The Foundation for Intentional Community wants to co-create our future with you – both the future of FIC and the communities movement as a whole. In these transformative times, we are committed and inspired to support a growing community of change-makers striving to live in harmony with each other and the Earth!
What do you envision for the future of the FIC and the communities movement?
Being kinder along with creating more compassionate care in our interactions are among the best-kept secrets for revealing new collective solutions needed for these chaotic changing times. Life-changing positive movements (like cohos) are growing in the midst of the escalating chaos the planet is going through. People are progressively waking up and recognizing that we can change.
As communities based on trust and collaboration we can change things for the better. That means we can open our hearts and strive to reduce and eliminate separation and bitterness due to biases and differences. At the core of our heart, most of us desire this even if we are not in contact with the feeling at times.
Cohos are a grand foundation for co-creating the better world and thriving for all species our hearts know is possible.
Welcome to the Forum @buddhadude and thank you so much for sharing! We can all benefit from being kinder to each other through our interactions, both in person and online <3
@buddhadude Are there ways FIC could demonstrate or support this effort that we aren’t already doing? We’d love to hear more about what’s missing and what’s working well. Thank you for contributing to the conversation!
More anti-racism, and in general decolonized structure. Marginalized people exist everywhere. Let’s include them in our work by calling them in before we have to call someone else out.
First read my intro.
To stay focused on your questions… I liked the program that https://www.ecovillagetours.com/ put together.
Economics…It takes a certain income commitment but those on the lower income scale will be excluded.
The future of community can be imagined by considering any impending crisis like economic collapse…Global warming is a sign for those with eyes to see…
The screening process…and response time from communities…thinking about this…If People are working most employers limit vacation time which limits the number of communities one could visit…
@Red_Sun Thank you so much for responding. Ecovillage tours are near and dear to our heart - what specifically do you like about those programs? Absolutely – economics, membership, and community tours are all great topics. Thanks for the feedback.
Would you be interested in participating in a quick survey to help us gather some data for our programs next year? I think your insight would be especially helpful.
We would really appreciate it! 2023 Programs Survey - Foundation for Intentional Community
We need some New Leadership. And I have a New Vision.
Hammers don’t Build Houses. People Build Houses. And these Hammers don’t kill people either, so it is not an enemy that we need to destroy, with a thousand cuts, by treating Capitalism like it was a lousy person, who should be kicked out of the community, and driven insane, when it is not even a person at all.
And so we might want to Save the Hatred, for something better. We should in fact, be teaching people, to be Grateful, for what they have been given, because that is the way we will be coming together, as a Community, in Solidarity.
But all the Average Joe Consumers can do, is to knock it all down, over and over again, and to treat it, with abuse, like it was worthy, of our Contempt, just because it was unable to explain itself, to the Average Joe Consumers, which is like blaming Mathematics, for the Atomic Bomb.
Mathematics is not to blame. Mathematics is like a jewel that is highly valuable, because it is a set of tools that we can use, which did not come easy. And so we should be saving all of the formulae. And the same thing is True about Capitalism.
It did not come Easily. And we would never give that up, without a fight, unless we had learned to have no appreciation, for all the work that went into solving all of those problems. And that is exactly what happened. People learned to have no appreciation.
The Average Joe Consumers are just not even close, to being qualified, to toss every good thing that has been built right out the window, because they do not have a sufficient grasp of these matters, which are way over their heads.
Native Capitalism is being used, in service, to the Community. Why? Because it rewards knowledge, and skills, self discipline, and resources, and that is what gets things done, faster, and much more efficiently.
The People True, who are the People, who are True to the Cause, are all going to be seen, as being Self-Responsible enough, to be able, to take care, of their own needs, for the first 20 Years, and then some.
In the Game we are playing it is Sink or Swim. And if they have any problems, they can use Native Capitalism, to solve those problems.
That is part of our Legacy of Tools, which are tried and true, like Mathematics. - T McClure
Open sourcing our skill sets so that we can make progress faster - running more seminars and online content so that folks can get a leg up without paying lots of professional fees to get set up
Agreed! And more collaboration between aligned initiatives. It’s amazing how “organizational egos” and “scarcity mindsets” can make it so difficult to do that which we all know is needed.
