Hiiii there :) world traveler with lots of experience in permaculture / hospo / animals / labor / woofing / teaching English as a second language and just finished a BSc in psychology (32 F)

Now that I’ve graduated I want to move out west again and I’m thinking of buying a van and finding my people out there

I have lived in several communities (mostly in Australia) and I MISSSS IT

Just putting it out there incase this finds someone who knows a group of down to earth humans - I want to be part of something again ❤️❤️❤️ and grow my own vegetables

Hi everyone,

I'm from Romania, and I've spent most of my professional life working in logistics and operations management, coordinating people, solving problems and finding ways to make things work with limited resources.

I'm not a developer, a politician or someone running a large organization. Just someone who believes that, with the right people and a realistic plan, even something that seems impossible at first might actually work.

Why are we doing this?

Over the years, I've watched rural communities slowly disappear. Young people leave in search of opportunities, houses are abandoned, and elderly residents are often left behind.

And I've kept coming back to one question:

Why do we keep accepting that these places have no future?

We're talking about villages that already have houses, land, traditions, and people who spent their entire lives building something. Yet little by little, all of it is disappearing.

I don't believe every village can or should be saved. But I do believe some deserve a genuine second chance.

That's how Satul Viu (The Living Village) started.

The idea isn't to create another tourist destination or simply renovate a few abandoned buildings.

We want to help rebuild a functioning, self-sustaining rural community.

That means restoring homes, supporting elderly residents, creating opportunities for younger generations, developing local agriculture, encouraging small businesses and bringing volunteers together.

Not just bringing buildings back to life, but giving people a reason to stay, return or start something new.

Where are we now?

We've already contacted several organizations, hoping to receive guidance, practical information or simply some direction.

Unfortunately, very few have been willing to engage. And to be clear, we weren't necessarily asking for financial support. Sometimes, even a useful conversation would have helped.

We've also created a crowdfunding campaign, but progress has been slow.

Our biggest difficulty so far seems to be organic visibility. Getting people to share an idea, especially one that doesn't yet have impressive results or dramatic before-and-after pictures, is surprisingly difficult.

We're not starting entirely from zero financially.

We intend to invest part of the money from selling a personally owned property in the city into getting this project started.

But we also understand that throwing money at an idea without the right structure would be a terrible way to begin.

I come from an operational background, so planning, resource management, accountability and measurable results matter to me.

And that's precisely why I'm asking for advice before making major financial commitments.

What would you do in our position?

If you were trying to develop something like this, where would you start?

Would you focus on one house or a small pilot project first, demonstrate that the concept works, and expand gradually?

Would you prioritize partnerships, volunteers, local authorities or building an online community?

And perhaps most importantly, how would you get an initiative like this in front of people who might genuinely care, without turning every social media post into another request for donations?

I'm particularly interested in hearing from people with experience in crowdfunding, community development, nonprofit projects or rural revitalization.

We're not asking for donations here. We're asking for perspectives, practical advice and constructive criticism.

Maybe our approach needs adjustments. Maybe we're overlooking something obvious. Or perhaps someone here has already faced similar challenges.

Either way, I'd rather learn from other people's experience than spend months repeating mistakes that could have been avoided.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Sometimes saving a place begins with understanding why it was abandoned in the first place.

This site is something I have been working on over the last few weeks with the goal of solving the loneliness crisis.

The goal is not just about matching you to existing communities, but rather to help connect people together to form communities of their own together.

I wont explain much because this is not a sales pitch. Just want some honest feedback on how it can be improved in any way.

The service is planned to be free for people and only cost money for community listings.

Let me know what you think!

Intentional sovereign community wisdom is the solution to poverty!

I use the phrase "intentional sovereign community" to describe a community built with the intention of upholding human rights and innate value, economically liberated from imperialist parasitic systems, and inclusive rather than exclusive.

This is why I believe we need intentional communities across the United States to give people alternatives to poverty and homelessness.

I have seen what is happening in this country, and it's not right. But what's really not right is that anybody is homeless at all. Nobody should be.

