3-month internship Program

The Lost Valley Internship

Lost Valley is a community land trust and bioregional learning center that seeks to provide affordable and free learning opportunities that support people in learning skills for community and ecologically oriented livelihoods.

Lost Valley’s 3-month Internship Program is our most robust and experiential learning opportunity. It is designed to be accessible, and provide participants with skills and experience in regenerative farming, ecological forestry, land stewardship & restoration, community governance, and sustainable living. Whether participants apply for an internship in Permaculture, Building & Maintenance, Marketing & Outreach, or Administration, all interns have the opportunity to engage with the dynamic living systems of our community land trust, which are built on the three pillars of Permaculture, Sociocracy, and Nonviolent Communication. Internship participants spend 20 hours per week learning with our onsite teachers and stewards, and gaining hands-on experience in the area of their choosing. Interns receive room and board during their term.

The most popular internship that we offer is the Permaculture Internship, in which cohorts participate in 4 hands-on workshops each week, that offer training in regenerative farming and forestry. Interns spend 6-8 hours per week learning from Lost Valley Land Steward, Brian Byers, through hands-on practice in habitat restoration, chainsaw training, agroforestry, and wildfire mitigation. 6-8 hours per week are also spent learning from Lost Valley Garden Steward, Kelson Gorman, about regenerative farming, food processing, and seed saving for community food sovereignty and regional resilience. The remaining internship hours are spent on independent projects, as well as weekly learning opportunities focused on building emotional resilience, relational health, and skills for self governance, to offer a holistic learning experience. These weekly containers facilitate practice and exploration in topics including conflict resolution, equitable governance, consent, and mental health & wellness..

We also offer internships in marketing, nonprofit administration, and maintenance, which provide the opportunity to learn through guided practice for career development in social media management, outreach, nonprofit administration, construction, and maintenance.

This is a great option for you if you are looking to:

• Learn about ecological stewardship, wildfire mitigation, food sovereignty, cooperative living, and regenerative agriculture

• Gain marketable skills for careers in regenerative livelihoods

• Develop emotional and relational resilience skills for engaging in healthy and constructive conflict, compassionate communication, meeting facilitation, inclusive group decision making, and non-heirarchical governance

• Learn about and get connected with a broader network of stewards and community based organizations for continued learning and work opportunities

• Engage in mutual aid and cooperative living while learning from a 37-year-old ecovillage

Interns are temporarily joining our Meadowsong Ecovillage community. This provides education through immersion into an intentional community, an understanding of our Sociocracy-inspired governance, practice in Non-Violent Communication, and an opportunity to study how the principles of Permaculture permeate all processes and procedures within the community.

Minimum age to participate is 21.

If you have questions before submitting an application, please reach out to: internshipcoordinator@lostvalley.org.

Please familiarize yourself with our community before applying.

Community Living Agreements, Non-Violent Communication, Consent Culture, Sociocracy-Inspired Governance

Our community values safety, and we hope it gives you a sense of safety as well that we require a background check for all interns and residents. The total fee is $57 and is to be paid prior to application submission.

A $300 refundable Security Deposit is required after acceptance. This deposit will be returned within 30 days of completion of the program, with consideration of any deductions for damages or fees.