Before I discovered Intentional Communities (and the movement as a whole), I got heavily into politics. I volunteered with my local party, ran for office twice, and eventually grew fundamentally disillusioned with the entire political process.
I say that to say this: Intentional Communities are one of the solutions for the world’s ills, but not the only solution. Politics and Governance outside the movement is broken (or built wrong from the start, depending on your perspective), and I think we would benefit from resources or trainings that gave us a way to affect change in the “outside” world.
That being said, I’m still pretty new to FIC, so if those resources already exist, I apologize for my ignorance.
I cannot speak for other places and other countries. Only for what I see happening in the US. -Since before covid, we have been developing a nation of children who do not know how to compete or win. Trophies are given for participation, not excellence. Many of our children do not know how to make decisions or how to discover solutions. They just “participate”. Then with covid, it became even worse. In many places, kids were held out of school for 2 years. They did not grow or learn. Their lives were hiding behind masks and living in fear. The result of all this is a generation of children who now exist in anxiety, ~and consume lots of pills to deal with those fears. And they often spend more time in therapy, than they do in play or work or actually living their lives.
One solution for this is homeschooling. Where parents can see to it that their children are brought up without social fears and without the constant public institutional pressures telling them to be less. There are now so many resources that allow for great teaching and learning, that most parents can now see to it that they are raising children with much more potential and ability.
It is my belief, that it is the homeschool children who will lead the way to a world of more caring and understanding. And solutions. And, perhaps, chief among those solutions will be living intentionally in communities of happier and healthier people.
I’m sorry, but I disagree. That entire “Participation trophies made an entire generation weak” thing is bunk. Speaking as someone who earned several participation trophies throughout my elementary school time, I can say that most of us knew that it wasn’t a real trophy and that there is/was a difference between competitive winning and participation.
Also, I’ve been a teacher for the last 14 years, so I’ve gotten to see the newest generations grow, and I think they’re actually more resilient than we know. They tend to lose hope, because the world they’re inheriting is awful, but they can (and do) see themselves as changemakers more often than not.
Finally, I think properly funded public schools, without strict federal curriculum requirements and room for local cultural influence and experimentation is a far better option than universal homeschooling.
Your school, or your experiences, must be most unusual. I’ve never heard of another that is doing the same.
We run a Farm School/homeschool. About 42 kids a 10-week session. Kids from all over our region. And we hear nothing but horror stories about public schooling. I think part of the truth of public “education” is in your own words, -“They (the children) tend to lose hope”. And another part of the story is how so many kids these days are on various drugs for all kinds of maladies. And then there’s the huge number of children who don’t even know if they are boys or girls. None of the kids that come to Farm School have any of those problems. Much the same as Amish educated children do not have any of those concerns either.
I think maybe you might be a bit optimistic about your "change makers. From what we see and read and hear, those public school children will often fall apart as they age. Unable to deal with “micro-aggressions”, needing safe spaces, and unable to get and hold well-paying jobs.
So to the question about “resources that give us a way to affect change”, again I would say that one of the best ways to raise children who can deal with society, can view a problem using facts, and can live lives more based on experience than on feelings, then homeschooling is a great way to go.
Perhaps just as a previous generation of free thinkers started the communes of the 60’s, this generation of intentional community folks will come from the homeschool movement.
I’m concerned about some of the flippant things you mention in regards to public school. Micro-aggressions aren’t things people can’t “deal” with, they are simply small acts or words of unintentional harm. Recognizing the existence of micro-aggressions does not make society more weak, it makes society more sensitive and inclusive, and creates room for justice.
What I mean when I say Public School is the answer is this: truly free and truly fair education for all. If your intentional community answers that call in it’s own way, that’s fantastic! But I don’t think it’s a scalable solution that can serve all people, which is what I’m after.
And I’m in no way saying that Public School is perfect as is. I don’t believe in perfection, and would never declare a human system to be perfect. Rather, I think the way schools are funded (property taxes) is wrong-headed and harmful, I think the regulations placed on schools (like high stakes testing for instance) are onerous, and create barriers to true learning.
I have many in-depth ideas for how to improve public schooling, and I appreciate your reading this.
