The Resilient Skills Series is a once a month opportunity to explore different skills through a rewilding lens. It is intentionally accessible with no to low-cost options, and no previous experience is necessary to attend.
Our Resilient Skills Series has one core ethic behind it:
All people must have access to creating resilience in their lives.
Contemporary life finds us completely dependent on a very fragile network of global connections and technologies. We have become disassociated from the land where we live: our food comes from hundreds and thousands of miles away, we spend countless hours indoors, interacting with screens in human-created virtual worlds instead of the natural other-than-human reality that surrounds us. This has many negative effects on our physical and mental health, as well as making us less prepared for the inevitable failure of these systems. Yet access to learning any other way often comes with a high price.
Rewild Portland urgently works against this trend. Since 2010 we have hosted the monthly Free Skills Series (our first program ever). Now rebranded as the Resilient Skills Series, the program includes a limited number of free seats, as well as subsidized pricing to cover our operating costs, and full price seats to support keeping this program available and accessible into the future.
The Resilient Skills Series ensures participants of all ages and levels of experience are introduced to various skills and knowledge. This is an inclusive space for people of all abilities and backgrounds to learn and share with each other. We are queer-friendly, straight-friendly, race-friendly, gender-friendly, age-friendly, family-friendly—just plain friendly! All of the skills we practice come with a set of ethical principles for environmental sustainability through reverence and regeneration. These offerings include limited free seats in service to the community, and we welcome donations to offset our costs as well as to support the continuation of this vital program.
These classes work to build resilience on multiple levels. On the surface, they enhance each participant’s skills and knowledge, showing them how to get what they need from their own place rather than relying on global systems. Our participants learn, for example, how to find, identify, sustainably harvest, and prepare foods that grow all around them; how to start a fire without matches or lighters, but by rubbing sticks together harvested from the trees in their own neighborhood; how to increase their physical and mental health through connecting to nature using their body and senses; and how to make medicine from the plants that grow in their own backyard.
But while the Resilient Skills Series may seem at first glance like a skills class, it’s actually a community-building program. When someone attends the Resilient Skills Series, they are surrounding themselves with people who are seeking the same skills and the same connection to place. Here, people make friends and create communities together. This leads to participants teaching and learning from one another outside the context of the Resilient Skills Series, or even Rewild Portland. This is our ultimate goal: to create robust social connections that exist without need or input from us, that ultimately make the Resilient Skills Series obsolete. While skills are certainly important for resilience, these social connections are the most important and valuable aspect of our program.
So, what are you waiting for? Check out all our exciting themes for this coming year, and RSVP by clicking on the link below. All themes, dates, times, and locations are subject to change. Thank you for you interest in and support of our programming!
Support the Resilient Skills Series
This program is made possible through regular donations from individuals we call recurring supporters. Are you someone with an income who can give a little to make this program possible? Become a recurring supporter today! And thank you for making the Resilient Skills Series accessible and an ongoing core offering of Rewild Portland.
Become a Sustaining Donor
Community Partners
The Resilient Skills Series is in part made possible with our local business sponsors. We are always looking for business sponsorships for the Resilient Skills Series. You can read more about that here.
How to Register for the Resilient Skills Series
The best way to make sure you register on time is through our e-newsletter! In order to be reminded to register, you must be subscribed and follow the link in the monthly e-mail. Sign up to our newsletter below and make sure that the confirmation does not go to your spam filter. We send one or two e-mails a month with all of our upcoming programs and a link to register for the next Resilient Skills Series.
2026 Resilient Skills Series Themes
**Themes Are subject to chagne**
Saturday, July 18th 2–4pm @ Irving Park, NE 7th Ave. and Fremont St, Portland, Oregon
Making rope used to be an essential skill for everyone. With industrialization came machines that can make string and rope in such large quantities we no longer think about the energy and effort involved. In this class we will teach you how to spin cord with your own two hands. Many plant fibers are useful for making rope and we’ll cover which ones and how to ethically harvest. Time permitting, we’ll make a simple knotted back from cord.
About the instructor: Jared Sessions is a Portland-based wilderness skills instructor and certified Wilderness First Responder. He has spent years exploring the Pacific Northwest through camping, backpacking, and hiking, and continues to deepen his training in survival and nature-based education. His teaching emphasizes practical preparedness, firecraft, shelter skills, and calm decision-making in the outdoors.
