Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood the most developed and populated neighborhood at our Ecovillage with generally 20+ residents which include adult members, tenant residents, and children.

Imani Farm is a farm project adjacent to Village Terraces Cohousing Neighborhood within Earthaven Ecovillage. A beautiful 4+ acre area above and below our neighborhood was chiseled from the surrounding forest and slowly turned from degraded forest ecosystem to a fertile, small-scale, pasture-based farm with dairy cows and laying hens as well as plentiful orchards and annual crop production during the growing season.

Earthaven Ecovillage is an intentional community dedicated to caring for people and the Earth by learning, living and demonstrating holistic, sustainable culture. On 329 mostly forested acres, Earthaven supports 50+ full members, and a steady stream of exploring members, students, and visitors. Earthaven is located about 50 minutes southeast of Asheville, on curvy mountain roads.

According to Robert & Diane Gilman, the definition of the ecovillage is: “a human-scale, full-featured settlement in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy human development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.”

MORE ABOUT US

Please read up on http://www.earthaven.org/

MISSION & VISION: To create a village which is a living laboratory and educational seed bank for a sustainable human future. In the midst of planetary change the Earthaven experiment helps inform and inspire a global flowering of bio-regionally appropriate cultures.

• Goal 1: To catalyze local and global change through learning, teaching, and networking.
• Goal 2: To shift from wasteful to regenerative use of resources.
• Goal 3: To develop and support a thriving local economy.
• Goal 4: To grow, raise, trade, and use our own food, fiber, medicines, and forestry products in an ecologically regenerative, bioregional culture and network.
• Goal 5: To tend the land in a way that optimizes for diverse ecosystem health, food and resource production, and soil and water quality.
• Goal 6: To practice fair, participatory, and effective self-governance.
• Goal 7: To encourage diverse spiritual practices and awareness of our interconnection with all beings.
• Goal 8: To work towards partnership culture, towards racial and gender equity, and against oppression in all its forms.
• Goal 9: To nurture personal growth, interpersonal understanding, and mutual trust, as the foundation for a deeply connected human community.
• Goal 10: To practice healthy, holistic lifestyles that balance self-care with care for others.
• Goal 11: To create a culture of celebration, beauty, and pleasure.
• Goal 12: To attract, cultivate, and inspire residents and members whose presence contributes to vitality and functionality in our community.
• Goal 13: We recognize elders as the trunk and children as the fruit of our village tree, and collectively prioritize what all parts of our “tree” need to thrive.

EVEN MORE ABOUT US

If you want to make a good impression at Earthaven, study up ahead of time. If you have the basic questions answered and are ready to step into engagement, you’ll be saving the time and energy of folks who get asked lots of questions. Here are some suggestions if you’re an over achiever:

1. Listen to some or all the episodes on the Earthaven podcast.
2. Read some or all of the posts on the Earthaven blog.
3. Take some or all of the self paced courses about Earthaven Ecovillage living.
4. Listen to podcast interviews with Earthaven members. Here and here a few of mine. 
5. Listen to the FIC’s Podcast interview with me from February 2022, here. 
6. Listen to the “Pros & Cons of Community Living” interview with Lee Warren at the Intentional Community Summit in April of 2023 here. 
7. Take the self-guided “Becoming a Communitarian” course through the FIC here. 

ABOUT YOU

As a renter, you’ll be exploring Earthaven as a home. These are some of the experience, attitudes and values that are important in order to live together in harmony. We all have strengths and weaknesses, but we hope that you possess some of each of these characteristics.

• High Emotional Intelligence
• Strong Communication Skills
• Presence of Mind, Heart, and Body
• Eagerness to Learn, Eagerness to Help
• Relational Literacy
• Maturity in all ways
• Cooperative Mindedness
• Committed to a low-impact lifestyle (reducing, reusing, and recycling)
• Creative and flexible
• Dedicated to supporting local economy when buying (even though it costs more)
• Adult experience in professional, relationship, and stewardship contexts

LONG TERM GOAL

What we’re going for long term is relational resilience which is comprised of the following characteristics:

1. A strong and healthy sense of self which can also be described as self awareness. It is often accompanied by embodiment and a healthy vulnerability.
2. Relationality which can also be described as relational confidence, relational awareness, relationship skills and the ability to navigate and negotiate complexity in relationships.
3. Mutuality which can be described as the care of the whole and the ability to give and receive empathy and desire positive outcomes for all.
4. Healing & Transformation happens when we heal the self, contribute to healing others, and participate in the healing of the collective.
5. Culture Change is a result of all of the above and leads to partnership and consent based models of community and nourishing relating.