Permaculturists have developed or discovered numerous tools to help build community. These activities can create some level of intentional community, wherever you are. They help people get to know each other better, strengthen bonds, and increase yields. We’ve shared a number of tools thus far. Here, we’ll share a few other simple yet effective things that we’ve seen done.
Get to Know Your Neighbor Week
This is a simple action that can be done for one day a year or once per month or whenever you feel like it. Make some flyers to advertise a potluck at your place, a neighbor’s place, or some other nearby location. You could also get the word out via “Nextdoor” (an app that connects you to neighbors) or other neighborhood venues like a neighborhood council. Some cities will fund such an event, help advertise it and provide a venue.
Create a theme or an informal roster of events that can help break the ice. It could be as simple as everybody going around the circle and sharing one thing they’d like to accomplish in the next year, or what they like most about the neighborhood, or what their favorite activity is.
We did something like this for a year, where we had weekly potlucks combined with volunteer gardening in our food forest. We combined this with our intentional community meetings, and included a public section for the first 15 minutes in which we briefed people on what we were doing. This was fun, we got things done in our food forest, people cleaned up after themselves so we didn’t have to do anything except put out tables, and we made a lot of friends and connections. We also sold a lot of plants out of our nursery (stacking functions).
You can use it as a way to find like minded neighbors by the way you design it.
Wisdom or Grandmother’s Councils
Grandmother’s councils have traditionally been a balance to chief’s decision making councils. Think of growing up, knowing from childhood that someday you would sit on such a council and need to make wise decisions for the whole tribe. That future responsibility gives a certain context to how one experiences life, and what one pays attention to and strives to learn!
Because our culture tends to view elders as a “throw away” generation, to be filed away in retirement communities or homes, we don’t have a cultural goal of gaining wisdom or being wise. It's not something that is very well defined, if one searches the definition of it. Some people, recognizing this, have formed Wisdom councils - not so much to give advice but to develop their "wisdom muscle" themselves. The goal is to practice deliberate decision making that incorporates what wisdom is - a combination of experience, perception, observation, compassion, ethics, understanding, balance, and more.
Taking on complex ethical gray areas is a good way to increase one’s capacity, and it builds a certain type of character. If more of us spent time on this, would our society look different than it does? These councils, if nothing else, build deep relationships as people must dive deep into their abilities and resources together to solve gnarly problems with wisdom.
Women’s and Men’s Circles
These are formal support networks of like minded women or men who get together and help each other through formal exercises, group meditation, sharing, supporting one member per meeting, etc. Sometimes these groups examine stories they have bought into that they want to test, and offer a supportive container for that to occur. These can be designed to the needs of those participating. There is no one right way to hold them.
When I attended a woman’s circle someone invited me to, I realized for the first time how stressed I was with multiple obligations and how I wasn’t giving myself space to breathe. That was what that circle was for me. A space to just be, step away from my responsibilities for an afternoon, and breathe. That was the purpose of the group and it was like drinking a revitilizing elixir for many of us.
These do not have to be limited to just women or men. The most important component is the willingness to create a circle of support and listening. I've attended or heard of any number of iterations of this concept.
Weaver Networks
These are informal networks that use a variety of techniques to bring people together and discover beneficial connections. One common approach is to meet periodically (at whatever intervals the group decides on), and share deep seated beliefs, such as values that are important to one. We leave so little time for those types of conversations! They can be very healing, inspiring and illuminating. In our fast paced society this reflective time, this sharing of our deepest selves, is often omitted - sometimes entirely - from our lives.
There are hundreds of similar exercises. These techniques or some appropriate version of them can be inserted into any group, including the workplace, religious groups, even hobby or recreational groups, as a way to deepen relationships and get to know each other better.
Imagine governments or CEOs having to check in with the local Wisdom Council, which would look at the potential consequences of the act over seven generations, from every angle, before finalizing decisions.
Imagine the local bicycle club taking a few minutes to check in with each other and talk about something that’s a positive value for them. These small acts can help us appreciate each other more, see each other more deeply, and interact in more mutually beneficial ways.
Hands On Activity
Write down some of the elements you might desire in an intentional community:
1. To name your vision: Write down some adjectives that describe an ideal life situation for yourself. What kind of environment would you be in? Name some adjectives that describe what kind of qualities your fellow community members would have.
Name some elements and facilities the community would have, ideally.
2. What mutual goals should community members share? What should the overall goal of the community be? (It’s helpful to review your vision, and think about what the community would need to do and be striving for, in order to manifest that vision).
3. Now, out of those things, which are most important to you? Which of those, even if not everything else was present, would be the most compelling reason to stay in such a community or go to the work of building one? What are the most important elements of a community, for you? What must be there in order for you to live there? (note that you should compare this to your current living situation ,as well as your ideal one).
This is an important one because while not everything you want may work out perfectly, that is one you want to make sure is there if you’re aiming to end up in an intentional community.
4. Name your deal breakers. What would impact your quality of life negatively enough you would not want to be there?
5. Now, look over what you’ve written. You may find you want to review this list from time to time. A similar process could be used for business partners or romantic partners too.
Note: These are things that may evolve over time. The first deal breaker list I made was much longer than my current one and there were a few different things on it. I’ve found over time that for me, the design of how I interact with community members is more important than many other factors. And that can always be tweaked and improved upon.