Chelsea has been running ECOSS, a 17-acre community environment hub in Wesburn, Victoria, for over a decade. She also lives at Moora Moora Co-operative Community, one of Australia's oldest intentional communities. In this conversation, she shares what it actually takes to build regenerative community infrastructure: the failures, the grants, the asbestos, and the $50,000 nursery order that never got paid.

This is one of the most honest conversations we've had about the business side of not-for-profit social enterprise, and what it means to build a life centred on ecological and social sustainability.

🌱 In this episode you'll learn:

• How ECOSS transformed a former industrial chicken farm into a thriving permaculture community hub
• Why the $50,000 nursery order was a classic not-for-profit business mistake, and what the "Madagascar lesson" means for any purpose-driven organisation
• How the ECOSS disability inclusion garden (funded through NDIS packages) creates a two-way model of community care
• What 50 years of Moora Moora Co-operative Community teaches us about intentional living that lasts
• Why farm resilience depends on diversification from Jean-Martin Fortier's intensive model to Joel Salatin's Polyface approach
• Chelsea's take on why everyone in the city is quietly on a journey out of it

👤 About Chelsea & ECOSS
Chelsea is the Executive Officer of ECOSS (Ecological & Social Sustainability), a community environment hub at 711 Old Warburton Rd, Wesburn VIC. ECOSS runs food relief programs, disability inclusion gardens, First Nations cultural events, a weekly produce market, and much more.

🔗 ECOSS website: https://www.ecoss.org.au

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