Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities

Diana Leafe Christian

New Society Publishers, Jan 1, 2003 - Family & Relationships - 272 pages

Creating a Life Together is the only resource available that provides step-by-step practical information distilled from numerous firsthand sources on how to establish an intentional community. It deals in depth with structural, interpersonal and leadership issues, decision-making methods, vision statements, and the development of a legal structure, as well as profiling well-established model communities. This exhaustive guide includes excellent sample documents among its wealth of resources.

Diana Leafe Christian is the editor of Communities magazine and has contributed to Body & Soul, Yoga Journal, and Shaman’s Drum, among others. She is a popular public speaker and workshop leader on forming intentional communities, and has been interviewed about the subject on NPR. She is a member of an intentional community in North Carolina.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - CohoTurtle - LibraryThing

Jane: I have read this book. There is a lot of good information in this book but unfortunately because the primary audience is ecovillages and other types of intentional communities, you really have ...

Contents

• YOUR ROLE AS FOUNDER: 14
• GETTING OFF TO A GOOD START: 20
• Getting Real about Finances: 29
• COMMUNITY VISION WHAT IT IS WHY YOU NEED IT: 35
• CREATING VISION DOCUMENTS: 42
• Sharing from the Heart: 52
• What You Need to Make Consensus Work: 58
• What Decisionmaking Method Should You Use?: 65
• Your Communitys Agreements and Policies: 71
• The Proactive Land Search: 84
• FINDING THE RIGHT PROPERTY: 99
• Taking Property Off the Market While You do Further Research: 112
• FINANCING YOUR PROPERTY LOANS YOU CAN LIVE WITH: 126
• Private Financing: 129
• DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE HUMAN SETTLEMENTS: 142
• The Risks of Community Businesses: 155
• Can People Afford to Join You?: 168
• Condominium Associations: 182
• THRIVING IN COMMUNITY ENRICHING THE SOIL: 199
• High Woundedness High Willingness: 205
• Threshing Meetings: 212
• SELECTING PEOPLE TO JOIN YOU: 218
• How Can You Tell?: 224
• SAMPLE COMMUNITY VISION DOCUMENTS: 230
• SETTING UP AND MAINTAINING A 501C3 NONPROFIT: 238
• INDEX: 245

About the author

Besides editing Communities magazine since 1993, Diana Leafe Christian offers workshops nationwide on the process of forming new ecovillages and intentional communities. She is a member of Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities
• Author: Diana Leafe Christian
• Contributor: Patch Adams
• Publisher: New Society Publishers, 2003
• ISBN: 1550923161, 9781550923162
• Length: 272 pages
• Subjects: Family & Relationships / Alternative Family; Family & Relationships / General; House & Home / Sustainable Living; Self-Help / Green Lifestyle