In January, NICA Board Members Larry Rider and Nancy Lanphear made a trip to visit the following communities in Portland:
- Peninsula Park Cohousing
- Columbia Ecovillage
- Kailash Ecovillage
- Trillium Hollow Cohousing
- Cascadia Commons Cohousing
- Ananda Community of Portland
- Daybreak Cohousing
We also visited Woodard Lane Cohousing in Olympia, WA.
We were given tours of these communities and spent time talking with some community residents. It was good to hear stories of the activities and challenges of communities that we had not connected with for several years. Challenges included financial issues, participation in community activities, loss of former members, and connection with other communities.
We were pleased to find that PDX Coho, a group of most of these communities, has been meeting quarterly and exchanging information about nuts and bolts of community life. We also visited the Ananda College at Laurelwood, in Gaston, OR, where we will be helping with a course this fall on Intentional Communities and Sustainability.
Altogether it was a fulfilling and inspiring trip to see the current state of IC’s in the Portland area.
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