Conference Agenda

Agenda (agenda subject to change)

• 8:30-9:00AM: Check in and Welcome at Illinois State University Alumni Center
• 9:00-11:15AM: Main Speaker: Chantel Johnson, owner of Off-Grid in- Color
  • Guest Speaker Chantel Johnson, owner of Off-Grid in- Color, will speak about her journey becoming a social worker, then experiencing the tragic murder of her brother, and how that event set her on her path of healing. The path she took involved engaging in small-scale farming as a way to provide holistic health and well-being to her community through growing food and teaching others homesteading, sustainability, and wellness skills. Her next phase of this project is to find and secure land to continue this community-focused social justice project.
• 11:15AM-12:15PM – Lunch break
• 12:30-3:00PM Choice of three workshops. Workshops start PROMPTLY at 12:30PM
  • Workshop 1 in Alumni Center Room 118 12:30-2:30PM: A viewing of the film “Gather”, on the fight for food justice and traditional ways in Native American communities. Two student members of ISU’s Native American Student Association (TRIBE) (Darcy Allred and Nitakechi Muckintubbee) will be moderating and facilitating a Q&A after the film.
  • Full – Workshop 2 offsite at Refuge Food Forest (701 E Lincoln St, Normal, IL 61761): Food Forests as Food Justice. Some of our own Illinois State University student (BSW student: Gosia Zalewska, MSW students: Hannah Sellmyer, and Bryanna Kaminski), Samantha Williams a representative from Home Sweet Home Ministries, and Nick Frillman from the University of Illinois extension office will be giving a tour of the Refuge Food Forest in Normal, and discussing the development of a second food forest near Home Sweet Home Ministries this spring.
    • This workshop will be offsite from 12:30-1:30 PM. Then the participants will return to the Alumni Center room 116 for a debriefing that begins at 2:00PM
    • Link to Google Map of location.
    • This workshop will be outside in the elements and requires the ability to walk distances.
    • You must be able to transport yourself to the location and back to the Alumni Center
  • Workshop 3 offsite at Sunnyside Community Garden & Food Forest: The Potential of Community Gardens: The coordinator of Sunnyside Community Garden & Food Forest , Caleb Phillips, and two youths from the community will give a tour and a description of the philosophy behind community-run cooperative gardens.
    • This workshop will be offsite from 12:30-1:30 PM. Then the participants will return to the Alumni Center room 116 for a debriefing that begins at 2:00PM.
    • Link to Google map of location.
    • This workshop will be outside in the elements and requires the ability to walk distances.
    • You must be able to transport yourself to the location and back to the Alumni Center
• 3:00-3:15 PM – Break
• 3:15-4:00PM – Conference Wrap Up and Farewell