| We are a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization currently located in Bloomington, Indiana. Our mission is to preserve community life by providing an alternative to state-sponsored aid for homeless and economically disadvantaged families and children.
Our vision is the creation and maintenance of a therapeutic self-sustaining organic farm community. Working from a strengths perspective, we will use advocacy and empowerment to help build friendly, helping relationships.
We want to engage in the continual development of intentional community as a means to provide for the basic needs of disadvantaged and disempowered individuals and families. We will provide temporary and permanent housing options, healthy natural and organic vegetarian foods, clothing and basic necessities, child care, adult and child education, individual and family counseling services, and information and referral services.
A guiding principle of our community is that the individual grows through the community and the community depends upon each individual. We will engage in a self-help process using community-based collective action to facilitate development of the social self.
One of our goals is to encourage individual physical, mental, and spiritual development. Another goal for our community is to facilitate social, economic, and political empowerment. We believe that individuals and groups have capabilities. We also believe that by engaging in community we develop new individual capabilities and collective capabilities. This is the social capital that we want to harness to facilitate empowerment and growth.
Ultimately, we would like to further develop a “best practice” model for intervention for homelessness and poverty using environmentally conscious and values-sensitive intentional communities. Building on such an interchangeable and replicable model for intervention, we can support individuals and groups in planning and organizing their own communities and in the process of resource development.
Initially, we would like to establish ourselves in a semi-rural setting with resource development hinging primarily on local fundraising, grant writing, and organic farming. Eventually, we are interested in developing our project in urban settings so as to facilitate the social and cultural needs of those not disposed to live within a rural farming community. | Community location is placed at the center of the zip/postal code, city/state, or city/country (not based on street addresses) |
