Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Week

Exploring social connection and off-grid systems for community living

July 21-27, 2024

Earthaven Ecovillage

Near Asheville, NC

Experience Week is a residential immersion into the community life of Earthaven Ecovillage. Experience Week will give you an inside look at the radical social and ecological experimentation that has taken place in this land-based community over the past 29 This is a rare opportunity for deep, focused time with cultural creatives who can reveal what has worked and not worked. Save precious time in your own journey of creating community by building upon lessons we’ve learned rather than starting from scratch.

Alongside an ecological crisis of rising sea levels, polluted air, toxic oceans, and mass extinction of species, many people are also experiencing a social crisis of disconnection, isolation, and loss of meaning and purpose. Although Earthaven doesn’t have ready-made solutions for healing all these problems, we are engaging in thoughtful, practical strategies that attempt to merge ancestral wisdom and technological innovation with earth- and community-centered ethics. As a community, we are grounding our visions in authentic connection to spirit and the land, in an effort to bring some order and beauty into this fragmented world.

For these reasons, this ecovillage provides the ideal setting for a whole-life skills curriculum — a place to see regenerative systems in practice and food production in action, and experience community living on a personal level.

In addition to experiencing some aspects of the daily village life of Earthaven, participants can also experience community within their cohort by sharing meals, social activities, their experiences, and hearth-tending tasks. Many participants come to the program during or while preparing for a life transition — questioning aspects of their current lifestyle and curious about their options. Others come to the program for a retreat from their daily life —  a chance to be in a different place around different people while enjoying wholesome food prepared by someone else.  In the words of a past participant… “The community building we did as an Experience Week group was a wonderful surprise to me, and I made life-long friends and important contacts for my future as someone seeking intentional community.”

This is a unique and powerful opportunity for learning in a compassionate community setting with the intention of forging meaningful connections with ourselves, each other, and the natural world. Now, more than ever, the work of coming together is essential. Together, we discover creative and effective ways to act responsibly where and when we can.

Don’t miss out on living a life full of purpose and connection!

Curriculum

Classes, discussions and activities will explore the following:

Organic Food Production and Natural Buildings

• Green homes (tiny houses, stud-frame, cob, straw-bale, earthship)
• Small-scale farms and home gardens (permaculture gardens, integrated farms)
• Nourishing, local, sustainably-grown, organic, and wild food

Renewable Energy and Off-Grid Utilities

•  Off-grid renewable systems in practice (photovoltaic, micro-hydro, radiant-floor heating, hot water diversions, wood-fired boiler)
• Development of energy alternatives to meet the world’s impending energy crisis

Resilient Community and Regenerative Culture

• Earthaven and other successful ecovillages and land-based endeavors (both rural and urban)
• The three-legged stool of sustainability—the social, environmental, and economic factors necessary for sustainable projects to succeed
• Earthaven legal structure and governance 101

Personal Growth and Empowerment

• Connection to yourself, others, and the natural world
• Designing an authentic, meaningful, and responsible life in the modern world

In addition to classes, discussions, and activities, you’ll enjoy meals with community members as well as authentic community experience within your SOIL participant cohort.

This long weekend program consists of expert lectures, fireside storytelling, community conversations, land-walks, and tours to provide an intimate, well-rounded and powerful learning experience.

Tuition includes meals, instruction, and all materials. Scholarships available.