Links to already established communities

[SunRa]

Hello ALL!!

I have some community resources to share.

Now, I heard the call about five or so years ago to seriously think about, search for, and put into effect not only contingency plans, but also self sustainable and intentional communities which were currently in operation. I wasn't sure if I would find any.

What I found was that there are already many such communities which were established not only because the members sought a more natural and less destructive lifestyle, but many of them had inklings of what was to come and decided to pioneer the lifestyle. Information on permaculture, alternative housing, organic and intensive gardening, alternative energy sources, how to organize and structure communities both physically and interpersonally, site suitability and many other subjects related to self sustainable lifestyles IS readily available on the World Wide Web and there are MANY such established working communities!

-- And many of these communities are documented online !! --

As such, we can review what these other communities have already accomplished, review what they tried that didn't work and get an idea of what it would be like for ourselves individually when it comes time to make that move.

Here is a directory of intentional communities around the world:
http://directory.ic.org/iclist/geo.php

Here is someone's very objective personal accounting of his visits to 24 different intentional communities within the continental United States:
http://www.armory.com/~wavejump/Communities.html

Happy Researching!

SunRa

[rustanddust]

localfuture is also a great resource for learning and finding out about these communities-->

http://localfuture.org/index.htm

[Kate]

heya SunRa thanks for those links...very USEFUL!

hope your enjoying the new moderator post! keep up the good work!
fire

[whitecrow]

This is great info. Some of these communities have been successful now for 20-30 years. And you're right, we can learn a great deal from those who have websites.

The fact is that for most of us, relocating is not an option. We don't own remote properties, and if we do know folks with property they aren't opening it up for people to flock to. So we're sitting ducks if we think of it that way.

But if we think outside the box there are opportunities abounding. We can all stock up a little on water, food and first-aid supplies. We can all learn to defend ourselves. And I think it's very important that we engage in some face-to-face networking...we can't count on the Internet being here indefinitely.

[SunRa]

Originally Posted by whitecrow

This is great info. Some of these communities have been successful now for 20-30 years. And you're right, we can learn a great deal from those who have websites.

The fact is that for most of us, relocating is not an option. We don't own remote properties, and if we do know folks with property they aren't opening it up for people to flock to. So we're sitting ducks if we think of it that way.

But if we think outside the box there are opportunities abounding. We can all stock up a little on water, food and first-aid supplies. We can all learn to defend ourselves. And I think it's very important that we engage in some face-to-face networking...we can't count on the Internet being here indefinitely.

I do not have any resources to purchase land, or go in on some with others. But, when/if shtf in a very big way, and people are leaving the cities, it would be good to know where your nearest three or four self sustaining communities are. I know that if I were part of some of those groups, and major disaster strikes, I would not turn away needy well informed individuals who are willing to work. See where I am going with this?

Another useful resource is WWOOF
http://www.wwoof.org/

I bought a North American Directory from them for the year 2007. There are detailed descriptions of many organic farms where visitors are welcome and are boarded in exchange for volunteer work on the various farms and homesteads. There are a plethora of wide ranging opportunities. From the single family homestead with orchards, to whole schools of self sustainability and apprenticeships. Some of the WWOOF farm listings are more spiritual in the community intent, and there was even one where the lady who runs it teaches about natural herb growing and practices of full moon harvest and the like for healing purposes. She accepts visitors/students.

Most of these already existing communities seem to be of high quality ethics. I do not see most of them turning away people who show up if/when it all goes down in a catastrophic way. (ie. nuclear disaster, pandemic, martial law in cities, worldwide calamity and global catastrophy, etc.)

And when in doubt, make contact at least. Build a relationship or even the most base of communication with your nearest already established self sustaining community. Then at the very least, you have more of a chance of finding shelter and food that you already know where to get to!

::SMILES::
SunRa