Aerial view of lush green forest and open fields in a rural landscape.

Shambhala Collective and Permaculture Educational Center

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Forming
  • Ecological
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 2022

What we do

Our 40-acre farm lies in the quiet back country of northeast Tennessee at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain range, locally known as the Great Smokey Mountains, near the borders of North Carolina and Virginia. We welcome visitors who want to get their hands dirty learning the permaculture way of growing, living, and perpetuating life! To book a visit, please email us, if you’d like to stay longer (weekend, week, month, or season on Shambhala), please visit our WWOOF host page to learn more. This is not a rest stop, this is an experience to teach you food sovereignty, self sufficiency and a kinship with nature.
We feel the traditional farming model is expiring. Farmers are isolated, underpaid, and lack the freedoms to travel and enjoy life outside the farm. A cooperative farming model like ours helps us stay connected to our families and hold on to our dreams of traveling while still having a sanctuary like Shambhala to come home to and sustain us for the long term. Together we can care for what’s needed to sustain us more simply, efficiently, and cooperatively.
We currently have 3 member families on site, and we’re seeking 6 more to reach our 9 total to share this land with us, build tiny homes or small cabins, and sustain our future together through gardens, food forests, living off grid, making the most of our surroundings, using our natural resources wisely, and educating others to do the same.
To learn more about our Guidelines, Values, and Vision, you can download our document here.

Our Mission

It is our intention: To encourage, foster, and educate on community-style living and permaculture sustainable practices for long-term success and self-reliance. We intend and expect to leave the land and space better than how we found it.
Our primary focuses are on community, sustainability, land stewarding, and self sufficiency.
Our primary goals are to be self sufficient in energy, water, and food, to be a zero-waste and universally-designed community, with a strong focus on reducing and eliminating waste through best practices, composting, reusing and recycling.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Community type
  • Cohousing
  • Ecovillage
  • Commune
  • Sustainability practices
  • Waste reduction / composting
  • Regenerative agriculture or permaculture
  • Permaculture design
  • Activities
  • Farming
  • Education
  • Experiences
  • Networking
  • Others

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 2022
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 2023
  • Started living together

Gallery

  • 5 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
6

How to join

To become a member of Shambhala, members must go through our application process, and that document can be provided.
Members are approved by consensus with an equal-share buy-in for land. Members home structures are the financial responsibility of each member/family, but can be community-built. Membership and land stewardship are separate categories.
Members have equal voting rights on community decisions and share responsibility for all projects and farming practices.

Basic expectations or agreements for members

We welcome visitors, please book tours by contacting us directly. We also welcome WWOOFers, to get a deeper, richer experience, and stay the night if you care to do so. All overnight visitors must be registered with WWOOF, and can view our profile here:
https://wwoofusa.org/en/host/39242

Primary decision-making authority

  • Single Leader or Founding Couple

One person or partnership has ultimate authority.

Decision-making process

  • Modified Consensus

Generally seek agreement, but have backup methods when consensus isn’t reached.

Governance structure

  • Collaborative/Horizontal

Power and responsibility are shared relatively equally among members.

Economic model

  • Partial Income-Sharing

Members contribute a percentage of income to community funds.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a one-time fee, investment, or share purchase to join the community separate from accessing housing
  • Members need to pay fees, dues, or similar to live there on a per month or per year basis
  • There is a labor obligation

Additional economic information

Join fee: $38000
Regular fees: $0
Labor: Yes

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Outdoor Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Recreational vehicles, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • About once a week

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced
  • Hunting / Fishing
  • Livestock / Animal Husbandry

Dietary type

  • Kosher Only

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • Transition Town (post-petroleum and off-grid communities.)
  • School, Educational Institute or Experience
  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • Organization, Resource, or Network
  • WWOOF'ing, Guest Farming

Substance use culture

  • Substance use occurs primarily at celebrations or ceremonies
  • Religions
  • Christian
  • Buddhist
  • Wiccan, Paganism, or Earth Religions

Gender composition

  • Majority cis (over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Multi-generational (all ages well represented)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Cohousing

    Private homes with shared common facilities, designed for neighborly
    interaction while maintaining independence.

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

  • Commune

    Communal living with shared resources, property, and often income or work responsibilities

Sustainability approach

  • Waste reduction / composting
  • Regenerative agriculture or permaculture
  • Permaculture design

Land practices in our community

  • The community practices permaculture

Self-produced energy

  • Over 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • 33 - 66%

Local, organic, or fair trade food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Food forest
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics

Waste management practices

  • Composting
  • Recycling program
  • Land area size
    40 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Tennessee, United States

Shambhala Collective and Permaculture Educational Center

Needs and Offers

Connecting communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
2 weeks ago

3/2 Townhome in Atlanta-Area Co-Housing Community

https://cfortuin.wixsite.com/1804dancingfox The property currently features 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, open floor plan kitchen/dining room/living room with atrium ceiling, a window-lit bonus area, two rear balconies with great views, and a covered front porch. There is also framed-out, unfinished space that could be converted to expand the unit into a 6 bedroom, 4 bath home with a large attic storage room. The basement floor has a private entrance and is framed out for being a 1 bedroom, 1 bath, “mother-in-law” apartment with a living and dining room . Architectural drawings for this build out have already been prepared. The townhome is in the friendly East Commons Co-Housing Community. Details on our community can be found by searching on East Lake Commons .org Price: $435,000 Please note that I do not wish to sell to brokers or investment firms; I am only interested in selling to people who intend to live in the house and join the community. Interested parties should take a tour of East Lake Commons, should attend a community potluck or event, and read the Community Covenants, Bylaws, and Book of Commons before the property closing. Community participation helps keep our Community vibrant! Without advertising, 10 families are interested in this property. It will move fast. The unfinished square footage may qualify for a FHA mortgage “203K” loan, allowing licensed contractors to finish the framed-out space. Please let me know if you have any questions. For details contact John Fortuin: Email: Re***********@***oo.com Text: 404-438-2389 Thank you!
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 years ago

Twin Oaks, an established, income-sharing, village-scale community is seeking new members

Twin Oaks is looking for new members! Founded in 1967, Twin Oaks is an egalitarian, income-sharing community made currently 70 adults and 15 kids, living on 500 forested acres in central Virginia. Twin Oaks has strong social justice values including feminism, racial justice, and queer culture. We host a Queer Gathering and Women’s Gathering each summer, and we have a number of working groups around racial justice issues in general and in an intentional community context. Please visit our website twinoaks.org for more information and directions on how to apply for a Visitor Period. A Visitor Period is the first step towards becoming a member. We can offer: your choice of full-time work in our income-sharing community businesses (heirloom seeds, hammocks, and others) and/or domestic work areas from organic gardening to milking cows and cheese-making to office work to technical jobs and more! an individual room in shared housing; each member has their own personal bedroom and shares a kitchen, living room and bathroom with others in their house. Each residence has its own culture and range of ages. all meals are provided in our communal dining hall and/or in smaller kitchens for individual eating. We generally accommodate all special diets. (gluten-free, vegan, no garlic, etc.) income-sharing includes health-care and monthly stipend for extra We are looking for: people with various life skills and/or a willingness to learn people who share our values of social justice, sustainability and living closely with a diversity of people people with a generally responsible and pro-active approach to community living experience or interest in non-hierarchical, shared decision-making BIPOC, women and non-binary people especially encouraged The first step towards becoming a member is to participate in one of
Need

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

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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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