Diana Leafe Christian is leading a workshop on how to grow a successful Ecovillage or sustainable community. Here are the details:
- Wednesday – Friday, August 11-13
- Lost Valley Educational Center, near Eugene, Oregon
- $175 for commuters (includes lunches) or $255 for workshop, room, and board for people staying overnight.
For more information, & to register: events@lostvalley.org or call (541) 937-3351 x112
Also see the event Web page.
* Transportation. Both Amtrak and Greyhound go to Eugene. Lost Valley is about 30 minutes east of Eugene, and its staff can pick up workshop participants at the bus or train station.
More information:
“Growing a Successful Ecovillage or Sustainable Community”
With dynamic presentations (Diana does goofy drawings on the whiteboard of whatever she’s describing), lively small-group exercises, frequent photo-rich slide shows, and many stories and anecdotes about how real-life ecovillages solved their problems, the workshop covers the major steps needed to start and maintain a healthy, thriving ecovillage, cohousing neighborhood, or other kind of intentional community.
“I don’t think I ever learned so much in such a short time.”
— Susana Michaelis, Pacific Gardens Cohousing, Nanaimo, B.C.
Topics include:
- Antidotes for common kinds of “structural conflict” and interpersonal conflict
- The “Board Game” — demonstrating the relationship between mission, membership process, and decision-making method
- Methods for building trust and connection, increasing social capital, and dealing with “the challenging group member”
“Worth six months of individual research on how to form a new community.”
—David Boddy, San Mateo, California
- Case histories of how real ecovillages purchased, financed, and developed their properties
- Permaculture-based site plan design principles and examples from real ecovillages
- Community economics and internal community finances.
“Completely surpassed my expectations . . . incredibly valuable to our future community.”
—Brooke Lehman, Bluestockings Bookstore Co-op, New York
Diana’s workshop is “information-dense” — so each 60 to 90-minute section is followed by a break. A handout booklet is included.
“Many Windsong members said it was the best workshop they’d ever attended”.
—Valerie McIntyre, Windsong Cohousing, Langley, B.C.
About the Presenter:
Diana Leafe Christian is author of Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities, about forming successful communities and ecovillages, and Finding Community: How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community, about researching, visiting, evaluating, and joining a community. (New Society Publishers, Canada, 2003 and 2007).
For 14 years she was editor of Communities magazine, and now publishes “Ecovillages,” a free online newsletter about ecovillages worldwide Her monthly column about ecovillages appears on the homepage of the Global Ecovillage Network (GEN) website.
Diana leads workshops, offers consultations, and speaks at conferences internationally (i.e. keynote speaker at the Japanese Ecovillage Conference in Tokyo, 2007; instructor at Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) courses in the US and the Philippines.) Her articles have appeared in Mother Earth News, Permaculture Activist, and the Encyclopedia of Community. She has been interviewed on New Dimensions Radio and Peak Moment TV. Diana lives in an off-grid homesite at Earthaven Ecovillage in North Carolina.
For more details about the workshop, here’s the breakdown of the 3-day schedule:
