Bertha Earth’s mission is to grow a diverse network of young environmental leaders, storytellers and changemakers who protect, nurture and celebrate our planet, now and for generations to come.

One of Bertha Earth’s core programs is the Bertha Earth (BE) Ambassadors Programme which is an innovative 2-3 year program for 11-13 year olds, with the opportunity for older ambassadors, 16-18 year olds, to become senior mentors.

The program consists of a blend of environmental activism, impactful storytelling, leadership, community engagement, self-care and resilience training and supports young people who are committed and fired up about having a positive environmental impact.

Be The Earth is a hybrid organization that combines for-profit and philanthropic investments, envisioning local and regenerative ecosystems that nurture all beings. Be the Earth primarily supports people and organizations that are actively engaged in the transition of food systems, from exploitative to regenerative practices. Acknowledging the urgent need for systemic approaches to leverage impact – ancient cultures, wellbeing and alternative economies, as well as other key-subjects, are also featured within the organization’s diverse formats of investing in the future. From activists to CEO’s, from grassroots associations to start-ups, from unrestricted grants to equity and loans: Be The Earth fosters transformation through nurturing relationships within an ecosystem of people, programs and places – all of whom are partners, allies and friends. Based in the UK, the organization also focuses on Brazil and South Africa as main geographic areas.

Philippi Village (PV) works with stakeholders every day to better understand how to craft  offerings to respond to immediate needs, and shifting and evolving to respond to this. 

Philippi Village started this process 2 years ago with a community mapping activity where they mapped tenant needs, and also mapped the homes surrounding their space to get a better idea of who their neighbours are, what they need and what skills and resources they have that Philippi Village can learn from. This process helped them to better understand who made up their community and how better to respond to their needs. 

They unpacked the results and shared them with the community through a series of events and public participation exercises. Where they also got the community to unpack these results and test the findings.  For example, if people said they wanted more “sports” PV held a festival where community members could test out different sporting activities from soccer to cycling and skateboarding. They then used these findings to help design their offerings. 

Philippi Village is at the start of a really exciting project called Project Placemaker, where they are developing 8 hectares of land to respond to these findings from their work with communities. 

Slowly, their space is becoming a community hub – a home for the community living in Philippi and a place for the professional and entrepreneurial community within Philippi,  providing much needed space for entrepreneurs to grow their companies whilst at the same time, providing the community of Philippi with access to the local services offered by the entrepreneurs, and broader use of the safe and secure facilities.

All of Philippi Village’s activities are guided by a set of principles prioritizing community engagement, involvement and collaboration.