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TLA helps people
envision and build "lifeboats" for the transition through resource
depletion, climate change, population overshoot and economic collapse.
What is a Lifeboat?
In Coast Guard terminology a lifeboat is a rescue boat, designed to save lives:
“A lifeboat must be extremely stable and strong, built to withstand pounding waves and the possibility of hitting hard ground. It must have extra buoyancy, so that it will stay afloat even if it is leaking badly. It
must be self-righting (able to turn upright if capsized) and
self-bailing. Finally, despite its needed strength, a lifeboat must be
relatively light and fast.”
—Columbia Maritime Museum
Support Our Work
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Internship Program
GROWING FOOD, GROWING A LIFE, GROWING RESILIENCE!
TLA teaches sustainable, self-reliance. You
will learn why and how to build your own lifeboat, so you may in turn help
others. From a solid footing in back-to-the-land simplicity and
self-reliance, a deep respect for the Earth and all fellow Beings, Interns
learn how to analyze and cope with the convergence of resource depletion,
climate change, economic demise, global political unrest & population
overshoot.
We are a 501c3 non-profit research & education center
promoting community-based, self-sufficient living practices, deep ecology
ethics, renewable energy systems and low-impact, appropriate technologies, all
based around a homestead growing its own vegetables and fruit, dairy and meat,
and experimenting with growing grains. We teach French bio-intensive gardening
and animal husbandry, as part of self-sufficient living skills. Alongside the
hands-on portion, intensive study of global economic, energy, and
socio-political frames provide necessary contextual support. Interns are
accepted for a three-week program; stays may be extended by mutual consent and
depending on the campus involved.
We have added a second campus, in
upstate New York, a large off-grid 160-acre farm worked with draft horses and
producing several grains, as well as potatoes and vegetables. The farm raises
numerous dairy and meat animals. Early spring brings the unique opportunity to
participate in Maple sugaring. In early winter ice blocks must be cut for the
spring house. Students from St. Lawrence University study sustainable living
practices at this farm.
The original Titanic Lifeboat Academy campus
serves the local Oregon coastal community through educational programs and
presentations on "re-localized" economics, food sovereignty, energy and
emergency preparation. We sponsor a number of classes, workshops, projects and
events in the local community, our most recent being a timebank. Annually in
December, we sponsor an alternative gifts fair. Depending on timing, Interns
may have the opportunity to become involved in one or more of these
programs.
Interns work
according to their skills and interests as well as the needs onsite at
the time. Outdoor work includes caring for animals, gardening,
systems maintenance and building projects which vary, of course,
with time of year and current workload on site, but there is usually
something "under construction". Indoor work
includes cataloging, inventory, research and data base projects as
well as sustainable housekeeping tasks.
We support our
interns’ individual life direction/plan and point them
in what we see as productive directions, based ontheir individual
needs, experience, resources and skills. Roughly half the
academic experience is hands-on education, half research, analysis,
synthesis and discussion. Interns' education at TLA is
personalized, intensive and often life-changing.
Internships are unpaid
volunteer positions. Interns must be at least 18 years old with a
minimum of one year of independent living. They are expected to put in a full workweek, to commit to the three-week stay, and to complete their assigned curriculum. In return,
we provide room, board, hands-on education, and the opportunity to
contribute and to ask questions nearly 24/7. It is sometimes
possible to extend an internship past three weeks by mutual consent of
all parties midway through the internship.
TLA also offers an academic program for interns. The
normal hands-on education afforded by working on a footprint reduction
homestead and demonstration site is enhanced with a course of study
undertaken on off-hours using our library of books, periodicals and
media. In some cases, college credit for independent study may be
available. Tuition is $100 and covers the duration of your internship.
If you are farm-hopping and looking for an internship to fill
in between other internships, this is probably not a fit. For this educational
experience, you must be prepared to grow more than food; you must be prepared to
push the envelope.
TLA is experiencing
an increase in internship applications as the timeliness of the academic portion
of our Internship course becomes increasingly apparent through global events. We
welcome your application. Please understand that we take only one intern at a
time (exception: couples), so if you have a particular month in mind, please
apply as early as you can.
For more complete details and an application send an email to our
Education Director.
Comments from former interns:
Francis Canada
“My
internship at Titanic lifeboat academy has been been a fantastic
experience. The hosts are amiable, well informed on future
changes, political issues andanada
“My internship at Titanic lifeboat academy has b
alternative living. My time over there gave me the opportunity to
get the information and resources that I was looking to create a
better way of living for myself. Practical experiences were
interesting and diverse. I enjoy my time in Astoria and I
will recommend this experience to anybody that believes in
sustainable practice.”
Owen England
“Learning
about peak oil was very interesting (and scary!). Rounding my
experience and knowledge of sustainable living and also learning some
useful life skills, e.g. animal husbandry and some basic carpentry. All
round, this was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and a very valuable
one, too, made all the more enjoyable spending my time here with 2 of
the most intellectually sound and nice people I have met. It's a
great experience and very useful...If only everyone could partake in an
internship like this, then we truly might see change!”
Clare Oregon
“TLA
is a place with infinite learning possibilities that interns can tailor
to themselves. Caren and Christopher were good about both seeing
what interested me and supplying me with material and discussion on
that matter, and also steering me towards totally new
information. It is an experience that is very
real-life-applicable.”
Jeremy Georgia
“These
guys have it all! Solar panels, wind turbine, goats, chickens, garden,
humor. It’s worth coming here for the exposure and knowledge gained
from the library, video archives, and Christopher & Caren’s
personal experiences; and that’s just your first day!”
Shaun Washington
"I do not think there is a
better metaphor for Caren and Christopher’s homestead and community and
self-reliance program than The Titanic Lifeboat Academy. Mark Twain said that
education consists mostly of what we’ve unlearned; this has never held quite as
true as with my experience at TLA, Caren and Christopher’s comprehensive
community/self-reliance program. It is a critical, unapologetic dissection of
oft-held convictions which forestall growth and inhibit creativity in a
particularly vulnerable moment in time–where our raft, as it were, will only
float if free-thinking people can work together and create new possibilities for
themselves and others.
Caren and Christopher are consummate,
experienced educators who take great care to create an intentional and adaptive
learning program for interns. This program is hands-on, diverse, and heavily
diologic, where discussions, rather than lectures, will lead you through each
learning milestone. Although the program features access to sundry books, a
documentary collection to rival the BBC archives, and some formulaic
assignments, the curriculum is experiential, varied and engaging. A typical day
will see your hands dirtied to plant vegetables and cleaned to turn a page. You
will get frustrated, and you may sometimes feel lost, but this is little more
than the process of unlearning–a delicate game of Jenga where foundational
blocks are explored piece by piece. As you work together, your learning will
come to coalesce in a comprehensive and beautiful way
which may engender intense, profound reflection and great potential for personal
and communal growth.
At its root, this internship is a serious
commitment to unlearning. It is not easy. This raft, they may argue, is as
important to our survival as the air we breathe and the water we drink. This is
an assertion that, like the school’s metaphor, will become self-evident over
time. When I left, the feeling was that I had joined the ranks of the world’s
mindful, aware, and present.
My most critical piece of advice is to be
honest with yourself why you want to participate, but to then promptly check
your expectations and inhibitions at the door. However, be aware that you will
encounter these limitations. That is, if your experience was like mine. When you
pull-through, Caren and Christopher may become great friends and extraordinary
assets to your life."
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