Life.School.House.
a network of folk schools
Moccasin Making 2.jpg

News

News and updates from our Life.School.House. community.

LifeSchoolHouse in the News

Jennifer Decoste, founder of the LifeSchoolHouse movement standing in front of a white house with orange shutter. On either side of her is a large tree wrapped in white lights and a red mini-library.

Folk schools forge tight-knit communities

Read the full article by Feleshia Chandler on the Nova Scotia Journal of Sustainable Community Development website.

Woman sitting outside near the wood. She is dressed warmly and smiling. She is holding a black feathered chicken on her lap.

bartering for a sense of community

Folk schools offer an accessible way for people to share skills. Read the full article by Moira Donovan on the CBC News website.

The Growing FolkSchool Movement in Canada

The LifeSchoolHouse has inspired the launch of other programming across Canada. Read more about our friends with the Okanagan Folkschool here: https://infotel.ca/newsitem/from-ukuleles-to-hiking-okanagan-folk-school-ready-to-make-economic-impact/it90007

We Are All Students

LifeSchoolHouse is a learning community. We share what skills we have in the form of classes, swapped items, and helpful hints offered to our community in posts and emails and conversations with friends. We are also learning all the time about how to do this work in the world - how to host each other, how to solve problems together, how to come together to create something beautiful. Learning is a part of who we are and to quote the ever inspiring Maya Angelou, “When you get, give. When you learn, teach.”

From January to August this year we were fortunate enough to have an intern working with us from Dalhousie University. Ally Sue had many questions about how we do our work, why ‘this’ and not ‘that’ and by exploring LifeSchoolHouse through her eyes we grew together - in fact this newsletter was her initiative! When she returned to school we missed the energy of the internship and wanted to keep students involved in this work - the more people we can teach about grassroots community building the better, and the energy of students refreshes our whole team’s interest in lifelong learning. 

I’m happy to announce that the LifeSchoolHouse is hosting a team of six senior students from the College of Sustainability from October until May 2022. The students are engaged in a Capstone Project which gives them 6 hours every week to actively apply their knowledge to a community project aligned with their personal interests. These students all choose to work with the LifeSchoolHouse and will be active participants in upcoming classes/swaps, will start to get their own programming organized on campus too, and will have an opportunity to meet and interview community members and hosts to learn more about the spirit of this project. By the end of the year they will document their experience and share it back with our community - reflecting our own stories back to us so we can see what they see and use their reflections to pivot, change, and keep growing.

We have learned so much in the last four years but we’ve barely scratched the surface of all the talents and wisdom of our community. We are so fortunate to have young and enthusiastic partners in this work and we look forward to sharing their observations and innovations with you all as these contributions help us keep evolving together. Welcome Florence, Israel, Maddie, Maija, Rebecca and Victoria!

Written by Jennifer DeCoste

Ally Leenhouts