Shift Bristol

💚 A legacy that continues to grow.

In 2010, Sarah Pugh and Laura Corfield founded Shift Bristol with a simple but powerful belief: To Give people practical skills, confidence and community and they will create positive change in the world

Sarah had been teaching permaculture for years before Shift was born, and her passion for sustainability helped shape what would become the Practical Sustainability Course (PSC).

Sadly, Sarah passed away in 2022, aged just 51, following a two-year battle with brain cancer. But her vision didn't end there.

🌱 Today, her legacy is thriving.

Since Shift began:
🌿 1,868+ students have been supported in Permaculture and sustainability learning through their courses
🎓 400+ students have completed the PSC journey
👩‍🏫 40+ experienced tutors continue to share their knowledge
🌍 Graduates have gone on to create community gardens, regenerative growing projects, repair cafés, eco-building businesses and more.

Sarah's vision lives on every time a graduate puts their skills into practice, restores nature, builds community or inspires someone else to make a difference.

As Laura says: “That's Sarah's legacy. It's living and growing every single day.”

And now, a new generation of changemakers can continue that legacy through the Practical Sustainability Course.

🌱 Find out more and explore the next course:
🌐 www.shiftbristol.org.uk/psc
📩 Email Kizzie: [email protected]

🌱 Additional bursaries now available for the Practical Sustainability Course from Shift Bristol. 💚

At Shift Bristol, we've always been committed to making our programmes as accessible as possible through our sliding-scale fee structure and concessionary places.

This year, thanks to the generosity of our community, we're able to go one step further.

Thanks to donations from our Crowdfunder, together with a generous gift from a supporter of Shift, we've created an additional bursary fund for people who already qualify for our Full Concession Fee, but for whom the remaining course fee would still make attending impossible.

We know that even with significant concessions, some people continue to face financial barriers to accessing learning. These bursaries are designed to help remove those final barriers.

If you believe you may be eligible, we'd love to hear from you.

Applications are now open.

✅ Deadline for applications: 20th August
✅ All bursaries will be assigned by: 24th August

🌿 Find out more here, or click the link in our bio: https://shorturl.at/wBqqI

Together, we're helping ensure that access to transformative sustainability education is shaped by people's passion and potential—not simply by what they can afford.

🌍 Find out more: www.shiftbristol.org.uk/psc
📩 Email Kizzie: [email protected]

Since launching in 2010, Shift Bristol's Practical Sustainability Course (PSC) has inspired almost 400 students to rethink what's possible. Graduates have gone on to launch their own businesses, begin green careers, buy land, establish smallholdings, write books and become leaders in sustainability and community resilience.

The course isn't about sitting in a classroom reading textbooks. It's an immersive, hands-on experience taught by over 40 expert tutors and practitioners, covering everything from permaculture design and green building to renewable energy, woodland management, organic horticulture and community engagement.

💚 The numbers speak for themselves:
🌿 Established in 2010
👩‍🏫 40+ expert tutors
🎓 Almost 400 graduates
🤝 A thriving community of "Shifties" creating positive change across the UK.

If you've been looking for more than just another course, if you're searching for purpose, practical skills and a community that will inspire you for years to come, the Practical Sustainability Course could be exactly what you're looking for.

🌱 Ready to begin your sustainability journey?

🌍 Find out more: www.shiftbristol.org.uk/psc
📩 Email Kizzie: [email protected]

💚 "I wouldn't be where I am today without Shift."

Sometimes, a course doesn't just teach you new skills, it changes the direction of your life.

That's exactly what so many students say after completing the Practical Sustainability Course (PSC) at Shift Bristol. From discovering new career paths and building lifelong friendships to gaining the confidence to make a real difference, the PSC is about so much more than sustainability. It's about finding purpose, community and a new way of thinking.

Through hands-on workshops, inspiring field trips and practical learning, you'll explore regenerative living, renewable energy, natural building, food growing and so much more, all alongside a community of like-minded people who want to create a more sustainable future.

If you're ready to learn practical skills, reconnect with nature and be part of something bigger, the Practical Sustainability Course could be exactly the shift you've been looking for, and, it starts in September.

🌱 Find out more: www.shiftbristol.org.uk/psc
📧 Email: [email protected]

With your absolutely INCREDIBLE support - we have reached our first target of £20,000 🥳🥳🥳

We are completely blown away by this. Absolutely AMAZED by your support 🙏🙏🙏

AANNDD we still have 24 hours of Match Funding from the brilliant Community Fund 🤩

⏰️ So if you still have some spare change in your pocket you're keen to put in our pot, you have 24hrs to MAXIMISE that donation and DOUBLE that pocket change woooohoooo ⏰️

Because... We have a stretch target of another £5,000!

🌱 This money will specifically seek to raise enough to offer a subsidised place for someone who would be otherwise unable to participate due to finances
- There are a few places left.. applications open if you are seeking inspiration and transformation!

With huge love and appreciation,

🧡

We're recruiting!

Come and join our team 🧡

We are looking for someone to become our new Classroom Facilitator on the year-long Practical Sustainability Course, position starting this August 🤸

The PSC Co-Facilitator supports the delivery, relational culture, and practical flow of the Practical Sustainability Course alongside the Lead PSC Facilitator.

Are you...?

🌞 Warm, grounded with dynamic interpersonal skills

🌿 Keenly interested, or have experience, in sustainability, permaculture & ecology

🙌 Passionate for facilitation and/or community learning.

🐝 Able to work collaboratively within a facilitation team.

🫖 Someone who practices good self-care and cultivates resilience

🌱 Reliable, organised, and adaptable

🌼 Willingness to learn and develop facilitation skills & capacity

☔️ Comfortable in practical and outdoor learning environments

.. then please apply!

Application deadline: July 28th, Midnight

https://www.rootstowork.org/jobs/?job_id=7460

Corrrr blimey! What a day!

/ Another day in the life on this ridiculous and rambling course 🤸

Huge huge thanks and gratitude to Monica and Nicola, the brilliant beekeepers who have guided many generations of Shifties through long grass to secluded beehives. Almost sacred.

We've always visited the hives at Ragmans Lane Farm for this field trip, but this year have been incredibly fortunate to be welcomed into Monica's home, and taken on a tour of the tree hives, log hives, top-bar hives, skeps and bee HEAVEN that is her garden.

🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝 🐝

Scroll to the end to see Tove, Tove's tatto, and a tiny tiny frog about to be returned to the pond.

Heya!

We are down-scaling our next Open Day due to unforseen circumstances but we do still hope you can join us!

Same date! Different venue and times...

We are shifting venues to our beloved home-from-hone classroom, The Gasworks Studio in St Werburghs.

Doors will be open from 11.00 - 2.30

Refreshments provided :)

All ages welcome, bring a friend, a neighbour, your kids!

Contact us with any questions: [email protected]

🧡🧡🧡