Transformational Communities

supporting people to co-create a more sustainable and just world

An international network of people are co-creating communities aligned with this vision in various locations in the world. If you are interested in living in a transformational community, or are interested in collaborating or supporting in any way, we would love to hear from you. We invite you to fill out the questionnaire below to get involved and find out about community opportunities.

Grounded in a culture of compassion, interdependence, and empowered action, Transformational Communities are spaces where our whole selves are welcome, our gifts are nurtured and celebrated, and we work together to affect life-enriching change in the world. 

This vision of community is rooted in a threefold purpose: to support people to thrive, evolve, and serve—nurturing whole-person and whole-planet well-being, fostering essential human capacities, and actively responding to the social and ecological challenges of our time.

We live in a time of profound global crises—climate instability, social fragmentation, and an urgent need for new models of cooperation and sustainable living. Transformational Communities aim to be living laboratories where deep human development, social transformation, and ecological regeneration come together to model a way forward drawing on both ancient and emerging wisdom.

Purpose

Thrive

Thrive: We aspire to nurture wellbeing, healing, and thriving in ourselves, in our community, and in the world, through a range of personal and collective practices. We care for our bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits. We cook healthy and delicious meals for each other. We seek to source food in ways that treat land and animals with care and reverence. We sing, dance, create art, laugh, and grieve together. We cherish time in nature and practice living in harmony with natural rhythms and cycles. We take time regularly to connect with something greater than our individual selves.

Evolve: We aspire to support development of essential capacities including empathy, trauma integration, collaborative decision-making, and conflict facilitation. We host spaces for people to learn, grow, and reconnect to our innate vitality, joy, compassion and courage. We are committed to inner work, self-responsibility, and self-regulation, while also embracing interpersonal challenges and conflict as opportunities for growth rather than triggers for separation or withdrawal. We prioritize face-to-face connection, reducing distraction by intentionally limiting technology use and creating space for genuine human interaction, while still engaging mindfully in digital spaces.

Serve: We aspire to take courageous and compassionate action to address the complex social and ecological meta-crisis facing planet Earth at this time, from a place of humility and love. We see every day as an opportunity to make the world a more beautiful and loving place to be, supporting each other in recognizing and giving our unique and varied gifts in the world. We seek to help heal polarizations through our action in the world, rather than fueling them. 

Evolve

Serve

Practices

Transformational Communities host a range of practices for personal, community and systemic transformation, from introductory and drop-in sessions to long-term intensive programs and apprenticeships. Practices include:

  • Meditation

  • Circling and Authentic Relating

  • Aletheia Integral Unfolding

  • Internal Family Systems Therapy 

  • Nonviolent Communication

  • Trauma Integration and the work of Thomas Hübl

  • Conflict Mediation and Restorative Circles

  • Sociocracy and Collaborative Decision Making

  • Permaculture, Transition, and Regenerative Living

  • The Work That Reconnects (Joanna Macy)

  • Physical Movement Practices: Contact Improv, Yoga, Qi Gong/Tai Chi, Martial Arts

  • World Work: Frontline Service, Healing Polarization

  • Creative Expression and Play: Dance, Music, Singing, Games

  • Mindful Media Use

Short-Term and Long-Term Transformational Communities

Transformational Communities can be either short-term or long-term in nature:

Short-Term Transformational Community Experiments: Typically ranging from a few weeks to a few years in length, community houses or residencies offer a relatively low-cost way to experiment with Transformational Communities. With much less investment or commitment of time, money, and life energy required, these communities still provide powerful intentional space and culture for shared learning and practice, while supporting exploration of resonance and deepening of connection among people, as well as experimentation with community systems and practices on a small scale before taking on a larger or more long-term community commitment. In some cases, short-term Transformational Community experiments can unfold into long-term Transformational Communities. 

One example of a short-term Transformational Community was the Embodying Collective Transformation (ECT) residencies in Bergerac, France in 2022 (see a report on the ECT residencies here: https://bit.ly/ECTReport).

Long-Term Transformational Communities: When a Transformation Community develops a more stable long-term physical location, core membership, and culture, it is able to create and maintain a deeper container for shared living, learning, and practice, and therefore can often support more profound healing, transformation, and action in the world. These communities can take the form of various kinds of intentional communities, most notably ecovillages. 

Examples of long-term communities that align with the vision and values of Transformation Communities include Findhorn Ecovillage in Scotland, Auroville in India, Tamera Healing Biotope in Portugal, Damenhur in Italy, and Hummingbird Community in New Mexico, USA.

We are all longing to go home
to some place we have never been —
a place half-remembered and half-envisioned
we can only catch glimpses of
from time to time.
Community
Somewhere, there are people
to whom we can speak with passion
without having the words catch in our throats.
Somewhere a circle of hands will open to receive us,
eyes will light up as we enter, voices will celebrate with us
whenever we come into our own power.
Community means strength that joins our strength
to do the work that needs to be done.
Arms to hold us when we falter.
A circle of healing.  A circle of friends.
Someplace where
we can be free.

 - Starhawk

It is possible that the next Buddha will not take the form of an individual.
The next Buddha may take the form of a community--
a community practicing understanding and loving kindness,
a community practicing mindful living.
This may be the most important thing we can do for the earth.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our
souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

If you want to live in a Transformational Community, or just want to help these initiatives, we would love to hear from you. We invite you to fill out this questionnaire to get involved and find out about community opportunities. We will get back to you regarding next steps.

Together we can help co-create a world that works for all life. Thank you!