WWOOF IMMERSION PROGRAM

Live and Learn at a Regenerative Organic Permaculture Farm

April 7 – October 31, 2025

Based on the Central Coast of California, the Immersion is a six month transformative learning journey of skill building, nature connection, and personal empowerment within a supportive community.

Applications due February 14, 2025

the calling

Santa Cruz Permaculture is interested in supporting the next generation of skilled, nature connected, empowered leaders. While the program is designed for people who want to practice tending the farm and garden, it’s equally about inner renewal and attuning to the rhythms of the more than human world. 

“We are not preparing people for the world we grew up in, nor are we preparing them for today’s world. Instead, we must empower them with the creativity needed to solve problems that we cannot imagine.” – M. Kolan & W. Poleman, University of Vermont

We believe in order to address the polycrises of our times – anxiety, oligarchy, violence, epistemic injustice, climate emergency, biodiversity loss, the age of permanent drought, and more – we must practice letting go, listening, and allowing transformation. There is a better world that our hearts know is possible. Fortunately, there are countless examples of individuals and communities walking out of the current crises and walking on to a future distinct from the past. All of our programs exist to help us navigate The Great Turning, the move from the industrial growth society towards a life-sustaining society, and this program, specifically, provides an opportunity to immerse, daily, in practices for inner and outer restoration.    

“We need acts of restoration, not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship to the world. We need to restore honor to the way we live, so that when we walk through the world we don’t have to avert our eyes with shame, so that we can hold our heads up high and receive the respectful acknowledgment of the rest of the earth’s beings.” – Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

Program Dates & Curriculum

Applications Due (Friday, February 14)

Pre-Program Orientation Call (Monday, March 3)

Choose Your Curriculum

  • At the outset of the program, students design their course of study and choose up to three of our courses to participate in. These include our courses in:
    • Permaculture design
    • Permaculture skills
    • Herbalism and medicine making
    • Permaculture food forests
    • Regenerative beekeeping, pollinator habitat, and biodiversity
    • Advanced permaculture design
  • Example: A student may take our Permaculture Design Course, Food Forests course, and Beekeeping course.
  • Another example: A student may have already completed their Permaculture Design Certificate and choose to take our topical courses in Herbalism & Medicine Making, Permaculture Food Forests, and the Advanced Permaculture Design Course. 

Throughline Curriculum

  • Naturalist skills – observation, bird language, plant ID
  • Crop production – planting, watering, weeding, harvesting, post-harvest handling
  • Soil health, till and no till agriculture
  • Watershed regeneration, irrigation 
  • Propagation – Transplanting and propagating crops from seed
  • Pest, disease, and weed management
  • Flowers and floriculture
  • Community supported agriculture, marketing, and sales
  • Mentoring sessions – throughout the program, students will have biweekly group mentoring sessions with SCP staff for personal and professional development
  • Personal projects – An opportunity to pick some aspect of your life, be it personal, professional, political or otherwise, and focus on developing it over the course of our program within a supportive community. It’s like a capstone project that you can build incrementally over time. The project can be anything, and examples include: exploring and mapping out your future career; creating a business plan; building a personal website of your offerings in the world; or taking time away from the busy-ness of the world to hear your own voice, tapping into your heart, and allow yourself to be transformed.

Weekly Schedule

  • Monday – day off and self-study  
  • Tuesday – farming and hands on learning
  • Wednesday – farming and hands on learning
  • Thursday – farming and hands on learning
  • Friday – farming and hands on learning
  • Saturday and Sunday – alternate between days off, farmers market, and/or joining one of our weekend courses

Who Is This For?

We anticipate accepting a cohort of 3 to 6 students for the six month program. People who will do well in the program will:

  • Have a sense of connection to people; an interest in the well-being of others.
  • Be punctual.
  • Be comfortable being out of cell range during your farm day.
  • Be community minded people who communicate their needs, and receive and give feedback gracefully.
  • Have strong teamwork and communication skills.
  • Have physical stamina to work in diverse weather conditions.
  • Have a high level of attention to detail and time management.
  • Be dependable with thorough follow through.

Cost

WWOOF’ing is a non-monetary exchange thus all of our WWOOF opportunities are offered on a voluntary basis, free of charge. While there is no set tuition fee, it’s expected that students will incur personal costs for things like supplementary food, gas, and gear.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

We love food! We keep the kitchen stocked with staples as well as a bounty of produce from our fields for students to prepare.

Students living nearby are welcome to commute to and from the program, or set up their tent or RV on the farm and make use of our facilities. 

Students have access to a camp kitchen with farm fresh produce and staples, shower, toilet, and place for your tent or RV.

Learning

Yes, if you are enrolled in a college or university where you are paying tuition we are happy to sponsor you through your university’s internship office.

In your application, let us know you top priorities for which of our courses you want to complete. Upon acceptance to the WWOOF Immersion we will have a conversation to confirm your curriculum and participation in up to three programs. During the weeks when you have a class on the weekend you’ll be in class, and during weekends when you do not have a class you will either have weekend WWOOF work or time off. 

No, there are no prerequisites. For students who have not completed the Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) we highly encourage you to do so, but this is not required.

Everyone in the program works Tuesday-Friday, but the weekends vary. During the weeks when you do not have a course on the weekend you’ll work one weekend day making it a 40 hour week. During the weeks when you do have a course on the weekend you’ll work a 32 hour week followed by your course on Saturday and Sunday.

Work at the Santa Cruz Permaculture Farm over the course of the six months is predominantly focused on learning and practicing regenerative agriculture “with a permaculture twist.” Agriculture of this kind is, on one hand, varied and holistic involving many different tasks from horticulture to construction, and on the other hand it’s repetitive and monotonous, often doing one or two tasks in a day for the entire day.   

How to Apply

Applications are due February 14, 2025. Applicants will be notified by February 21st.  

Interested In learning more?

Join one of our online WWOOF Immersion Discovery Sessions on Zoom

  • Tuesday, January 21, 2025, 12-12:45pm Pacific
  • Wednesday, January 29, 2025, 12-12:45pm Pacific
  • Thursday, February 6, 2025, 12-12:45pm Pacific

Email us with your questions or to setup a one-on-one discovery session to see if this is a good fit.

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