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Intentional Communities Program

Each year we get dozens of inquiries from individuals and groups who are passionately interested in creating intentional community. Some want to buy an urban house together, lowering their costs and sharing their lives in the city. Others want to find land in a rural area to farm, build natural homes and share resources. Still others seek to form a community to be the basis of an educational center, spiritual retreat or business venture. In observing this phenomenon around the U.S., it is clear that many people are involved in the revival of an old urge — the desire to weave together the often disjointed core components of our lives: family, work, home, friends, social change, spirituality, celebration, study, and leisure interests. Responding to this need, over the past eight years OAEC staff have given workshops to several hundred people who aspire to create and sustain an intentional community. We have provided consultation services to hundreds more.

To help those who want to find or create an intentional community, we have observed and learned from many of the hundreds of communities that exist in California and around the U.S. We also draw much from our own experiences in creating our thriving Sowing Circle community and the nonprofit Occidental Arts and Ecology Center. We have developed a curriculum that systematically covers the why, what, where, with whom, and other myriad details that are needed in order to turn the idea of a community into a reality. In our courses we especially focus on locating land, finding the right people, financing a purchase, financial models, decision-making structures, group process and agreements, legal forms for holding real property in common, and working with zoning and county or city regulations.

In 2008 we are offering two three-day courses on “Starting and Sustaining Intentional Communities.” One weekend course happens in the Spring and one in the Fall. We will also continue to provide consultation services for education centers, nonprofit organizations, farm operations, and budding intentional communities. Contact Dave Henson (ext. 214) or Adam Wolpert (ext. 209) for more information.

OAEC's Intentional Communities Program includes:

  • Teaching two Intentional Communities courses at OAEC. One course is offered in the Spring and one is offered in the Fall. (Since 1994, we have provided this course to over 200 individuals seeking to start intentional communities.)
  • Teaching Democratic Decision-Making courses to help nonprofit organizations, public agencies and local businesses operate more effectively and more democratically.
  • Teaching decision-making workshops for OAEC’s Permaculture, School Garden and Watershed trainings.
  • Consulting with existing intentional communities, nonprofit education centers, nonprofit organizations, and farm operations in Northern California and around the US. (Since 1994, we have consulted with over 50 groups and farms around the US.)