Program Highlights

The program offerings of Treleven, Inc.  have been growing slowly in quantity and quality. Some of the highlights were:

Master Class with David Epston. This wonderful class, arranged by Peggy Sax, was designed for advanced practitioners of narrative therapy. It is the model for the way we hope Treleven will function in the future. The group spent three days attending classes in the Annex, hiking and biking during the breaks, eating, laughing, and learning.  Peggy is planning a similar event for spring of 2014.  Some of the international group of participants had connected through Peggy’s on-line teaching site, others were meeting for the first time. The weather was glorious and we learned a lot about the way Treleven could support a group such as this.

Habitat Management Project: AKA Bat Walks  In conjunction with the publication of Don Mitchell’s new book, Flying Blind,  we led 90 minute tours of the habitat management areas of the farm.  These took place every Saturday morning at 10:00, rain or shine (for the most part the weather was wonderful). Groups ranged in size from small up to 15 and often included people from other environmental groups such as Vermont Coverts, Audubon, Bat Conservation International, and girl scouts working on bat protection. We even saw bats at one of the special evening tours.

Farm Management: The seasonal work of the farm continues to attract volunteers, many of them students from the college.  Spring is lambing season, summer  is haymaking, and autumn is putting the gardens and orchard to bed. This is another area we hope to expand in the future, perhaps in conjunction with the emerging environmental and food studies programs at the college.

Supporting child care and other human service workers: Treleven continues to host the Culminating Seminar for Early Childhood and Afterschool Professionals once or twice a year. This is a twelve-week, 3 credit course offered through the Union Institute and University. We have also offered reflective practice sessions and retreats for this community. The TouchPoints work, which Treleven used to sponsor, has now been successfully transitioned to the Vermont Department of Health, under the direction of Wendy Davis, MD (the former Commissioner of the  Department). We have hosted small meetings for the Permanent Fund for Vermont’s Children and the Home Visiting Alliance. The Education in Human Values Curriculum has now been distributed to all schools in Addison County, as well as to many statewide organizations.

Supporting Middlebury College: Treleven has hosted orientations for first year students (one focused on environmental issues, the other on social justice); a retreat for the Campus Compact Leaders, a winter term course called Spirit of Change, and has helped connect College programs with the Migrant Farmworker Coalition Activities.  The connections with B Amore and the Invisible Odysseys project remain strong: this year the art work was part of the Rural Health Training meeting that was held in Middlebury.