Visitors come by here looking for communes in the Asheville area so I'm going to put up this post and hope it gets in the search engines.
The best place to look from the urban co-ops to cohousing groups to ecovillages to rural communes in the Western North Carolina area is the Intentional Communities website by state. You can also update that site yo'self. (Earthaven is probably the most well known place around.)
Cohousing has really grown around our area the past decade or so. It's an attempt to utilize the social, economical, and practical benefits of cooperative living while at the same time allowing for individual needs and privacy. In cohousing, families reside in their own private apartments but unlike traditional urban or suburban neighborhoods where anonymity is the rule, cohousing not only allows for, but strongly encourages social interaction, interdependence, and cooperation among all members. Think of it as living in a dorm. You can learn all about cohousing at cohousing.org
The websites stay up to date I so hope this helps out a bit and if there's anything we need to add please let me know.
4 comments:
Thanks for writing about the communities movement around Asheville, and for pointing to the shared national directories that make it easier for communities to disseminate updated information.
There's an additional resource, hyperlocal and very valuable for anyone seeking or forming community in the area: The Asheville Communities Network holds regular in-person gatherings (including one coming up this Sunday the 17th) and ongoing online discussions exploring different aspects of community. My friend Marianne Kilkenny is a key organizer there; I was part of the UNCCR event there that kicked it off way back in 2006.
Raines Cohen, Cohousing CoachPlanning for Sustainable Communities (Berkeley, CA)
"Aging In Community chapter author, Audacious Agingand a big fan of Asheville's communities, eager to come back and visit them again soon.
Well, Asheville Communities Network really is no longer. BUT, the intentional community movement is getting stronger again. The recession put a damper on it, but it's coming to life again and you can find the sparks at meetup.com/Creating-Intentional-Sustainable-Community - or something like that - google it. There are a couple of groups and Raines' friend - and mine - Marianne, is a good one to contact there for help in putting community together. Tell her Tree sent you. That's me. From Green-Tree-Realty.com here in Asheville. I love helping people plant their Asheville roots!
Thanks for the updates, Tree. Anything we can add to this list will be helpful.
www.Gladheartfarm.org is the website for an intentional community in Asheville
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