Zone 7 educational Food Forest on church grounds - looking for funding/help

Hello, and thanks for being here. <3

Ask for everything, for everyone, and as such, there will be little need for anything

<br /> <br /> This is one of my first posts on Permies, though I have been actively reading many of the lovely works for over a year now. <br /> My goal with this post is to gain advice if you have any, help in getting things funded/rolling, and outreach/connections of people doing similar - especially anyone near-by the Tulsa area. <br /> You're welcome to download and use any of these files however you see fit, I just ask that you please credit this page on my website > UGP - Zone 7 Church Food Forest < <br /> <br /> So, the story so far: <br />     I've been studying permaculture and forest gardening for about 4 years now, and finally working with a company that is taking forest gardens to the next level by getting people connected with designers and installers so they can have their very own permaculture food forest even if they have little to no experience. Check out the website > Food Forest Abundance. My experience is limited because I live in a townhome with no yard space, so planting is done in containers or "renegade" by narrowly avoiding breaking the rules. When my partner saw that I was absolutely dedicated to my green thumb, and wanting to help everyone grow their own freedom, she bought, for my birthday, the book Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemmingway. Becoming a certified permaculture designer is one of my next goals.

The juicy part:
    One of the main goals of my work is to help churches and schools convert much of their lawns into regenerative, sustainable, low-maintenance food forests! This would be done with the help of the community and especially focused around education for children so they have as many of the skills as necessary to sustain themselves in case the fit hits the shan. I have only recently, this last year, started down the path of design steps - 1st being observing - with some of the spaces around me (zone 1-3). This post in particular covers the first and closest space to me that I would like to start and finish before moving onto another, as it would be a showcase to propel others into wanting to help out and seeing the vision. It's small enough to be easily funded by loving people and worked on by myself while caring for our 1-year old; my partner works about 50 hours a week outside the home, and I'm staying at home with the kiddo during that time.
    If you want a breakdown of the cost/benefits, check out the Design Narrative. It has tons of links in it as well. All of these documents, spreadsheets, and images are very similar to ones that I would send the customers who order a food forest design. Summary: I estimate less than $1,500 for tools and materials and maybe another $2,500 for plants. Nothing in this design is outright difficult, I plan to use no-dig lasagna layering methods for building the beds, I'll start by digging the swale trench and lining it with salvaged stones/concrete blocks, and hold everything in place with bamboo and wooden stakes and burlap cloth walls.
    To provide income in the long run, I will use propagations and air layering to produce further plants, as well as cuttings for medicine, and of course the fruit/nuts/vegetables for the homeless/children and occasional farmers market type selling. Another goal of mine is to use this same curch's massive parking lot as a fruit/nut/vegetable/native/exotics retail and wholesale nursery, so I wouldn't have to go far to get that started and maintained. I've noticed in helping customers with sourcing plants that not many nurseries are carrying forest garden and guild build-out plants, or fruit/nut/medicine plants. There are some, but they are pretty rare, so I would be helping to fill a very rapidly growing niche.

In summary:
    I love you for making it this far. If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with mesothelioma - wait that's not right... has experience with setting up a successful/beautiful indigogo/kickstarter/gofundme, I would love to chat. My personal funding for this project is very limited, but my heart has so much to give!

Email me at ugrowpro@gmail.com or send me a text/call at 915-626-4482

Maybe that's all for now. Thanks!
-John

I needed a place to post a picture of me for my profile, so that's what this reply is for. ^_^