The return of common spaces should become a thing. When the United States was first founded, we had common spaces where people who had nothing could set up something for themselves. On top of that, the Indigenous people who had been here for thousands of years knew how to share. Nobody was supposed to be homeless. Nobody was supposed to be getting a ticket from a cop simply for existing.

For literally thousands upon thousands of years of human history, people have been willing to create communities to provide comfort and security. But capitalism has purged this essential wisdom from our hearts, and it's our job as the intentional community movement to bring it back.

I firmly believe that the creation of intentional sovereign communities is fundamental to being human. I believe it is fundamental to healing.

We must get rid of the idea that wealth determines the value of your humanity. We must learn to see the benefit and the value in everyone.

This is what I've seen, and this is why I believe this.

There is a sense of dread that just seems to haunt me now.

Every three years, I go on a road trip across the US. The last time I did it was 2024, and when I looped back, it was 2025. I can tell you that I have never seen homelessness like that.

I saw more homeless people in the United States than I had ever seen before. I saw whole parking lots filled with families. I saw small towns with more homeless people than housed people. I saw a town that only had a handful of jobs.

I used to tell people to go to college because that was the best way to improve their lives, but the reality is that this is not necessarily true anymore. And I don't know what to tell people. I don't know what to tell myself.

I have a degree from UC Davis, and it was a pretty decent degree at one point. But back in 2023, when I first used ChatGPT, I realized it was able to do most of what I had learned in my computer science courses in seconds. It wasn't perfect, but I knew that was the end for many coders. Since then, it has gotten extremely good, and I know a lot of people don't like to hear this, but I'm tired of the cope.

We have a real problem.

The economy was constructed with white collar workers as the foundation, with money trickling down to trade workers, and in turn, that money would work its way down toward the service industry and its various layers. I do not put firefighters or police officers in this because they are in a totally different category, and in reality, their jobs are far more protected.

Anyway, white collar workers are getting eradicated. The job loss is extreme. It's far worse than is being reported. And it's decimating many other industries.

If you look at the huge number of layoffs and the lack of hiring right now, it's very clear that this is happening because there just isn't an influx of money from white collar workers like there used to be.

So I don't know what to tell somebody who wants to improve their life, because the opportunities are evaporating. You could become a cop or a firefighter, but not everybody has the body for that. Some people have physical injuries, and they really depended on white collar jobs to get out of poverty.

I have friends with business degrees from Ivy League schools who have been unemployed for two years, and it doesn't look like they're going to get a job anytime soon. I have friends who are awesome coders, true geniuses, and they can't get a job anymore.

I know this is going to get worse every year until we have some form of guaranteed income in the United States.

I also see that nobody in our elected government right now, except for a handful of people, has any desire to actually help ordinary people. And I'm not certain that congressmen and senators are interested in the suffering, because they don't go to the dark places. They don't go under the bridge. They don't go to the small towns. They don't go to the parking lots at night with the homeless families and the babies crying.

I've seen these things directly. I've seen teenage girls standing on the side of the highway, prostituting themselves so they can buy diapers for their younger brothers. They haven't seen this, but I have.

I'm horrified, and I can't get this feeling out of me anymore.

I know it's going to get worse until somebody, somewhere, starts a massive social revolution where we overthrow the rich and start sharing. There is no reason why a person should be able to have ten yachts, several mansions, personal planes, and even a personal army to protect them when there is a homeless family living under a bridge, a 14-year-old girl standing on the side of the highway to take care of her family, or a family with a baby living out of a Walmart parking lot with nobody coming to help them and no money for gas to get out of there.

I see the building of intentional sovereign communities that redistribute wealth and give everyone a safe place as part of that revolution! I believe that anybody who believes in the innate value of people and a basic right to dignity is part of a revolution! The building of communities can truly be part of a real solution, not just to wealth redistribution but to the epidemic of loneliness and sorrow.

Community is the answer.

So what would you like to share?

How do you think we can build intentional sovereign communities for every group in the United States?

How do you think we can build them in every part of this country?

Do you think we need to seize homes that are owned by banks and sitting empty?

Do you think that any building that has been empty for long enough should be given to a group of people to build a community in?

