The below community description is very much still a draft, intended to be refined and shaped collaboratively by others who join us along the way. If any of this resonates with you please reach out!
What are we hoping to build?
• Interreliant community among women, queer people, and especially queer women and woman-aligned nonbinary people, both within the collective and in the wider world
• A loving village in which to raise children and grow old together in a model that disrupts patriarchal constructs such as heteronormativity and isolation within the nuclear family; a wider family composed of multiple family units
• Sustainable systems based on anti-consumerism and environmental consciousness
• Spaces which facilitate community through organic interactions, (e.g., communal kitchen, outdoor oasis, living rooms)
•Spaces which allow people to explore their interests and foster creativity (e.g., garden, workshop, music studio, library, craft room etc.)
• A socially conscious group committed to engaging with broader social justice and liberation movements.
What benefits do we hope this will provide?
• The opportunity to share in the joys and burdens of daily life
• Lower cost of living through resource sharing and collectivism
• An easier, more equitable life than we have been told we should aspire to under capitalism
We are a lesbian couple in our early thirties, looking in the next 2-5 years to form an intentional community for women and queer people in the East Bay (Berkeley, Oakland, Richmond) in which to live and raise children.
For now, just reach out to us! More formal membership processes will be established prior to purchasing property. If our description resonates, we’d love to chat to hear about what you’re looking for and share a little more about what we want this to look like, and we can see if it’s a match
Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.
Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.
Formal decision-making and governance structures to be determined based on group discussion
Members maintain separate personal finances with minimal sharing.
Regular fees: Yes
Labor: Encouraged or suggested
We want to promote collective ownership, including for community members with limited financial resources. Some options we’re considering are incorporating as a 501(c)(7) Nonprofit with a 501(c)(2) titleholing subsidiary, an LLC, or a 501(c)(3) Community Land Trust. Our goal is to implement an investor model that allows for people with a variety of financial situations to participate in initial property purchase and which mitigates risk by outlining a clear exit strategy for those who help with providing initial capital but later decide that the community isn’t the right fit for them. To promote equity and socioeconomic diversity within the community we plan to utilized sliding-scale contributions when feasible to reduce cost barriers to community participation.
Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace
A residential project: people live here as their primary home.
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).
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We’re introducing new Plus features — including community reviews, Profile Match, and unlimited Needs & Offers posts — while keeping most of FIC free for everyone. Membership costs less than two coffees a month.
