When I decided to apply for the JVC program I did it because of the four core values: Social Justice, Spirituality, Simple lifestyle and Community. From my point of view all of them together, and each separately, motivated you to think and be interested about the people around you as well as yourself and your role.
The life in community has interested me a lot for many reasons, environmental benefits; the feeling of belonging and the possibility to serve; the necessity to develop a living (practical) spirituality; the opportunity to create rituals and inner languages to communicate among each other and make possible ideas and projects together; and for the chance to grow knowing your self better and quicker because of having many “mirrors” where you can see what you like and what you don’t in others, which is really an image of yourself.
Around the world there has always been a tendency to live in community and experience the companionship and solidarity that are meant to be the values of our species, since we are interdependent and gregarious beings.
But what are some of the reasons that inspire communities to set up? What are the visions they have about their projects? Here are some examples of different types of communities in Britain.
There is a community in Scotland named The Findhorn Ecovillage and their vision is:
“The Findhorn Foundation is a spiritual community, ecovillage and an international centre for holistic education, helping to unfold a new human consciousness and create a positive and sustainable future”.
The Steward Community Woodland is located close to Exeter in the Dartmoor National Park. Their aims are,
By encouraging natural regeneration of broadleaved woodland and appropriate new planting, we will restore areas degraded by plantation conifers and invasive species.
By increasing opportunities for access, recreation, tourism, and education, we will promote greater understanding, involvement and enjoyment of the wood, its wildlife and management.
By using permaculture design principles, we will demonstrate environmental solutions and sustainable low impact development.
By establishing forest gardens, we will produce organic food, renewable fuels, medicinal herbs and other useful products.
By providing new habitats for wildlife we will restore a diverse and characteristic community of animals and plants.
By providing sustainable products for local needs, we will help the environment and the local rural economy.
Braziers Park
Braziers Park is a community, a residential college and an architectural treasure hidden deep in the south Oxfordshire countryside. It was founded in 1950 as an educational trust, and is a continuing experiment in the advantages and problems of living in a group. Community members share responsibility for running the college and the estate. The food is grown organically in the land surrounding the community.
Enlinca Cohousing, their vision is,
“Sustainable way of living in Cambridge”
With the following advantages: Mutual support if needed; Safe environment for children; Encourages being active; Support for parents; Improved physical and mental health for residents of all ages; Economic and environmental benefits.
Each community had different objectives when they were set up, but most of them share an interest in the environment. This interest has been addressed in different ways by each community, for example the Steward Community decided to live indeed in a protected area, making sustainable development and simplicity their way of life. But they also affected the communities around them through education, doing courses related with the environment.
Other communities do not live in a protected area, but still are interested in sustainability, sharing transport, using electrical cars; waking, cycling, growing their food organically with permaculture techniques, using technologies to produce clean energy, using compost toilets, designing ecological building, treating their wasted water, to give some examples.
Central to the community life is the social aspect. Some of the communities are intended as projects for life, a long-term decision to work and live in the community and understand the world from within the community. Others are for determined periods of time with educative and experiential purposes like the Braziers’ Community.
In the social aspect we can find many components like economics, the development of social skills and the exploration of Spirituality.
In relation to the economy: some communities do not share their sources of funding; others face the need of sustainability with self-growing and establishing a free-range organic flock of chickens, ensuring ethical business. In most of the cases this means education through workshops and courses, and selling their products. Living in community also represents a cheaper way of living, because the expenses are also shared. Cars, physical spaces and even the work is shared, like Who cooks today? In JVC Birmingham we have experienced this and definitely our life is more harmonious because we decided to share food and house tasks.
The Findhorn Community has created Ekopia, that is a “community investment company helping to create a sustainable local economy and contributing to regeneration of our rural area in Scotland. They invest in local projects and has also created a community currency, the Eko, to further consolidate and stimulate economic cooperation.”
About social skills: the communities allow very big processes like decision making, respect for the difference, responsibility, commitment, resolution of conflicts and the opportunity to serve among others. The community itself could be an “experiment in the advantages and problems of living in a group” as the Braziers Park Community mentioned. JVC Communities could also be seen as an experiment where the JVC staff mixed people (personalities) with placements (skills and passions).
Concerning spirituality: personal growth is inevitable when living in community, so even though this aspect is not mentioned in all the communities, it is from my point of view, present in all of them. The Findhorn community mentions this: “By living in community, the people at Findhorn actively engage with spiritual values in everyday life. All of the varied activities and relationships we experience give the potential to put these into practice 24 hours a day, and expresses our commitment to spiritual service. We honour and recognise all the major world religions, and also many new expressions of spiritual principles. Guests and staff follow whichever path they choose for their own spiritual growth. In the community we focus on the common principles which underlie all these paths.”
As a last characteristic to be mentioned, I think living in a community produces a general Well-being in each member, for example it gives the feeling of belonging, support in times of desolation, friends to share happiness and good times, and a group to discuss and analyse thoughts. I say this as a result of my experience living in the Birmingham community, but also as a deduction of what I have been reading of other communities.
Even though all the examples shown are related to open spaces and country areas, communities can also exist in cities; the JVC communities are an example of this. The model used in the programme is also useful for communities in a longer term. So communities in both environments, countryside and cities, have a great opportunity to develop spaces for people growing as individuals and being aware and taking care of what surround them.
Trying to conclude about why people chose to live in communities these days, I just have more questions. If you live in a society where you can afford everything, where health and basic education are free; where the supermarkets are always in “summer time” and food from around the world is available in fresh and tins. Why are some people trying to create their own society? Why are they trying to give their own education a focus in nature, in playing and in awareness of others? Why are people looking for other types of economies taking into account human values? Why are people using their time and energy growing their food? Why are people today more conscious of the need for a ‘spiritual’ dimension to life? Why are they trying to go back to country areas or make cities greener; if the city can be seen as the great invention of humankind? Why are some communities showing reverence and respect to nature? Why are Celtic and Indigenous traditions becoming more valued now?
What is the “gap” that simmers to be fulfilled with community life?
