The Center for Community Alternatives is a ten year old non-profit, non-membership organization now headquartered in Hurdle Mills, North Carolina. Formerly called EcoAccess, the Center’s work is the creation and dissemination of sustainable alternatives to failed and failing systems of economics, food supply, community, water use, energy production, housing, education, and governance. Our work targets both urban and rural environments, affecting the communities in which we live and transforming others as our models are replicated.
The Center has an 8 acre farm in Hurdle Mills, North Carolina where research and educational programs will take place that will include integrated, small scale animal and crop production using best sustainable practices ranging from localized, renewable energy production and low water use, to biodynamic agricultural techniques and practicing conservation biology by utilizing both animal and plant heritage breeds. Located just 10 minutes north west of Hillsborough, the Center is within a half hour's drive or less from West Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.
The principals behind the Center for Community Alternatives include:
Christian Stalberg
Originally from California, Christian has lived in North Carolina for over seventeen years. Before that he spent most of his life in California but has also lived in Idaho, Washington, Arizona, and New York City.
Background
Christian grew up in the Santa Cruz mountains of North California in a house his father, a broadcast radio engineer, designed and built with his own, two bare hands on 10 acres of wilderness. The house was off the grid, starting out with a World War II hand crank started diesel electric generator which they would run so his mother could wash the clothes. In due course his father designed and installed a deep cycle battery bank using automotive batteries to which he connected a separate 12 volt DC power system which ran a few lights, a stereo and a 10 inch black and white television. Water was pumped from a nearby creek up a hill to a water tank which gravity fed water to the house below. The property was so remote they had no telephone service, so they installed a radio telephone. Eventually, Pac Bell ran a telephone line through the neighborhood and they had a party line telephone for a year or two, eventually graduating to a private line phone. Christian grew up on a hobby farm, participated in 4-H, and along the way learned all the trades that someone living on a self-sufficient homestead must know including, but not limited to: welding, plumbing, electrical, internal combustion engines, and carpentry.
Farming/Food Production
In the late 1970's Christian was a member of the newly formed California Certified Organic Farmers. He learned the French Intensive Biodynamic method of intensive food production from John Jeavons in Palo Alto (who learned it from Alan Chadwick).
Stalberg lived close to the Santa Clara valley which has some of the richest soil in the world for agriculture. He worked a couple of years for a second generation Italian farmer in Morgan Hill who raised prunes, walnuts and cherries. Stalberg also worked on lettuce and corn farms in Arizona close to the Mexican border.
Currently Christian is developing an 8 acre mini-farm in Hurdle Mills where the Center will offer education and training programs.
Sustainability/Appropriate Technology
Christian lived and worked at the Farallones Institute in Occidental, California. While there he worked on Econet, the worlds first international computer network devoted to the environmental and international development community. He also lived at the Institute's urban center where as caretaker he gave tours to people from all over the world who made the pilgrimage to visit the world's premier experiment in urban self-sufficiency. The sustainability and self-sufficiency work that took place at the urban center became a popular best selling book entitled The Integral Urban House: Self-Reliant Living in the City.
Cooperatives
Stalberg was deeply involved in the cooperatives movement for years, serving on the Boards of three food cooperatives, Two in California and one in North Carolina. He has had cooperatives Board training from NASCO and attended two Consumer Cooperative Alliance conferences, which is the International Co-operative Alliance chapter in the United States.
Renewable Energy/Energy Conservation
Christian was trained in renewable energy and energy conservation and currently works as a freelance energy modeler.
Telecomputing
With his father's assistance, Christian cut his teeth on electronics at twelve years of age by becoming an amateur radio operator with the call sign WB6OMK. Using antennas and radio equipment he built himself he communicated with other "ham operators" around the world. Christian still holds an FCC Advanced Class license (N6DJR) although he has not been on the air in years. Having grown up close to Silicon Valley in California, Christian has an extensive background in computing and networks, having started to work with computers in 1980. He developed a keen interest in global computer networking which led him to meet and/or work with some of the early pioneers of the computer revolution, including Lee Felsenstein, Steve Jobs, Douglas Englebart, Stewart Brand and Jacques Vallee. Christian has several publications on the subject of telecomputing.
