Herbalista Apprenticeship
Join the Herbalista Crew!
We are now accepting apprenticeship applications for Fall of 2017.
Application Deadline – August 15th
Thank you for your interest in our work and helping us build community through herbalism! The link to the application form is at the bottom of this page.
APPRENTICESHIP HERBALISTA
This apprenticeship is a blend of educational opportunity, responsibility, and hard work! We are a small operation facilitating a large number of projects. Joining our crew will allow you to participate in the nuts ‘n bolts of grassroots community healthcare. Please note, this is NOT an academic clinical program but an experiential opportunity.
The Herbalista Health Network, hubbed in Atlanta, provides clinical and educational services in the Atlanta area, across the country, and even across the pond.
This current apprenticeship opening is to work at the Atlanta Herbalista HQ, which is the heart of our operation. From here we maintain the mother dispensary and facilitates all of our local programming such as the Herb Cart, the Herb Bus, the Grow a Row Program, the Herbalista Community Health Fair, and the Harriet Tubman Foot Care Clinic.
The main apprentice days of work are Monday afternoons, when we work the Harriet Tubman Foot Clinic, and Wednesday’s for the other Herbalista programming. There can also be other events scattered throughout the year, such as teaching events or fundraisers or plant processing work, that will require additional assistance.
Due to the large amount of responsibility our apprentices manage, a strong working knowledge of herbal medicine is required. You must have a foundation in medicine making, materia medica, and western medical herbalism. A familiarity with TCM and/or Ayurved is also helpful.
FULL DISCLOSURE:
Dedicating yourself to free community herbal healthcare is not an easy task! Basically, it’s not always a rose-scented-cauldron-stirring kinda situation.
The hours we spend in actual clinic are minor in comparison to all of the behind the scenes work we must do to keep a project like this going! There is bottle washing. There is schlepping. There is paperwork. There is medicine making. There is kit maintenance. There is organizing… and reorganizing. There is scheduling. There is fundraising. And yes, there is laundry and dishes.
We are the underbelly of healthcare and we take on what others won’t or can’t. We make the best of often shitty situations. We navigate difficult personalities and bear witness to injustice at all levels of society. We do a lot with a little and a little with next to nothing. We make a difference… sometimes. We are cultivating community day by day, planting seeds and pulling weeds (which we then turn into medicine, of course.)
We self-reflect. We acknowledge our privilege and our trauma. We acknowledge those things in the world. We meet people where they are at. We hold safe space. We do our best and we make mistakes. We learn and we give it another shot. We are works in progress.
Community herbalism inspires creativity and promotes agility. It is empowering and humbling. It illuminates your mind, nurtures your capacity for love, but can also break your heart. For me the important thing is that we are in this together. We have each other and we have the plants.
We are lucky to be community herbalists indeed!
This apprenticeship requires a 1 year commitment. There is no tuition fee for this program. We have between 2 and 3 apprentices on a rolling basis. Most apprentices join the crew after becoming involved in other aspects of our health network, either volunteering for our Herbalista Community Health Fair, the Harriet Tubman Foot Care Clinic, or joining the Herb Cart Program.
If you have passion for supporting and serving your neighbors (both people and plants), if you have a basic knowledge of herbal medicine, if you can dedicate the time to our mission, and you are ready to make a commitment to our crew, please complete the application form from the link below, and return via email to Lorna@Herbalista.org
Thank you for your commitment to building a more vital and verdant community through herbalism. Viva la Herb Bus!
~Lorna Mauney-Brodek, Herbalista
Herbalista Apprenticeship Application