Participate
Get Involved
We welcome you to get involved in all aspects of TLC Farm. These include:
- Get introduced to our participation infastructure.
- Fill out our volunteer form.
- Donate to maintain the basic operations that keep us going.
- Give us feedback to help us grow.
Participate!
For the last several years, TLC Farm went into hibernation mode due to the pandemic, but this year, we're relaunching ways to reconnect with the land and community!
Are you ready to learn new skills? Spend more time in nature? Grow relationships with allies and mentors?
We are recruiting people like you to help build and expand old and new projects.
TLC Farm brings people together to root into relationships with each other and the land, by sharing tools for community-based sustainability and social change, and tending resilient ecosystems.
We offer a living, breathing organizational ecology in which to practice new modes of being and doing; trainings in practical skills and critical wisdoms; relationships with elders and youngers to help you grow into crews, collectives, and communities.
When you get involved with TLC…
You’re not simply a volunteer, but also a participant that is supporting a project, engaging with the land, and cultivating community.
You are helping to build a new world that you are an integral piece of.
We need people like you to make it all happen.
Ways to Get Involved
The sky's the limit!
There are opportunities big and small, depending on your desires and dreams.
We have many ways to plug in, whether you're looking for a short one-time commitment, offering ongoing support, or something in between.
We need participants to help with specific tasks, such as land tending, natural building, rebuilding physical infrastructure, invasive species removal, and native species plantings (just to name a few).
We also have ongoing roles available in areas of event hosting, outreach, rebuilding the education department, admin work, and more.
If you have specific skills you can offer, that's great! If you are not sure, no worries – you can still contribute. We welcome all walks of life and offer trainings and support for all volunteer participants.
Want to get involved? Attending a work party is the easiest way to get plugged in and learn more.
Work parties are group activities out at TLC Farm that usually focus on land work. Anyone can join! Don't worry about not having the skills to help – we will provide guidance and support for the tasks at hand.
Check the calendar for upcoming work party events and sign up on our email list to get updates for future events.
Upcoming Cohort
Our bigger participant picture involves gathering a group of people together with the intention to dive deeper into involvement at TLC.
The group will first attend a program that involves trainings in BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ relations, group skills of nonhierarchical organizing, and skill building. From there, we will form into teams that take on a project or role at the farm and practice our skills.
Contact the Engagement Coordinator if you're interested in joining the cohort.
How to Get Involved:
Attend a work party! Join the upcoming cohort! Come to an action meeting!
If you have any questions, contact Melissa, the engagement coordinator at engagement@tryonfarm.org
Donate!
Your donations are tax-deductible, of course. (View IRS determination letter.) Our EIN is 20-1887272.
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Help keep TLC Farm thriving - make a donation today!
TLC Farm runs of love & generousity. Volunteer-powered and very resourceful, we still need $3,000/month to pay for TLC Farm's portion (1/3) of land payments, insurance, utilities, and basic supplies. Each special project and land improvement has additional costs! We rely on donations from our generous supporters - like you - for this support.
We invite you to become a Friend of the Farm, who contribute regularly on a monthly basis. Friends of the Farm help provide year-round financial stability and demonstrate the power of grassroots support. We also appreciate one-time donations! Click below to donate online.
You can also send a check made payable to "TLC Farm" to:
11640 SW Boones Ferry Rd
Portland, OR 97219.
Matching Gifts
Many businesses offer matching gift programs. It is easy to double the impact of your contribution. Check with your Human Resources department to see if your company provides a matching gift program or contact us and let us help you.
Feedback
Give us suggestions, accolades, critique, or anything else that can help us serve you and the world better! The best way to do this would be to email us at farm[at]tryonfarm.org for general feedback, or edu[at]tryonfarm.org for feedback about our education programs. You can also call us at 503-245-3847, or post something on our facebook page!
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Survey
Our New Survey:
Please take a few minutes to give us feedback at our survey about what you want to see at TLC Farm. We are getting ready to celebrate our 5 year anniversary this January, and part of what we're doing is re-visiting our organizational vision for the next 20 years. Your input, as our community member, is essential to that process, and we'd greatly appreciate any time you could spend letting us know your thoughts on the farm.
Thanks!
Ecologies of Participation
Observing the last 5 years of work/play (what we call “plerk”) at TLC Farm, we've observed that there's quite a variety of different ways that people participate. All of these are just rough outlines, and many people fit between or beyond these categories (of course).
Some people are generalists: they're excited about many different kinds of plerk, and will respond to a wide variety of requests for help. Eg. cobbing a wall, canvassing a neighborhood, coming to a meeting, answering emails. This is beneficial for its flexibility & openness!
Others are specialists: there's a specific kind of engagement that they really dig, and that's mostly all they'll do: bookkeeping, teaching, farm hosting, etc. This is beneficial for its focus & expertise!
Some people are rooted: they have long-term, regular commitment to this place and project. Whether a couple times a year or almost every day, their participation is consistent. This is beneficial for its reliability & history!
Others are nomadic: they may be really focused on TLC Farm for a while, and then be off to another project across town or across the world. This is beneficial for its intensity & cross-pollination!
Some people are solitary: they really prefer to do something alone, if possible. This is great for minimizing the coordination of schedules etc. to get things accomplished.
Others love guilds: they do best when surrounded by a tight, highly functional groups with complementing abilities. This is awesome for ongoing working groups or projects where a variety of perspectives are key.
And others are communal: they love being part of a big community event with the energy of lots of different people. This is perfect for getting a lot done quickly.
Some people are looking to be (learners or) mitochondria: they'd like the steps in accomplishing something to be laid out for them. This is great when someone else has a clear idea of what needs to be done and just needs more hands.
Others feel called to be (coordinators or) enzymes: they're motivated to help bring all the different pieces and people together, co-create goals, support folk in reaching them, etc. This is valuable when folk want to just get out and do things but lack a structure for it.
Still others want to be (advisors or) neurotransmitters: they're best suited to offering verbal or written perspective on how to improve decisions or actions, rather than implementing things themselves. This is great for getting outside perspective & expert wisdom from someone with lots of experience, etc.
There are obviously a lot more categories! Still, having some idea where you see yourself in these terms will help us to know how best to support you in engaging in the way you want to here.
Start your own project
Anyone can propose a project, and it can take any form as long it meets the following criteria:
- It furthers the mission of TLC Farm.
- It has a co-creative accountability structure – that is, there's an agreed process (no matter how intuitive and dynamic) for taking next steps, evaluating outcomes, and supporting follow-through. This includes an oversight relationship with one or more mentors and/or WGs.
- Its scope, resource budget, and plans are proposed to and approved by the relevant WGs.
This is how the living, breathing work of TLC Farm happens, and our focus is on figuring more and better ways to help different kinds of people become more effective, more healed, and more aligned with spirit and the earth.
Once you've got an idea and (some of) the people to make it happen, contact participate@tryonfarm.org to take the next step by making a proposal at a working group or spokescouncil meeting!
Feedback and participation welcome! Please send bug reports to web@tryonfarm.org
