardening classes to local Waldorf students.
Community Lunch
The Learning Council Kitchen offers meals every week on Tuesdays during the Arbol Market season and soon-to-be serving out of the TLC Kitchen at The Hearth during the winter months.
Health and Vitality
The Health and Vitality Council is a collaboration of the Kampe Foundation and The Learning Council.
Mission
The Health and Vitality Council empowers youth and community through sexual health education and advocacy.
Vision
We hold the vision of a sexually empowered culture, where people are free and healthy with respect for themselves and others.
Goal
Our goal is to collaborate with students, teachers, community members, and parents to provide students at Delta County Schools with comprehensive, medically accurate, and culturally sensitive sexual health education. We aim to be advocates and champions of fully comprehensive, medically accurate sexual health education for people of all ages to help prepare them for the life-long journey of sexual health, no matter the choices they make along the way.
Arts for All
The Learning Council brings Art and Creativity to our community! We have sponsored the Village Building Convergence in creating a street mural and art installation at the Paonia Public School that is annually refinished by the sixth grade class. We bring Dance classes and Eurythme, puppetry, band, orchestra and theater to the community as a gift of art and culture. We offer handwork classes for mothers and young children as well as handwork for school age children. Our festivals and community events often have an art activity where people of all ages can gather and learn watercolor painting, practical arts of agriculture, candle making, willow weaving and other artistic expressions. We also love to unite the community in song and theatrical performances during our seasonal festivals.
PPPC Bike Co-Op
The Paonia Bike CO-OP (PPPC) empowers people of all ages and backgrounds to get wrenching and rolling on their bikes to build a healthy and sustainable community. The PPPC is a non-profit, educationally-based co-op that helps people work on and learn about bikes. The PPPC is a place where people can use tools and get help from experienced volunteer wrenches to repair, maintain, and build bikes. You can: pick out a donated bike and fix it up; bring your bike by for a tune-up or repair; learn how to do routine maintenance, like fixing a flat, lubing your chain, and making minor adjustments; take a workshop to learn more about bike repair and maintenance.
Practical Arts
The Learning Council offers a variety of classes in the practical arts available to all ages and skill levels. We recognize that when a group of interested people gather with common intention the creative potential is great! Our Practical Skills classes include: Permaculture Design, Herbal Medicine, Cheese Making, Meditation, Solar Energy, Electricity, Build your own LED light, weaving, and more.
Community Music
Embodying Rhythm is dedicated to uplifting the entire human experience by helping to make music and music-making accessible to individuals and groups through healing sounds, active listening, movement, the expansion of creative perceptions, and the lessons involved in learning and playing music with others. The Marimba Ensemble serves as an example. And the Parade Marching Band learns music and creates costumes for parades in the local festivals. This band will include players of all ages and levels and is designed to include band students and teachers from all of the area schools.
