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Intention provides an added dimension to
community the noble end that
binds people together in commitments or work that reach beyond
their individual lives.
 EcoVillage at Ithaca
is more
than just a cohousing community. It is, in their own words, part
of a growing global movement for a saner, more sustainable human
culture.
The difference is not simply one of scale, though EVI IS ambitious: its 175 acre site (80% of it
preserved as green space) supports two 30-home neighborhoods
(with a third being planned), organic CSA1 vegetable and berry farms,
common houses and office spaces for cottage industry. Possible future
development, including onsite biodiesel/vegetable-oil fuel
production, is even more ambitious. The difference lies in
intention: The residents of EVI are not only seeking an
alternative model for suburban living,
they are actively committed to sharing the results of their
experiential research with an interested national and
international audience through an active outreach efforts by
their educational nonprofit.
 Like the country mouse,
ecovillages have their city cousins. Case in point:
Enright
Ridge Eco-Village in the Price Hill
section of Cincinnati and the
Los
Angeles EcoVillage (left) located three miles
west of downtown L.A.
These urban pioneers seek to model low-impact living
patterns, as they increase neighborhood self-reliance in a
variety of areas, such as livelihood, food production, energy
and water use, affordable housing, transit, recreation, waste
reduction and education.2
 TREEHOUSE,
a multigenerational community in Easthampton, MA, represents an
innovative approach to solving a social problem: in this
instance, the overstretched foster care system in Massachusetts.
When completed, Treehouse will provide residences for 12 adoptive families
and affordable housing units for another 48 elders
who want to make a difference
and commit a specified amount of time to mentoring the foster
children in the community and at the adjacent elementary school.
An outer layer of market-rate housing allows the investment of
mid-life families to contribute to the project. Treehouse will provide built-in professional support
and programs for residents of all ages while focusing
particularly on healing children who have experienced trauma and
loss. If successful, the experiment will be replicated at sights
across the state.
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 Intentional Communities: Lifestyles Based on Ideals by Geoph Kozeny (Fellowship for Intentional Community, 1996) )
Fellowship for Intentional Community RR 1 Box 156-W ~ Rutledge MO 63563-9720 ~ (660) 883-5545 ~ ic.org
 EcoVillage at Ithaca ~ ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us
Liz Walker, who co-founded and has directed EcoVillage at Ithaca since its inception in 1991, has written a lively account of this groundbreaking experiment in sustainable development and community living located in Upstate New York.
1Community Supported Agriculture prepared by UMass Extension (umassvegetable.org)
From this excellent introduction to community supported agriculture, prepared by the University of Massachusetts Extension Service, you can also access to a comprehensive listing of additional resources.
Information is available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture at this link.
 A Home Grown Ecovillage on Our Street by Jim Schenk (enrightridgeecovillage.org, )
A driving force behind the development of Enright Ridge Eco-village in Cincinnati is Jim Schenk, who co-founded Imago, its parent organization, and served as its director for 27 years, developing a hallmark series of national conferences under the imprimatur, EarthSpirit Rising. He is the editor of the recent book,
What Does God Look Like in an Expanding Universe.
 2Los Angeles Eco-Village: A Model for Human and Planetary Survival by Maggie Coulter (Profiles in Sustainable Housing, Fall 2004)
Lois Arkin, founder of LAEV believes that At some point in the not-so-distant future, our choices will be increasingly limited by the accelerating degradation of our life support systems air, soil, water. Our work... is about demonstrating that it is possible to make lifestyle choices that actually increases the quality of life while significantly reducing our environmental impacts.
Treehouse Foundation 139 Sherman Road ~ Brookline, MA 02467 ~ ( 617) 327-7564 ~ treehousecommunities.org/
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