Hazard Mitigation/Precautionary Action/Disaster Recovery
In 1989 while living in California, Christian had a good friend who worked in the California Governors Office of Emergency Services. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, he was asked by this friend to come to work as they needed help responding to the overwhelming disaster. This began a career for Christian which ultimately led him to work for FEMA and also as an independent consultant to a number state and local governments. Christian has several publications on the subject of hazard mitigation and disaster recovery.
International Development
In the mid-eighties Christian became involved with the San Francisco Partners of the Americas. San Francisco was 'partnered' with Mexico City, D.F. Stalberg was on the Board of Directors for several years and also served as Executive Director. Stalberg's interest in Asian cultures caused him to visit India in 1977 and China in 2005.
Business Development/Entrepreneurialism
Christian has started and/or served on the management teams of several small businesses over the years. In the mid-eighties he sold time sharing on the Tymnet international packet switching network, developing custom networks for several clients including CARE, the Pan American Health Organization, and the U.S. Distance Learning Association. In the 1990's he built and sold two web-based businesses. Triangle Roommates, which matched roommates with rental properties, and Develop.Net, an internet consulting and server hosting business.
Non-Profit Organizations
Stalberg has been active in non-profit organizations for over thirty years. His experience includes having incorporated and obtaining IRS tax exempt status, grantsmanship, serving as a Board member, events organizing, newsletter editor and publisher, and acting as executive director. Examples of non-profit organizations he has worked with include Partners of the Americas, Baylor Research Foundation, International Informatics Access, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, Durham Committee for Community Media and NC WARN.
Terry Grunwald
Terry Grunwald, a member of the international Making the Net Work collaborative, is a consultant in the strategic use of technology for communities and nonprofit organizations. Her work includes development of community participation, planning, and collaboration tools and games, workshops, and web site content for local leaders, nonprofits and government agencies – all focused around community technology issues. The Community Technology Game has been widely used as a visioning and empowerment tool for initiatives ranging from community grids and CTCs to digital champions and nonprofit technology projects.
From 1990-98, she served as the project director of NC exChange, the first statewide program in the U.S. (based in North Carolina) designed to meet the networking needs of the nonprofit community. She was the author of the 1997 guide "Making the NET Work: On-Line Strategies for Community-Based Organizations". Versions of the guide have been published in the UK and Australia.
Terry’s work has included: (1) strategic IT planning and various activities for the Southern Rural Development Initiative (including design support for their Parables to Policy project); (2) consultation on development of community networking plans for rural Texas; (3) creation of content for a Community Learning website for the Scottish government; and (4) collaboration in the development of a Community Networking Toolbox for the Department of Trade and Industry (UK). 5) She has presented a series of workshops on the theme of community technology and nonprofit networking throughout the U.S. and internationally. She was the keynote speaker at the Flaxroots Technology conference in Auckland, New Zealand and the Women Connect conference in London. She has toured England and Scotland on several occasions at the invitation of Partnerships Online and has made presentations to community networking groups, librarians, community developers, and local officials.
Her articles (1) Seven Steps to Building Electronic Communities, co-authored with Philippa Gamse," and (2) Terry's Thirteen Treacherous "T" Barriers for Networking Nonprofits are often cited.
In addition, Terry has over 20 years experience in nonprofit management and has served as Executive Director of four nonprofit organizations in St. Louis and New York working on issues such as crime victim assistance and community development. She also worked for seven years in the New York City agency responsible for housing and development. She has served on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Neighborhoods and as a national Board member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.
She has a BA from Barnard College and an MS in Planning from Pratt Institute. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.