Resilient Skills Series
The Resilient Skills Series is a once a month opportunity to explore different skills through a rewilding lens. It is intentionally accessible with no to low-cost options, and no previous experience is necessary to attend.
Our Resilient Skills Series has one core ethic behind it:
Contemporary life finds us completely dependent on a very fragile network of global connections and technologies. We have become disassociated from the land where we live: our food comes from hundreds and thousands of miles away, we spend countless hours indoors, interacting with screens in human-created virtual worlds instead of the natural other-than-human reality that surrounds us. This has many negative effects on our physical and mental health, as well as making us less prepared for the inevitable failure of these systems. Yet access to learning any other way often comes with a high price.
Rewild Portland urgently works against this trend. Since 2010 we have hosted the monthly Free Skills Series (our first program ever). Now rebranded as the Resilient Skills Series, the program includes a limited number of free seats, as well as subsidized pricing to cover our operating costs, and full price seats to support keeping this program available and accessible into the future.
The Resilient Skills Series ensures participants of all ages and levels of experience are introduced to various skills and knowledge. This is an inclusive space for people of all abilities and backgrounds to learn and share with each other. We are queer-friendly, straight-friendly, race-friendly, gender-friendly, age-friendly, family-friendly—just plain friendly! All of the skills we practice come with a set of ethical principles for environmental sustainability through reverence and regeneration. These offerings include limited free seats in service to the community, and we welcome donations to offset our costs as well as to support the continuation of this vital program.
These classes work to build resilience on multiple levels. On the surface, they enhance each participant’s skills and knowledge, showing them how to get what they need from their own place rather than relying on global systems. Our participants learn, for example, how to find, identify, sustainably harvest, and prepare foods that grow all around them; how to start a fire without matches or lighters, but by rubbing sticks together harvested from the trees in their own neighborhood; how to increase their physical and mental health through connecting to nature using their body and senses; and how to make medicine from the plants that grow in their own backyard.
But while the Resilient Skills Series may seem at first glance like a skills class, it’s actually a community-building program. When someone attends the Resilient Skills Series, they are surrounding themselves with people who are seeking the same skills and the same connection to place. Here, people make friends and create communities together. This leads to participants teaching and learning from one another outside the context of the Resilient Skills Series, or even Rewild Portland. This is our ultimate goal: to create robust social connections that exist without need or input from us, that ultimately make the Resilient Skills Series obsolete. While skills are certainly important for resilience, these social connections are the most important and valuable aspect of our program.
So, what are you waiting for? Check out all our exciting themes for this coming year, and RSVP by clicking on the link below. All themes, dates, times, and locations are subject to change. Thank you for you interest in and support of our programming!
Support the Resilient Skills Series
This program is made possible through regular donations from individuals we call recurring supporters. Are you someone with an income who can give a little to make this program possible? Become a recurring supporter today! And thank you for making the Resilient Skills Series accessible and an ongoing core offering of Rewild Portland.
Community Partners
The Resilient Skills Series is in part made possible with our local business sponsors. We are always looking for business sponsorships for the Resilient Skills Series. You can read more about that here.
How to Register for the Resilient Skills Series
The best way to make sure you register on time is through our e-newsletter! In order to be reminded to register, you must be subscribed and follow the link in the monthly e-mail. Sign up to our newsletter below and make sure that the confirmation does not go to your spam filter. We send one or two e-mails a month with all of our upcoming programs and a link to register for the next Resilient Skills Series.
2026 Resilient Skills Series Themes
**Themes Are subject to chagne**
Saturday, July 18th
2–4pm @ Irving Park, NE 7th Ave. and Fremont St, Portland, Oregon
Making rope used to be an essential skill for everyone. With industrialization came machines that can make string and rope in such large quantities we no longer think about the energy and effort involved. In this class we will teach you how to spin cord with your own two hands. Many plant fibers are useful for making rope and we’ll cover which ones and how to ethically harvest. Time permitting, we’ll make a simple knotted back from cord.
About the instructor: Jared Sessions is a Portland-based wilderness skills instructor and certified Wilderness First Responder. He has spent years exploring the Pacific Northwest through camping, backpacking, and hiking, and continues to deepen his training in survival and nature-based education. His teaching emphasizes practical preparedness, firecraft, shelter skills, and calm decision-making in the outdoors.
Instagram: @redbearcrossin
August 15 – No Skills Series
September 19 – Roadkill Processing
October 17 – Seasonal Ritual
November 21 – English Ivy Basket Making
December 19 – Friction Fire