How Signal Craft II Helped Birth the Jemez Springs Hub and a Regenerative Storytelling Model for Bloom Worldwide

What vision, opportunity, or community need inspired your action? Help readers who may not know your community understand what you're building toward and why it matters.

The Jemez region is home to a rich tapestry of ecological knowledge, intergenerational story, and land-based creativity, yet the community lacks accessible structures for:

1. needs-based community coherence
2. shared storytelling
3. non-extractive project incubation
4. regenerative economic pathways
5. cross-regional alignment with global organizers

Signal Craft Cohort II was born to meet these needs by introducing a natural systems approach to storytelling, branding, and community development, rooted in Manfred Max-Neef’s human needs, natural farming principles, and Bloom Network’s cooperative architecture.

This cohort aimed to:

1. support the formation of the Jemez Springs Bloom Hub
2. help organizers articulate needs → values → actions
3. prototype decentralized narrative tools
4. strengthen cross-hub relationships
5. deepen a sense of place-based stewardship
6. build confidence, coherence, and community vision

It emerged at a moment when local economics, housing pressures, and ecological degradation (water scarcity, soil depletion, cultural fragmentation) require a more grounded, relational, and regenerative approach.

What took place during the action? (What activities, events, or processes happened?)

Over four days, participants engaged in a guided experience blending natural farming philosophy, somatic attunement, regenerative economics, and storytelling methodologies.

Key activities included:

1. Object-of-Origin Practice

Participants brought meaningful objects (books, spoons, handmade clay talismans) and mapped them across the nine human needs.

This revealed universal patterns of meaning, cultural memory, and regenerative satisfiers.

2. Needs Mapping (Max-Neef)

Participants completed the Needs Assessment Chart and identified:

1. areas of fulfillment
2. unmet needs in the Jemez community
3. synergistic satisfiers already present
4. destructive satisfiers impacting local resilience

This formed the foundation for hub building.

3. Values-Mapping + Garden Visualization

Participants used a guided creative exercise (40 prompts) to draw a personal “garden” mapping how each need expresses as:

1. weeds (distortions, pressures)
2. flowers (strengths, gifts)
3. pathways (practices)
4. seasons (developmental timing)

This produced a visually intuitive and emotionally grounded diagnostic for community action.

4. Story Ecology + Archetypes

Participants learned a regenerative narrative model, including:

1. origin story → moral → boon
2. mentor/hero archetypes
3. call-to-interact
4. narrative coherence patterns
5. decentralized branding
6. ecological signal patterns
7. CTA-as-invitation

This will serve as the cultural DNA of the new hub.

5. Jemez Hub Formation

The cohort simultaneously served as the birthplace of the Jemez Springs Bloom Hub, with the first shared map of:

1. local needs
2. community assets
3. partners
4. potential roles
5. opportunities for coherence

6. Emergence of the N2R: ARC-6 Ecological Model

During the cohort, real-time prompts and participant responses revealed a full ecological model of narrative transformation that now forms Bloom’s newest storytelling engine:

1. N2R Equation (State → Disturbance → Intervention → Coherence)
2. ARC-6 (Arrival → Rupture → Coherence → Intervention → Reciprocity → Redistribution)

This emergence became one of the major outcomes of the cohort.

What truths or insights did this action reveal?

1. Needs Are the Soil of Community

Values differ across individuals, but needs are universal. Mapping needs first dissolves conflict, clarifies purpose, and enables collaboration.

2. Story Is Shared Infrastructure

When groups map shared origins, boons, and morals, they generate a living culture rather than a brand.

3. Regenerative communication can be taught.

Participants developed immediate clarity in describing their projects and roles.

4. Local hubs thrive when grounded in place.

“Medicine is where we are.”

This simple insight guided participants to identify local plants, stories, and practices as the starting point for a new hub.

5. Narrative ecology is replicable.

The methods used here can be repeated by other Bloom hubs with minimal adaptation.

6. The Jemez community is ready.

Participants expressed:

1. hunger for coherence
2. desire for relational practices
3. commitment to mutual uplift
4. a longing for local governance by the people

Gift to Community: What enduring tool, method, or story emerged that others can benefit from?

1. The N2R: ARC-6 Ecological Model (foundational Bloom contribution)

A systemic model for transforming:

1. projects
2. narratives
3. conflicts
4. community organizing
5. hub development
6. personal transformation

This is a new “operating system” for regenerative communication.

2. The Needs–Values–Story Toolkit

A template set for:

1. mapping needs
2. mapping values
3. aligning story
4. creating origin stories
5. crafting moral + boon + CTA
6. documenting ecosystem assets

3. Cohort Workbook (multi-use)

1. can be used by Bloom hubs, organizers, activists
2. can be adapted for grants, strategy sessions, or team building

4. Community Garden Metaphor

A shared visual language for discussing:

1. conflict
2. unmet needs
3. growth
4. resilience
5. assets
6. timing

5. The Birth of a New Bloom Hub

A living container for future:

1. gatherings
2. community projects
3. regenerative economics
4. youth programming
5. storytelling circles
6. land-based learning

Next Steps / Call to Action: What comes next for this project? How can your community or Bloom network support you?

1. Establish monthly Jemez Bloom circles (story + needs + projects)
2. Develop a Jemez Asset Map (land, people, plants, skills, needs)
3. Host a Needs → Values → Vision workshop (open to public)
4. Produce a Jemez Springs Hub Welcome Packet
5. Develop a community impact report for December
6. Integrate locals into Bloom’s DAO
7. Begin testing the N2R: ARC-6 Model within hub governance

How Bloom Network can support:

1. help refine templates into a shared toolkit
2. Share this cohort’s outputs across Bloom channels
3. offer microgrants for hub activation
4. spotlight Jemez Hub in the newsletter
5. help build cross-hub alliances
6. provide mentorship from active hub leaders