It seems like, with solar panels and some basic moisture farming, you can turn almost anywhere into a small intentional community that provides safety, security, comfort, and dignity to almost anybody.

Do you think it's time to take the idea of intentional sovereign communities and turn it into a movement where we advocate for the redistribution of wealth into communities?

Please share your wisdom and your vision for a bright, beautiful future for everyone! Have fun, be respectful, and share openly in the comments section!

Curious if anyone has any info or personal experience with this group that i found on ic.org. not a lot of info online... there is a youtube channel and the ic.org profile

https://www.youtube.com/@handmaidblessings/featured

https://www.ic.org/directory/community/handmaid-blessings/?srsltid=AU7gw4XQY-AOfZD5TGvZFjh3yoAjPnEiQFyvq7B5MQ0pCBto01H80Qku

Hi! Looking for communities in California (ideally by Bay Area) that value spirituality (eg mindfulness, yoga), nature, creativity, and connection.

Work exchange or being whole to contribute through available employment

Hello friends :) I live in an intentional community outside of Boston and we're currently engaged in a process of visioning and restructuring. It's just 5 of us at the house, 2 new and 3 semi-vets. We've been struggling to define the documents we're hoping to create and how to relate to them when we create them. I haven't had the chance yet to dig into the resources shared on threads in this sub, but if anyone has quick thoughts on these questions below, I and my home would be very grateful.

• What have been the most helpful documents for you, and what were the processes you went through to create them?
• What was your house/org relationship to these documents, and how did you approach accountability to them?

p.s. happy to talk on the phone about this too if anyone is keen and has more to share.

37, at a crossroads in life — looking for spiritual community, intentional living & a different way forward

I'm hoping this reaches the right people.

I'm not looking for harsh judgment, armchair psychology, or advice based on someone projecting their own experiences onto mine. I'm hoping to hear from people who have actually walked unconventional paths — spiritual people, travelers, homesteaders, people who have lived in intentional communities, volunteered abroad, built unconventional lives, or simply found a way of living that doesn't revolve around the traditional 9-to-5 grind.

I'm looking for the people who understand what it feels like to know there has to be more.

A little backstory, because I think context matters.

I'm 37 years young. I'm an Aries Sun, Scorpio Moon, Gemini Rising, and a Life Path 11. I've experienced a tremendous amount of loss and trauma very young in life. I lost my mother when I was six and my father when I was twelve. Between those losses, abuse, instability, and being passed between family members, I learned very early how to survive on my own.

By 16, I was essentially raising myself.

I'm not sharing that for sympathy or to make this a sob story. It's simply part of understanding who I am and why I've developed the way I have.

I've spent a huge portion of my life taking care of other people. I'm naturally nurturing, protective, empathetic, and a giver. Unfortunately, I've also spent years giving those qualities to people who didn't deserve them. I've repeatedly found myself in relationships and situations where I poured everything I had into other people and lost pieces of myself in the process.

I've also gone through what I would describe as a major spiritual awakening — ego death, questioning everything I was taught about life, becoming much more aware of myself, other people, energy, patterns, intuition, and the way I experience the world.

I've traveled. I've experienced a lot. I've learned a lot.

And yet, somehow, I'm still stuck.

I feel like my nervous system has been in survival mode for so long that I don't really know what it feels like to simply live.

I'm tired of constantly operating from fight-or-flight, trying to make ends meet, taking care of everyone else, and trying to fit myself into a life that doesn't feel like it was made for me.

And I know I'm capable of more.

Not necessarily more money, more possessions, or some stereotypical version of "success."

I mean more life.

More connection.

More purpose.

More community.

More creativity.

More nature.

More learning.

More helping people in ways that actually matter.

More experiences.

More freedom.

I want to put some of the energy I've spent giving to everyone else back into myself.

Right now I'm at a crossroads.

I have around $2,000 saved. My vehicle is basically on its last leg, although I may be able to sell it and add that money to what I have. I'm currently staying in a hotel in North Carolina, and I don't have a huge safety net behind me if something goes wrong.

That's the part that makes me hesitate.

I'm not afraid of traveling or starting over. I've already done things that terrified me.

