Hi! We’re super excited to co-found a new residential intentional community with others, and we’re actively looking for cofounders—maybe you! We’d love to share a bit about what we’re envisioning to see if we align!
We’ve realized that, through all the details that follow, a core tenet of this new community will be paradigm shifts. The current mainstream paradigms of individualism, competition, scarcity, white supremacy, patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, land ownership (and others!) all need to shift in order to lead towards the equitable, sustainable, and resilient future we all need. From extractive capitalism to life-sustaining, care-based economy generated by community businesses. From the oppressive, white supremacist, colonialist patriarchy to liberation. From private ownership to public accountability. These shifts need to and can happen. We hope to co-create a community that actively looks at itself and how it operates in order to best be a part of these paradigm shifts, and that acknowledges that whatever systems we set up initially will need to be adjusted over time as we discover new blind spots, and as new generations bring in new perspectives.
Here are some details of what we envision these shifts looking like and how the community will operate:
Income Sharing (making a living together as a tribe; anti-individualist economy; we all take care of each other; this is one way to be anti-capitalist)
Multiracial (This is important to us on a personal level because one of us is multiracial [white and afro-latino], is white presenting, and comes from a multiracial nuclear family, and the other is white and comes from a multi-racial nuclear family, and grew up with majority PGM [People of the Global Majority/BIPOC] friends)
Anti-oppression (anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, etc.; everyone makes a commitment to learning about the ways they are privileged, such as whiteness, straightness, cis-ness, etc., and how to understand that privilege. In the specific example of anti-white-supremacy culture and de-centering whiteness: learning from books/support group, and not expecting their PGM friends and community members to teach them, while also being committed to receiving feedback if others want to give it)
Cooperative Culture (relearning how to relate to each other; equitable decision making, e.g., consensus; shared power; open communication; resolving conflicts in public rather than in private; freedom from shame; accountability rather than blame)
Polyamorous Culture (anti-patriarchy; developing a culture of open communication without shame; free expression of love as a means of strengthening community bonds; create systems where community can create intentionality around this paradigm shift, while still being a place where people of all relationship orientation types, including monogamy, still feel a true sense of belonging; not sure yet how to create this cultural dynamic; this TED Talk by the co-author of “Sex at Dawn” helps explain our thinking)
Land Trust/Community owned land (paradigm shift away from land as a possession to giving the land back to itself and being in relationship with the land; land as a co-founder, aka listening to the land and what it needs and wants; work towards authentic relationship with the indigenous people of the land we occupy)
Spirituality/connection with all life (acknowledgement of different ways of knowing besides reductionist science; awareness of deeper energetic connection between all life and earth than what is observable, and being in relationship with this; people of all religions and spiritualities (and lack thereof) fully belong; not sure yet how to create a community intentionality around the “spiritual realm” while keeping individual autonomy around beliefs, and what this will look like structurally)
Here are some other specifics of how the community will work:
100+ people (big enough for security in age diversity and skill, connections, and abilities; big enough for kids to have enough friends in community)
Rural, Western Washington (Potentially King/Pierce County)
Large shared homes with lots of bedrooms, and some smaller homes of varying sizes for different needs/times of life
Community Businesses as most (if not all) income source (leading to more connection and an easier time practicing income sharing–everyone just works in businesses and domestic work to help the tribe make a living)
Flexible on types of community businesses (Caitlin has interest in animal husbandry, whether only for tribe’s needs or also as potential income source)
Most (if not all) meals shared
Raising kids together, teaching kids together (homeschooling, or private school as community business? Not sure yet how to create intentionality around this, and the logistical realities of raising kids together in a community that shares housing, meals, businesses, and income, while also creating a healthy level of autonomy for parents. Will look to similar size communities like Twin Oaks and Tamera to learn about how they’ve worked this dynamic)
Environmental Sustainability—striving towards true sustainability; flexible on degree of self-sufficiency; including both permaculture (while acknowledging and learning more about the indigenous wisdom behind permaculture) and sustainable practices whenever possible, and also incorporating into a (more and more) sustainable and resilient regional economy
Mission driven—specifically doing work on Systems Change (flexible on how this looks; Nathaniel is interested in working in/creating a think tank looking at strategy of what things will drive change most effectively) (Community has a commitment that part of the work of the tribe is in investing in systems change work towards things outside of itself; some possible ways this might work could be political organizing or direct actions, strengthening and transforming the regional economy, and doing this work with other groups in the region)
Umbrella Group Participant—participating in and supporting the Radical Communal Groups (RCG) umbrella group in order to create strong and lasting relationships with other radically equitable and high resource sharing residential intentional communities in Western Washington (this both supports our community, supports our sustainability and mission driven goals, and creates a stronger connection to our region)
We imagine a community where people feel a true sense of belonging: where they can show up as their full selves. Where they commit to meeting the needs of the community, and the community in turn commits to meeting their needs. Where they feel deeply connected to others in their community, the land the community is in relationship with, and the wider region the community is in. Where they experience the joy of connecting, both in work and in play, both in the community and with others outside the community, towards wider regional and global equity and resilience. Where they experience a better sense of balance, joy, and ease throughout the life span and the differing needs different stages of life bring.
Where we confront the paradigm shifts within ourselves, knowing that as we do so, we commit to a generational shift—that the challenges adults will grow through as they relearn cooperative culture will not be the same for the kids who grow up in this community. That what will be possible in 20 years, when those kids are young adults, will far surpass what we’re capable of. That possibility is where the true hope lies. We do this not only for ourselves, but for our kids (and all the kids), and their kids, and their kids. To live into the future that we want to create. To free our minds of the boxes we don’t know they have. And to do it all joyfully, while having fun together, and knowing that through these challenges is where we find the greatest joy, transformation, hope, connection, and belonging.