Finding Community:
How to Join an Ecovillage or Intentional Community

by Diana Leafe Christian (New Society Publishers, 2007) Finding Community presents a comprehensive overview of ecovillages and intentional communities and offers solid advice on how to research thoroughly, visit thoughtfully, evaluate intelligently, and join gracefully. Buy Finding Community at: Your local bookstore Community Bookshelf New Society Publishers Amazon.com Barnes and Noble

What ecovillage and sustainability activists are saying about Finding Community:

Diana Leafe Christian has done it again! Her first book, Creating a Life Together, has become something of a bible for would-be community founders. Finding Community promises to be just as important. Thoughtful, thorough, and engaging, and enlivened by stories from the trenches of real community life, it’s a must-read for anyone seriously seeking community.

—Liz Walker, cofounder and director, EcoVillage at Ithaca; author, EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture

Open-hearted and hard-headed in equal measure—and with a delicious sense of humor—Diana Leafe Christian takes the reader on a comprehensive tour of the world of ecovillages and intentional communities. This is the volume for those exploring the options and willing to learn from those who have already trodden the path. There could be no better guide on the path of exploring this lifestyle.

—Jonathan Dawson, president, Global Ecovillage Network; author, Ecovillages

When you combine encyclopedic knowledge plus wry humor plus a realistic assessment of what the future holds for all of us, you get the wise advice in Finding Community. In a world after fossil fuels, it can extend the keys to your next car, your next house, and the rest of your life. If there is a silver lining to the clouds on the horizon, it will be found in the redesign of human communities. No one knows this subject better than Diana Leafe Christian. To a troubled world, here is the core of the solution.

—Albert Bates, co-founder, Global Ecovillage Network; director, Ecovillage Training Center at The Farm

Through long experience and sheer social honesty, Diana Leafe Christian offers essential resources for and catalogs the oh-so-many pitfalls as well as delights of visiting and joining a community. Finding Community is like having an explorer’s compass and a roll of charts under your arm as you embark upon unknown waters. All the more important to learn these essentials before you’re out at sea!

—Richard Register, author, Ecocities: Rebuilding Cities in Balance with Nature; founder, International Ecocity Conferences

Finding Community is well organized, well thought-out, and easy to access. The information is of high quality, being based on good research and long experience. The reader will learn from members of a wide range of ecovillages, communes, co-housing developments, and co-ops, discovering the range of options, and getting a sense of what it takes to successfully make the leap from “normal” urban life to intentional community living.

—Richard Heinberg, Peak Oil activist and author, The Party’s Over, Powerdown, The Oil Depletion Protocol

This charming and commonsensical guide to approaching intentional group living should be read by every serious community-seeker. It offers an amazingly knowledgeable perspective, warmly sympathetic but sometimes wryly humorous toward both communities and those who visit and join them.

—Ernest Callenbach, author, Ecotopia

An amazing, comprehensive, collaborative and kaleidoscopic achievement! By showing community seekers practical living examples of cohousing projects, ecovillages, and other intentional communities, Finding Community has the potential to change the suburban way of life and help North America reconcile its ecological footprint.

—Declan Kennedy, Lebensgarten Ecovillage, Germany

This stunning overview of ecovillages and intentional communities is not only a terrific read, but abounds with essential, profoundly important information for anyone seeking more community and a sense of belonging in their lives.

—Joan Medlicott, author, The Ladies of Covington series

Finding Community is full of wisdom and “Convenient Truths” for anyone wanting to join an ecovillage or intentional community, and packed with advice for ecovillages and communities wanting new members, too.

—Max Lindegger, cofounder, Crystal Waters Ecovillage, Queensland, Australia; director, Global Ecovillage Network Asia/Oceania

Heartwarming and fun, Finding Community will help readers make informed choices about joining a community. Diana Leafe Christian knows what people want!

—Hildur Jackson, cofounder, Global Ecovillage Network (GEN)

Chapter titles of Finding Community:

Introduction: Ecovillages and Other Intentional Communities

Section One: Communities, An Overview
1. Why Community?
2. Ten Most Common Fears About Joining a Community
3. Community Living Day-to-Day
4. Ecovillages: For Future Generations
5. Cohousing Communities
6. Urban Communities: Group Households and Housing Co-ops
7. Rural Homesteading Communities, Conference and Retreat Centers
8. Spiritual Communities
9. Christian Communities
10. Income-Sharing Communes

Section Two: Researching
11. What Does It Cost?
12. What Does It Take to Live in Community?
13. The Communities Directory, the Internet, and You — Researching Communities
14. Your Criteria for Communities to Visit

Section Three: Visiting
15. “My Marathon Tour of Communities” —Jane Gryhra
16. Planning Your Visits
17. “Excerpts from a Community Seeker's Journal” —Sue Stone
18. How to Be a Great Guest (And Make the Most of Your Experience)
19. “Seriously Seeking Community” —Patricia Greene
20. Evaluating Your Visits (And Debunking Some Assumptions and Expectations)

Section Four: Joining
21. Taking a Second Look
22. Choosing Your Community: The “Insider’s Guide”
23. The Membership Process
24. Entering Community Gracefully
25. “The longest, most expensive, personal-growth workshop you will ever take.”

Appendix A: Sample Community Membership Documents

Appendix B: Can Living in Community Make a Difference in an Era of Peak Oil?