By Tom & Carol Braford
We have often said that it takes a village to raise a child and it takes a community to raise an ecovillage. We have never specifically said, however, what that community would look like or how it would go about forming the ecovillage. This is because, even though there are now hundreds of ecovillages and groups of cohousing communities that call themselves ecovillages around the world, there is no set formula or agreed upon procedure for going about such an undertaking.
There is now a fairly consistent pattern for the formation of individual cohousing communities, however, and a project is underway in a small town in Canada that may provide some guidance for how to establish ecovillages that include cohousing neighborhoods that seek to positively impact and even transform the culture and economy of their surrounding communities.
There are now also a number of examples of urban cohousing communities and there are at least a handful of other urban ecovillages that we are aware of.
There is also a bank of literature, knowledge and practical experience in integral thinking, integral design and integral living, which includes the emerging field of integral accounting and finance.
Given all of this, the time has come to put all these pieces together, and so we are forming an Integral Urban Ecovillage Collaboration with the express purpose of discovering together the best processes, practices and patterns to form and maintain integral urban ecovillages.
Initially we are inviting anyone to join us who has an interest in any aspect of this process, including people interested in creating, living in and/or working in associated enterprises or supporting in any way the Culver Way or other forming integral urban ecovillages in the St. Louis area.
The first Collaboration meeting will be held at Culver Way Ecovillage on Saturday afternoon, November 20th, from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. You are also welcome to attend our regular monthly tour and open house from 11:00 to noon and/or the potluck lunch from noon to 1:00 pm.
Note: Thanks to all those who made the recent Cool St Louis Climate Summit a success. Read about the results and the continuing work to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2020 at www.2020stlclimate.org.
Contacts:
Culver Way Ecovillage:
Tom & Carol Braford,
braford@sbcglobal.net,
314-534-4780.
Green Beings Urban farm:
Sabrina Hilton,
greenbeings@gmail.com.