Our Aim and Approach

Anchoring the global vision and purpose of SEEDS in local communities

Most of us were drawn to SEEDS because we care deeply about the future of life on planet Earth, and because we feel a calling towards regeneration. In and beyond SEEDS, this cultural movement inquiring how to build a regenerative and thriving civilisation is often called the Regenerative Renaissance, or as we like to call it in Samara, the 'Regenaissance.' 

SEEDS, at its core, is about exploring, co-creating and gifting humanity – as steward of this amazing Earth – a diversity of tools, systems, resources, and cultures designed to joyfully co-create thriving civilizations ^[1]. 

A core purpose of Samara is to make these tools, systems, and resources accessible and useful for leaders of the Regenaissance and the communities they serve, while prefiguring regenerative culture in everything we are and do. We aim to support grassroots movements, local initiatives, indigenous communities, and ultimately all people and groups sharing this path. Our organization is designed to be both a service provider and a community. While providing an integrated set of tools, resources and trainings that empower change makers to build local regenerative initiatives and establish their own DHOs, we will also foster a supportive and nurturing 'home' for these Regenaissance change makers, including SEEDS Ambassadors to practice, grow, and learn with each other. A regenerator needs to first and foremost take care of self and intimate relationships before they can responsibly and sustainably extend themselves outward in true service.  

Approaching an unprecedented task

As Samara has taken root and began to grow, we have been very weary of saying 'we know the answer'. Facing the ambitious task of supporting the birth of a new civilization, we take special care to consider how we can avoid perpetuating the same misperceptions, extractive relationships, and arrogant attitudes that have contributed to the multiple crises – or "Meta-Crisis" – our civilization currently faces. We have cautioned ourselves and each other of the ways the colonial mindset and processes can become embedded in service-oriented work. We work to remain conscious and lovingly critical of our own and each others' perceptual lenses, assumptions about the way things 'should be', and biases. 

Rather than answers, we come with questions: What is a regenerative culture and civilization? How can we support existing, local solutions and regenerators?  How can we help more people adopt a regenerative lifestyle? How can we support leaders of the movement, and help them avoid burnout? What tools and technologies truly serve regeneration, including various blockchain applications and associated cryptocurrencies like Seeds, and how can we help leaders adopt and adapt these? How can we help SEEDS Ambassadors become better collaborative leaders of the Regenaissance, locally and globally? 

Our task is to inquire deeply into the needs and desires of regenerative leaders, initiatives, and communities and support their efforts with appropriate mix of resources and tools through a collaborative design and testing process. We may have hypotheses about which resources and tools can be truly beneficial in certain contexts, but ultimately we cannot be certain ahead of time that any given intervention will produce holistically beneficial and regenerative outcomes. 

For this reason, we see rapid experimentation and learning as fundamental to our approach, hence why we focus on serving and learning from pilots projects conducting this critical experimentation in building regenerative communities and organizations. 

The remainder of this chapter outlines our orientation towards pilot projects and the various tools and resources we're testing and evolving in relationship with pilots. 

[1] see SEEDS Constitution V 0.1.0