We are a group of people building a life together based on the principles of egalitarianism, sustainability, accountability, justice, and cooperation. We’re currently a group of three in urban Columbus, Ohio, focused on making our shared house a home, doing outreach to people like yourself, testing our agreements in real life, and much more!
There is some more specific information about us on our Intentional Communities page. This community is a work in progress. If you think you’d make a good member or are feeling otherwise intrigued and would like to talk more, get in touch!
Find out more about where we are and what members have been up to by reading our newsletter:
- December 2009 – Occasional Update #1
- April 2010 – Occasional Update #2
- August 2010 – Occasional Update #3
- December 2010 – Occasional Update #4
- April 2011 – Occasional Update #5
- September 2011 – Occasional Update #6
- January 2012 – Occasional Update #7
Our Guiding Principles:
Egalitarianism
We believe in the fundamental equality and potential of all people. We strive to be equal in our methods of cooperative decision-making, and in our group dynamics and interactions, wherein all perspectives are valued and all opinions addressed and considered. We further seek to create a community capable of challenging inequity and hierarchy by sharing in our materials, resources and power.
Ecological Responsibility
We recognize that our way of life is dependent on the exploitation of people and the earth. We work to minimize our impact on the earth through reducing consumption, by meeting needs not wants, embracing simplicity as an ethic and also a strategy, and creating a culture of non-material abundance. We aim to return a lasting positive impact so that our efforts may extend beyond our involvement, and will benefit the land, surrounding people, and lives of community members in the future.
Mutual Respect and Accountability
We are creating a culture of mutual respect where we value diversity, personal autonomy and diverse contributions. At the same time, we recognize that in order to make positive social transformation we need to welcome personal improvement and change in our shortcomings, and be willing to hold each other accountable to our ideals and goals in a constructive way. Toward building a more loving, cooperative, and inclusive world, we interact compassionately and non-violently with one another, and engage in non-violent conflict mediation when necessary.
Social Justice
We believe that our society encourages profound injustices, rampant physical and psychological violence, ruinous ecological destruction, and greed, and causes social ills from poverty to cancer to social isolation and alienation. We recognize that these problems are embedded in the dominant systems of governance and economy. We therefore favor radical, systemic change and oppose today’s dominant systems, including capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacy. We realize that simply disengaging from oppressive practices is not enough; we must actively work to eradicate their root causes.
Cooperation and Community Living
We want to shift from a cultural focus on the individual to emphasis on the community, exploring and demonstrating the ways in which people can be strengthened by living their lives cooperatively. We depend on each other for support in our personal lives, and depend on each person being responsible to the broader community. This means creating a strong culture of being together, working together, sharing, confronting conflict, and learning from challenging situations.