Regarding the future of the IC movements, I think there is an ongoing trend that no one is talking about, which is the shift from nonprofit forms of community to for-profit forms. The two are quite different, and so when people talk in generalities about the movement what they say is typically relevant to one or the other of these two wings and not both. The for-profit form of community is larger now and growing faster than the nonprofit. Laird Schaub commented about this in his report on the history of “Communities” magazine when he reported that they decided to run articles on the for-profit type of IC in the late 1980s, I think due to the rise of the cohousing movement. Now there is another form of for-profit community arising, which is the land co-op. See the following paragraphs. This is not everything going on today in the movement, yet when people like Sky Blue say things like that we need a new vision or a more effective strategy, that is already happening, on its own, and the movement would do well to take notice of land co-operatives. See the link at the end of the following. The Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) people explain the need for and strategy of redesigning capitalism for community. Real estate is one of the biggest games in capitalism and the IC movement now has, via the land co-op or REIC a very effective means to bend the monetary system toward the support of community. Unlike land trusts which take land and community outside of the dominant culture, land co-ops take the dragon by its horns and direct it to the sustainable, solidarity economy.
I think something similar needs to happen with religion and spirituality, and for that I have developed Partnership Spirituality, based partly on Riane Eisler’s “Partnership Way,” yet that is a whole different discussion. Do an Internet search on the topic if you are interested.
The Land Co-op: Real Estate Investment Co-operatives (REIC)
The tidal change going on the past few decades in the intentional communities movement is from nonprofit forms of community organization to for-profit. That refers to both the method of incorporation and to individual profit, primarily the appreciation of personal real estate value.
Just as worker co-operatives pay personal wages, and cohousing returns appreciated real estate value (i.e., equity) to householders via the condominium legal structure, so REICs return equity to those who invest in the co-op, whether they are members or non-member investors.
Because the REIC is an investment vehicle, they can attract funding much better than any kind of nonprofit intentional community, like land trusts.
Basically, I see it as the communities movement going where the money is, which is, for-profit forms of community organization. No one makes money on a land trust, yet all investors make money, or at least accrue equity, in the REIC, assuming it is managed well.
Just like cohousing condominiums, REICs can get 30-year loans or mortgages to purchase real estate and grow the land co-op.
Regarding the question of how REICs relate to the homeless problem, a land co-op can decide to invest in land with minimal building codes, if they wish, and build what ever low-income housing designs they can get the local government to permit. The link at the bottom of this message explains much better the methods of social responsibility which can be built into the land co-op model.
While it is true that Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are buying up single-family and multi-family housing and inflating the housing market, shutting out many who prefer to purchase rather than rent, REICs or land co-ops essentially fight-fire-with-fire, turning the tables in the way that worker co-ops and cohousing condos also do, to reorient capitalism to forms of the solidarity economy.
See: Sustainable Economies Law Center - How to start a REIC:
I just finished a Karen Gimnig in Communication and Resolving Conflict. Part of the class taught us about mirroring and Imago Dialog. Among the students we realized that we have an automatic bias against verbatim mirroring which began in school when we were taught that using another’s exact wording is disrespectful and mocking them. Interesting. Makes me appreciate how important education is to our being able to bring new collaborative behavior models into society. It could take us generations, but I’m up for starting it because I see in our community (River Song Cohousing in Eugene, OR) how effective it is in building relationships and dealing with conflict.
I recommend the book Robes: A Book of Coming Changes, by Penny Kelly, for context of the next 200 years.
The world will live in small communities. We can go willingly or be dragged.
From that starting point, we can ask how we can be of service and communicate with our neighbors and fellow earthlings?
How can we get to 100% of our own food growing? Build sustainable shelters? Maintain our health?
How can we get our knees off others’ necks?
One resource I can share is the Strong Towns movement, helping small towns think for themselves and question “growth” as a panacea.
At the recent gathering of the Northwest Intentional Communities Association, Pat Park presented similar ideas that generated a great deal of interest. NICA plans to organize a followup gathering in the fall.
Hey 
I’m from Avnø Oasis ecovillage in Denmark.
I think a more impactful future of the intentional communities lies in welcoming more people on a permanent or temporary basis (members, guests, students, volunteers, business and activism partners etc) and giving them an experience of community life and interaction. It’s not the same to read a lot about communities and to live in one for some time. What makes a difference is people’s personal experience and insights, transformations that follow.
In our community, we’re looking for new members and students for our ecovillage design and health-related courses 
And we’re super open to people wanting to explore the community life.
Let’s connect)