Action and Community Development

The RITES Project has built strong relationships with groups in the community and acts as a liaison between various entities, often with disparate views. Through our service-oriented programs, the RITES Project trains and assists businesses, individuals, and industries in designing with nature, in order to protect the environment and to empower people to take an active role in the implementation of ecologically sound solutions.

Sebastopol Compost and Worm Production Facility
This project redirects tons of organic waste that would ordinarily end up in landfills and converts it into a usable product, while providing working educational models for ecologically sound waste management and sustainable living practices for residents, schools, businesses and cities. The project incorporates three components:

Waste Collection / Processing
The RITES Project collects and processes organic food and yard waste from local businesses and community members. This waste is then composted using an integrated variety of natural composting methods including worms, warm composting, microorganisms and mulching strategies. For waste that is considered ÒtoxicÓ, the RITES Project researches and experiments with specific plants, microbes, and mycelium that are capable of eliminating the toxicity. The remaining material is composted and turned into a rich fertilizer that is then sold back to the community.

Educational Programs/Model Building
Using the composting facility and gardens as a working model, the RITES Project develops and implements educational programs for schools, businesses, and the general community. These programs range from single day intensive workshops open to the public to semester-long service learning projects that meet state standardized curriculum for surrounding schools.

Products and Services
The RITES Team worked at the Sebastopol Farmers Market from 2001-2005 selling actively aerated compost tea to landscapers, vineyards, and home gardeners. In addition to the compost tea, the facility and gardens sell a variety of value added products, including soil amendments, worm boxes, worm castings, microorganism inoculants and worm bin starter kits. The RITES Project also provides valuable information and services to the surrounding community including educational workshops, consultations and implementation services in an effort to initiate composting programs and fertigation on local land. Sebastopol Community Garden and Skatepark The RITES Project has been working in conjunction with the city of Sebastopol, local community members and skateboarders to design a park that provides for the needs of the community, while at the same time benefits the local ecosystem. Citizens of Sebastopol have been working to approve a town skatepark for over 20 years. In 2002, the West County Skatepark, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and the RITES Project collaborated on a proposal to combine a community garden and skatepark into a multi-use park. In response to the proposal, later that year, the City Council unanimously agreed to support the initiative. Collectively, the team has raised over $700,000 from Open Space, Initiative for Youth, and others in order to facilitate the purchase of land, support the architectural design process, and secure other professional services and materials for the community skatepark. The RITES Project is actively fundraising for the community garden component of the project, which has already been designed and will be implemented this year in downtown Sebastopol on Laguna Parkway. The intention is to make this multi-use park into an environment suitable for all ages to interact with these living models of natural systems that are functional, educational and beautiful.

Mind-Well
Since its inception in 2005, the Mind-Well has been functioning as a studio and art gallery open to the community. Mind-Well's mission is to promote artistic studies aimed at social awareness, individual freedom of expression and public education toward positive change. The Mind-Well program has four themes, Mind-Well, Body-Well, Earth-Well and Sound-Well. The RITES Project has collaborated with Mind-Well by teaching for the Earth-Well and the Body-Well programs, in areas such as gardening, food and nutrition, yoga, nature awareness, and healing with medicinal botanicals. Mind-Well provides artistic promotional materials, technical web-based support and access to their gallery for RITES Project educational events.

EcoGatherings
In 2006, the RITES Project and Symbiosis Events coordinated and facilitated a four-day Permaculture intensive to create an ecological foundation for the upcoming event that hosted over 2,000 people. During the course and in preparation for the event, the participants worked on the restoration of access roads, performed erosion control activities and implemented sustainable agro-forestry methods on site. During the event, the participants engaged in outreach with event attendees by holding educational workshops and hands-on natural building activities. In an effort to meet the event's zero-waste and carbon neutral goals, the course participants solicited donations for carbon credits and tree plantings to offset the carbon emissions incurred from transportation to and from the event. Symbiosis Events has invited the RITES Project to hold a similar Permaculture intensive before next year's event and has requested that a Permaculture First Responder Design course be held at Frogwood Retreat Center in Mendocino County this spring.

Wild Roots
The RITES Project is building relationships with individuals and organizations from indigenous cultures to engage in service and educational experiences. Through the Belize Agroforestry Research Center (BARC) in Southern Belize, the Wild Roots Program provides meaningful educational experiences and facilitates practical, hands-on research and study of the biology of tropical forest ecosystems. As part of the Wild Roots program, the RITES Project has invited Miss Beatrice Waight and other indigenous grandmothers to offer medical and herbal education to participants, thus keeping their traditions alive. As part of the program, the RITES Project shares tropical Permaculture and land stewardship skills with participants in a workshop-based format.

Sustainability Tours
Sustainability Tours are an innovative model that has catalyzed significant change among citizens, green leaders and communities for the past five years. Each one-day event features inspiring local leaders modeling ecological solutions to provide participants with a tactile experience of sustainability. The RITES Project's Sustainability Tours are currently providing sustainability education programs for the City of Petaluma in collaboration with Petaluma Green.