Finding your Community
On-Demand Online Course | Rolling Admission
Gain confidence in your ability to find, contact, visit, join and live in an intentional community in the Finding your Community course.
Course fee: sliding scale, starting at $99 USD
Who this course is for:
- people looking to find a community
- people looking to visit communities
- people looking to join a community
On this page:
Finding Your Community Course
Course description
There are many types of intentional communities, such as senior, spiritual/religious, commune (or income sharing), cohousing, ecovillage, and tiny home villages. In this course, you’ll gain an understanding of many of your community options as well as get a strong sense of if you want to join a community and how you might fit in.
Having visited well over 100 communities, Cynthia will guide you through how to find intentional communities, how to assess them, how to contact your ideal communities, how to prepare for visiting a community, and ultimately how to join your ideal community. You’ll also be introduced to different community structures including community decision-making, economic systems and membership structures.
What this course includes
- lifetime access to private course group in our Forum for asking questions and networking
- free access to monthly webinars to deepen your learning and connect with others
- 90 days to complete the online course at your own pace
- certificate of completion
What you’ll learn
Module topics in the Finding your Community course include:
- 1st Module: Course Intro and Discovering your “Why” for Intentional Community Living
- 2nd Module: Who is a Fit for Community and Crafting your “Community Wishlist”
- 3rd Module: Common Types of Intentional Communities
- 4th Module: Common Structures in Intentional Communities
- 5th Module: Research Tools for Finding your Intentional Community
- 6th Module: Planning your Communities Tour and Advice for Visiting an Intentional Community
- 7th Module: How to Evaluate Communities
- 8th Module: Onboarding and Offboarding in Community: Membership Structures
- 9th Module: Answering Common Questions and Joining an Intentional Community
- 10th Module: Wrapping up and your Next Steps
Your instructor
Cynthia Tina
Cynthia is the “community matchmaker” helping people find and join the hundreds of intentional communities she has visited and worked with around the globe. She is a speaker, educator, and former co-director at the Foundation for Intentional Community. Her mission is to strengthen the bridge between sustainable communities and mainstream society. After a decade of travel, Cynthia now lives at an ecovillage in Vermont where she’s building a passive solar home, tending a garden, and guiding yoga classes. She has a B.A. in Sustainability from Goddard College, as well as certifications in Ecovillage and Permaculture design. Learn more and book a community matchmaking session with Cynthia at www.cynthiatina.com.
Finding your Community course testimonials
“This gave me the push I needed to keep researching and exploring so many options and opportunities for the future. I found Cynthia’s approach to the course also very detailed, thorough and valuable as the content of each module’s material really made me question a lot of hidden aspects of community living in tackling diversity, connection, culture and relationships.”
-Jonahan Thangarajah
“The energy of Cynthia Tina was delightful and I felt like I whizzed through the course easily. Very easy to understand and easy step by step process. It takes the fear out of finding an intentional community..”
-Rose Ludwig
The On-Demand Course Experience
Go at Your Own Pace
Learn at your own pace with a course that fits your schedule. You’ll have a full 90 days to move through the learning material. One section at a time, when and where it works for you.
Build Your Network
Each month there’ll be a live networking session with other communitarians and an experienced host to get your questions answered. You’ll be able to connect and build shared knowledge through a dedicated discussion space.
Deepen Your Learning
Each module includes an instructional video, learning materials, exercises, and assignments designed to support your comprehension in the ways we all learn differently.
Registration
Finding Your Community Course
Confidently pursue a life in the intentional community of your dreams with this online course designed for community seekers.
Register now to get access to this course for a total of 90 days (from registration date), including a private discussion forum to engage with the instructor and other students. Check your email once completing registration for an email from orders@ic.org.
$99 for BIPOC, LGBTQ+, Disabled, Low income
$149 covers FIC’s costs
$199+ covers FIC’s costs + supports the intentional community movement
Suggested $149.00
Other learning opportunities
- Visiting Communities (Inside Community Podcast episode with Anthony Campbell)
- Becoming a Steward of the Commons (Inside Community Podcast episode with Lee Warren)
- Starting a Community course
- Becoming a Communitarian course
- Understanding Diversity in Community course