But I also know that being adventurous and being reckless are two different things. I need to find something that is safe, sustainable, and realistic for someone starting with limited resources.

And this is where I'm hoping Reddit can help me.

I know there are opportunities out there that I probably don't even know exist.

I've heard about:

• Intentional/spiritual communities

• Homesteads looking for help

• Work-exchange programs

• Volunteering abroad

• Animal sanctuaries

• Retreat centers

• Farm stays

• Ecovillages

• Communities where you trade work for housing/food

• Caregiving opportunities

• Nannying or working with children

• House/pet sitting

• Places where people essentially create their own chosen family and build a life together

I'm also very interested in spirituality, intuition, energy work, and exploring what I believe may be psychic/intuitive abilities. I'd love to be around people who are open-minded about those things and could help me learn, grow, and explore them in a grounded way.

I love children. I love animals. I love helping people. I love organizing and turning chaotic spaces into something functional and beautiful. I'm a natural caretaker. I'm adaptable, resourceful, and I'm willing to work.

What I don't want is to spend the rest of my life exhausted, working a 9-to-5 simply to afford to keep working a 9-to-5.

Maybe that's not realistic. Maybe I'm romanticizing alternative living. I'm open to hearing that from people who have actually lived it.

But I'm also wondering:

What options exist that I might not know about?

If you have personally lived in an intentional community, volunteered abroad, worked on a homestead, participated in a work-exchange program, lived communally, traveled inexpensively, or completely changed your life with very little money — what did you do?

Where did you go?

How did you find the opportunity?

What did it actually cost?

What should someone like me watch out for?

Are there communities that genuinely welcome newcomers and aren't financially predatory or cult-like?

Are there places where someone can contribute through caregiving, animals, childcare, organizing, cooking, gardening, etc. in exchange for housing/food/community?

And if you were standing where I am right now — limited money, a vehicle that's on its last legs, no huge safety net, but a strong desire to build a completely different life — what possibilities would you research first?

I'm not looking for someone to tell me what my life should look like.

I'm looking for people who have actually stepped outside the conventional path and can say:

"Here's something you probably don't know exists."

That's what I'm hoping to find.

Maybe there's a place I haven't heard of.

Maybe there's a community I should contact.

Maybe there's a type of work-exchange I've never considered.

Maybe someone reading this has already lived the life I'm trying to figure out how to build.

If that's you, I'd genuinely love to hear your story and any resources, communities, websites, organizations, or opportunities you think I should look into.

I'm at a crossroads, and for the first time in my life, I really want to choose myself but I want to do it wisely.

Patrick Hiebert is planning a walkable, European-style town on 30 hectares in Costa Rica, with cafés, homes and businesses rather than just residential lots. I interviewd him a couple of weeks ago about that plan, his other existing communities in Panama, and how much say residents get once a developer has built the place.

It's a business for him, but I'd definitely call these intentional communities due to their ideological origins in libertarianism and freedom oriented life in general. Thought people here might find it interesting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK7dfgoFVNs

Hey y'all,

For anyone here who actually runs or lives on an intentional community:

Do you all have any kind of constitution or foundational document? How do you lay out the communal agreements for everyone to know, if at all? Would you provide them for a weak mind whose imagination remains firmly grappled by the throws of mainstream existence?

If not, is there anywhere I should turn to understand how this works more?

Thanks.

Kinda curious to know about every community's vetting process. There are so many diverse processes like a requirement you live there for a month, then leave for a week-a month to see if you really want to live there. Some do background checks, others require you attend a retreat first, some require specific training, others do multiple interviews.

At my community, we have people fill out an application. We screen out apps that feel underwhelming (like the person barely filled out the questions), and do a casual phone call with ones that seem promising. Then we have them submit a short selfie video having them introduce themselves, say what they do for work and what they do for fun, list 2 projects they're excited to work on here, and tell a story of a time they faced interpersonal conflict and how they dealt with it. We share this in our group chat.

