Fellowship for Intentional Community
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The Fellowship for Intentional Community nurtures connections and cooperation among communitarians and their friends. It provide publications, referrals, support services, and sharing opportunities for a wide range of intentional communities, cohousing groups, ecovillages, community networks, support organizations, and people seeking a home in community. The FIC is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in the United States.
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[edit] Activities
The FIC publishes Communities magazine, the Communities Directory, and the Intentional Communities web site. It also sponsors and presents periodic Community gatherings, including annual gatherings at Twin Oaks and Art of Community events in various locations around the US.
[edit] FIC vision and mission statement
May 15, 1998 (assembled by the Vision Committee)
[edit] Vision
"We envision a world where community is available, understood, appreciated and supported for all people who desire it and where the skills, structures and wisdom of community are recognized as basic building blocks of a just and sustainable culture."
[edit] Mission
- Openly provide accurate and comprehensive information about living in intentional communities.
- Promote dialogue, understanding, and cooperation between existing communities and related organizations.
- Make the realities, options, and lessons of intentional communities readily accessible to the wider culture.
- Provide moral, financial, and technical support to forming and established communities in need.
[edit] Organizational history
The original Fellowship of Intentional Communities was established in 1948 in Yellow Springs, Ohio, at a conference organized by Community Service, Inc. After that gathering, annual meetings were hosted by intentional communities in the eastern third of the U. S. In 1952, FIC created the Homer Morris Loan Fund — which has subsequently provided over $200,000 in small loans to intentional community businesses and associated enterprises. When the FIC's activities decreased in the '60s, the loan fund continued separately as the non-profit Community Educational Service Council, Inc. (CESCI), and the FIC held annual gatherings of communitarians in conjunction with CESCI's board meetings.
In the mid '80s, inspired by the earlier FIC and other regional community networks, a number of community activists sensed that the time was ripe to organize a continental communities network. Incorporated in 1986 as the Fellowship for Intentional Community, the FIC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable educational organization (meaning that all donations are fully tax-deductible). Participation has been expanded to include most of North America — the Fellowship now includes a wide range of individuals, well over a hundred intentional communities, and various support organizations.
[edit] Intentional communities
Intentional communities have for many centuries been places where idealists have come together to create a better world. Although there are thousands of intentional communities in existence today, and many others in the formative stages, most people are unaware of them or the roots from which they spring. The Fellowship increases public awareness of existing and newly forming communities. It offers information and referrals for those who are actively seeking, or simply curious about, alternate lifestyles for themselves and their families.
Communities come in all shapes and sizes, and share many similar challenges — such as defining membership, succeeding financially, distributing resources, making decisions, raising children, dividing work equitably, and choosing a standard of living. Many wrestle with questions about right livelihood, spiritual expression, land use, and the role of service in our lives. At the same time, there is limited awareness of what others are doing to meet these challenges — and much to gain through sharing information and experiences with others exploring similar paths. The Fellowship documents the visions and experiences of life in community, and actively promotes dialogue and cooperation among communities.
[edit] References
- McLaughlin, C. and Davidson, G. 1990. Builders of the Dawn: Community Lifestyles in a Changing World. Book Publishing Company. ISBN 0-913990-68-X
- Fellowship for Intentional Community. 2005. Communities Directory. 4th Edition. Rutledge, Missouri, USA. ISBN 0-9718264-2-0
- Christian, D. 2003. Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities New Society Publishers. ISBN 0-86571-471-1
