This course is to train to teach growing skills in your community.
Learn from experts in vegetable growing, medicinal herbs, mushrooms, chicken care, and community building.
This course gives you the skills, confidence, and support to run your own workshops, earn income, and inspire people where you live.
After the course you’ll join the We Grow network – a supportive community of growers sharing resources, advice, and opportunities.
It’s part training, part retreat, and all about creating real change from the ground up.
Don’t want to train to teach?
Our 1 day courses are great for improving your growing skills.
Help people grow their own food and reconnect with nature
Teach and inspire others in your local area
Earn from something you love doing
Build a self-sustaining community network
Be part of a nationwide movement for healthier soil and people
100+ families have started growing their own food. Help your community to grow together too.
This course is perfect if you’re:
You’ll need some veg growing experience, but you don’t need prior experience with herbs, mushrooms, or chickens — we’ll teach you everything.
Don’t want to train to teach?
Our 1 day courses are great for improving your growing skills.
Veg Growing & Teaching
Set up and teach community plots
Medicinal Herbs
Teach your community to grow and use herbs for wellbeing
Chicken Care
Teach others how to keep hens responsibly
Mushroom Cultivation
Fungi growing made simple.
Community Leadership
Connect people with land and develop a local network of groups.
Ongoing Mentoring
Mentoring sessions after your weekend training
5 in-person modules + 8 online sessions:
The Community Leaders course costs £450 (plus camping at £20pn or private room stay at £80pn which is payable to the venue separately).
We ask that you book on the course at least 4 weeks before the course start date. The Community Leaders course runs 3 times in 2026: you can apply to join on the first weekend of May, June or September.
We have been awarded funding through Chalk Cliff Trust to offer a few subsidised places, so if the full cost of the course is difficult for you, please get in touch to discuss a bursary with us at training@wegrow.org.uk
5 in-person modules taught by our experts
Nir Halfon is a highly experienced grower, trainer, and advocate for sustainable, local, and agroecological food systems. His career has spanned both practical and educational.
Trained in Permaculture and Biodynamic farming, Nir served for many years as Head Grower and Farm Director at Old Plawhatch Farm, East Sussex. He has also managed horticultural and arboricultural apprenticeships at Plumpton College, East Sussex, and is currently running the Biodynamic courses at Emerson College.
Jemma Ward is a Medical Herbalist, committed to promoting health and well-being and passionate about empowering people to safely create herbal medicine from the plants that grow around them. Jemma shares a unique perspective rooted in the tradition of Western Herbal Medicine (WHM). She studied Herbal Medicine at Westminster University and is a professional member of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (NIMH).
Jemma thrives in a multidisciplinary clinic, whilst operating her own apothecary Tribe Herbs. She teaches herbal medicine making workshops in the UK and abroad, and leads herbal walks aimed at connecting people to the healing power of plants whilst encouraging relationships with nature.
Elle Fox brings a hands-on, practical approach to the art of chicken keeping. Not just the basics of feeding and housing, but the deeper understanding of natural poultry care, holistic health, and the relationship between humans and their flocks. Her approach is about understanding, confidence, and practical application.
Elle is passionate about reviving forgotten skills and sharing hands-on knowledge that can be passed on within communities. Elle focuses on practical skills that support sustainability, so that participants leave with the knowledge and confidence to teach others about good practice in chicken care.
Alex Weisflog is the founder and owner of Flogs Fungi Ltd, a UK based company specialising in mushroom cultivation, with a strong drive for sustainable agriculture.
Alex built Flogs Fungi from the ground-up, growing mushrooms using self produced grain and substrates. With a deep respect for fungi, Alex is passionate about teaching others how to cultivate mushrooms and show simple methods for all levels of understanding.
Alex developed the We Grow mushroom module together with Luke Manders, Director of Campesina Kitchen. Luke has taught mushroom production in the UK and abroad and collaborated with other mycologists to produce a manual called Small Scale Sustainable Mushroom Production for Refugee Settlements, through the regenerative impact organisation, ReAlliance.
“I’ve had such a great time on the course and met lots of lovely people. We Grow has helped me grow as a person and grown my community too.”
“Transformative! I started running workshops in my local community right after the course.”
“I’ve learnt so much and have gained a lot more confidence in my skills. Thank you to the brilliant course teachers – can’t wait to share the knowledge!”
This course is to train to teach growing skills in your community.
Ready to Grow Your Community?
Take the next step towards a healthier, more connected world.
The full 3 day course runs from 11am Friday and finishes around 6.30pm on the Sunday.
Email us at training@wegrow.org.uk We have been awarded funding to offer some subsidised places for 2026.
You will need to book with Emerson directly, after you’ve been accepted onto our course. They have the option of a private room (£80pn) or you can camp on their land in a tent or your own van (£20pn).
All meals are provided during the course.
If you let us know on your booking form, we will email you to ask more specifically about your allergies, so that we can inform the kitchen team about what you need.
Yes, if you’d like to become a Community Leader you need to attend each part of the course. If you’d prefer to train in just one subject from the course in order to teach it in your community (ie mushroom growing or chicken care), you’d be best to book on to one of our one-day courses.
These are optional. It’s a chance for anyone who has done a We Grow course to ask more questions, so that you can firm up your knowledge. But it’s not necessary if you feel you have learnt enough during the course.
This course is to train to teach growing skills in your community.
Running workshops will essentially be your own business. You can opt to be advertised on the We Grow website as the Community Leader for your area – this helps to get people signing up to your workshops and so it brings you more business.
The first 3 months of We Grow advertising is free to people who have been on a course. After that, assuming you’ve built up a good number of followers in your community, you will be asked to pay £25 per month for We Grow to continue advertising you in your local area.
If this amount is difficult for you, you can chat with us at that point and we’ll offer some support if we can.
We Grow is a CIC (Community Interest Company) which means it is a company which works for charitable purposes in the community. It cannot legally hold profit – any excess money has to go back into community projects.
The money from course fees pays for the venue hire, teachers time, food for the course, promotion to advertise the courses, admin to run the courses, and the printing of posters and the Handbook that you are given at the end of the course to take home with you.
The money from Community Leaders monthly advertising contributions pays for the We Grow team to advertise and promote in the areas that Community Leaders are running workshops.
Don’t want to train to teach? Our 1 day courses are great for improving your growing skills.