Then we invite them for a sitdown interview with as many community members that can attend as possible. Then we vote on a poll in our residents-only group chat. Usually we preer that people have attended at least 2 events or stayed as a guest for at least a weekend. I know it's not really enough time to get to know someone, but not everyone has the luxury of extended travel in another place. We also run background checks on people.

Curious to hear what other community builders do.

Hey y'all,

I've just been looking into the history and presence of these intentional communities in the U.S. because I'm looking to buy some TIC land and get something started in the foreseeable future. Just wondering though - in every other country these are called communes? Is there a reason why this isn't "r/commune" instead?

Based in Staffordshire and looking for likeminded people to discuss/plan/learn together

Hoping to set up initially just an interest group and see what grows from there. My main focus is on living closer to nature, self sufficiency and sustainability. Living more simply and creating a better future for my child

Anyone interested please drop me a message

Looking for a remote/off-grid place in CO for meditation & simple living. 🌲 Open to work exchange + modest fee. Can help with gardening, housekeeping, pet sitting, etc. Any leads? DM pls 🙏

Hi all,

For those of you participating in intentional communities; I am curious about the overhead/admin functions. How do you manage these? What software (if any) do you use?

I'm with a nonprofit building free community governance/comms/management infra for ICs, and want to better understand what you presently focus on and any pain points worth elevating.

A #cohousing / #coliving community in Oakland, CA, at a moment of its evolution

Hello,

I am a multimedia filmmaker who grew up in a very capitalistic corporate part of America, and is looking to explore/and research communities very different to how I was raised and view them from an honest authentic outsiders perspective. I deeply respect people who have built alternative living communities in this day and age and will approach this project with the utmost love and curiosity. The project will be in video format with an accompanying creative writing/photo series to go alongside it.

I am looking for a community on the smaller side so that I may be able to get to know the people/members more intimately. I plan to stay for 2-3 weeks in the months of July-August 2027 for this project. I am a hard worker and grew up doing farm work, food service, and other laborious jobs so I am willing/expecting to volunteer in exchange for my permission to document the community.

I am leaning more towards a community not in North America, as I want to go somewhere very different, and someplace where I know I will be pushed outside of my comfort zone. (I have friends in Switzerland and Italy I am also visiting in August so if there are leads there that would be incredible but I know it's a reach)

Please let me know if anyone knows of any kind/welcoming communities that would love to host an artist on this film ethnography journey!

Hello everyone!! I (22F) am starting a farm in October with my partner. With the current state of the world, it’s excruciatingly important to me that our farm is able to support our community.

Here are some of the ways I plan to help:
- Any food we are unable to sell at markets will be available to pick up from the farm at a discounted, if not free rate
- We will be making a lot of preserves and what not, and any excess or scraps we produce will be used to make free meals to feed local families or anyone who might need it
- When we eventually start breaking even, its important to me that a portion of our profits donate to charities
- I plan to teach workshops and classes about growing your own food etc, and since we will need money I do plan to charge for these but also have a number of spaces for lower rate and even free spots

These are the ones I was able to come up with just off the top of my head, but I would really like to hear any ideas you might have or any stories of how farms have helped you (:

We unfortunately will not be making any housing that could be used temporarily for folk, is my only issue, otherwise I’m entirely open to ideas!

Hello, I’m a veteran and former sheriff’s deputy with K9 experience, where I found a real passion for training dogs and working with animals. I recently purchased 20 acres in Michigan that borders state land with lots of trails. I currently have 3 horses, two dogs, chickens, and plan to get honey bees, garden, and raise other livestock. Property was just purchased, so still working on pasture, and currently building a house. But I have another driveway that goes to the other half of the property that's completely vacant.

I’ve started looking into the idea of a small, veteran- and first responder-focused intentional community built around farming, animals, outdoor activities, peer support, and purpose.

I'm looking for someone with experience, or who may have other ideas about intentional communities, veteran programs, or how to turn a vision like this into something real.

I'm hoping to connect with people willing to share advice, help me think through the first steps, or possibly become involved in building something positive for veterans and first responders.

Feel free to message me if interested.

I love going for adventures I have surviveal skills, my dream is to one day leave off grid where I can grow my own food and live happily, if there is any one with the same interest let's chat and makes our dreams come true