This past Saturday, I took the family to the Homestead Skillshare Festival at Hayes Valley Farm in San Francisco. It was a beautiful sunny day in the city. The farm was hopping with people eager to learn urban homesteading skills, from soap making to composting to mushroom cultivation. Over 40 classes were on offer. And awesome live music lifted moods and learning aptitudes.
I had a chance for a quick guerrilla smartphone interview with Mira Luna, an organizer of the event along with her Bay Area Community Exchange (BACE) peers, about the importance of skillsharing and how BACE is using community events to ramp up usage and membership of their already active timebank. There's much to learn from BACE's approach to empowering people through fun, education, and a local currency that values every community members' gifts equally.