West Coast Communities Conference 2017

Placeholder image for Foundation for Intentional Community website.
Sky Blue
  • August 8, 2017
Audience attending the West Coast Communities Conference 2017 in a large indoor venue.

Welcome to the 3rd Annual West Coast Communities Conference, Sept 29 – Oct 1 in Souther California! Taking off from last year’s subject of economic justice, we are organizing this year’s topics around the subject of equitable and sustainable income and affordability.

Organized by SWICA – South West Intentional Communities Alliance and co-sponsored by the Foundation for Intentional Community, Cohousing California, Terra Madre Gardens and Sustainable Living Institute, this year’s Keynote Speaker is Diana Leafe Christian, author of “Creating a Life Together.”

Some of the potential topics:

  • Financially feasible ways to start Community and ongoing affordability
  • Organizing for affordability in less able neighborhoods
  • Intentional Business (IB): Kinds of businesses that may be suitable with Intentional Community
  • A look at Worker Cooperatives (Collectives)
  • Fairness of equitable effort: Everyone pulling their own weight while respecting those less able
  • Balancing Intra (local) Economy and Extra (global) Economy
  • Alternative Trade Systems: LETS, TimeBank, HourWorld, etc.
  • Sources of Funding

The event will be held at Terra Madre Gardens, near Escondido, CA, off Highway 15 between Los Angeles and San Diego.

Whether you’re old hat to intentional community or just diving in for the first time, join us at the third annual West Coast Communities Conference to get the boost in skills, connections, and wisdom that will take your engagement to the next level. A blend of workshops and interactive social activities, we will go deep into the topics that matter most to our communities while also making time for joyous connections.

Inspired by the Communities Conference that takes place at Twin Oaks in Virginia each year, and organized with sponsorship from the Fellowship for Intentional Communities (FIC), this event promises to be a brilliant convergence of those who see the vital role community has to play in the trying times we live in. Anyone with interest or experience in cohousing, ecovillages, worker cooperatives, rural communes, artist collectives, or any other kind of communal enterprise is invited to participate.

SWICA, the South-West Intentional Community Alliance, is a regional network for existing and forming intentional communities, affiliated groups and individuals interested in community. Our goals are to provide an infrastructure for sharing of information, ideas and resources to assist in the creation and growth of new communities, increase awareness about intentional community for the general public and maintain visibility in the worldwide community movement for our region.

Comments

Featured Blogs

Keep the conversation going with these pieces

Stephen Wing
Wed Sep 2011
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
Believing that the next phase in human evolution involves a return to the “local” and to community with neighbors, the author focuses his job search close to home, and includes any useful type of work.
Susan Matarese
Sat Oct 2017
  • Living in community
  • Relationships
The study of intentional communities, both past and present, is a rich and rewarding enterprise for the student of political theory. The members of intentional communities, whether historic or contemporary, religious or secular, short-lived or enduring, must grapple with fundamental questions about …
Christopher Roth
Fri Nov 2014
  • New to community
In our issue on “Technology: Friend or Foe?,” authors examine the impacts of modern technology on their experience of community. Has the digital age brought us closer together, or moved us apart? How has it impacted our relationship with the rest of the living world? What does “appropriate use of te…
Carolyn North
Sat Mar 2019
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
CommonSpace CLT fulfills its founder’s dream of using her inheritance to create an affordable, not-for-profit example of diverse community on protected land in perpetuity.
Molly
Mon Jun 2008
  • New to community
Tina Nilsen-Hodges, a resident of Ecovillage at Ithaca who is also an Ithaca College lecturer, is leading an effort to create a charter school focused on sustainability. The alternative high school, New Roots School, would not be a project of the ecovillage but might hold some classes there and be i…
Alline Anderson
Sat Mar 2008
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
There wasn’t much chance that her lifelong dream of owning a bookstore would come true in her rural Missouri community. So Alline Anderson set off down the exciting and terrifying path of launching the Milkweed Mercantile–creating jobs, providing a market for community products, and offering a warm…
Christopher Kindig
Mon Nov 2018
  • Searching for community
  • Economics & Law
What is it like to live in a Student Housing Cooperative? Quite different than a typical student dorm experience, a Student Housing Cooperative is more like “the University of Life!” — where communication, problem solving, and cooperation skills are required. In this brand new second episode of P…
Nathan Brown
Sat Jun 2014
  • New to community
  • Economics & Law
Place-specific currencies can provide critical financing to the small businesses that keep local communities connected and thriving.
Molly
Sat Jun 2008
  • New to community
Slate has an article by Lee Ann Kincade where she reflects on the similarities of her upbringing at Twin Oaks and the life of children in the recently raided FLDS community in Eldorado, Texas. The children who were removed and the parents to whom they are returned seem like strangers from a distant …
J McCune Porter
Sat Dec 2014
  • New to community
Seasons Greetings from all of us at FIC! from Laird Schaub, FIC Executive Secretary SEASONS GREETINGS FROM ALL OF US AT FIC! This is the time of year when we receive cards from friends and loved ones that extol the dream of Peace on Earth. Well, the Foundation for Intentional Community wo…

Insights & Stories from the Communities Movement

Subscribe to our newsletter for fresh stories and community updates delivered to your inbox.

Join the Communiversity Community

Get unlimited access to courses, exclusive member events, and a supportive network of community builders

Unlimited Learning

Access all courses, books, and premium content

Community Network

Member-only workshops and community builders

Exclusive Events

Member-only workshops and gatherings

Update to a Public Profile

  • Log in
  • Go to your profile page
  • Toggle on the "Add my profile to the directory"
  • Save your profile

Information

Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

Plus Community Membership

  • Find people with Profile Match
  • Access to your community listing statistics
  • Create Discussion Groups
  • Access to our affiliate program
  • Member badge on your community profile
I am an official member of this community
Disclaimer
I affirm that my information is accurate and I am authorized to manage this listing
Foundation for Intentional Community FIC Member badge logo.

Free Plan

Free Membership
Free

Intentional Advertising

  • Subtotal

    {{ currencyFormat( pricing_summary.total_amount ) }}

Icon representing community connections and collaboration for intentional communities.

Plus Membership

  • Find communities with Profile Match
  • View detailed reviews about communities
  • Create free listings in Needs & Offers
  • Plus Member resources in CommUniversity
  • View communities detailed reviews
  • Plus Member badge on your profile