Faith House Ottawa
We are a multifaith, undogmatic, radically hospitable and inclusive intentional community, in Sandy Hill, Ottawa. From time to time we hold activities about faith and activism, immigration and refugee issues in Canada, faith and solidarity, etc.
Are you looking for a summer with faith house, or looking for more permanent housing as of September 2011, or just want to sit down for food and learn more? Contact us!
Kaitlyn Duthie, telephone and fax: 613-656-9322, Email address: Ottawa@scmcanada.org , facebook.com/faithhouseottawa
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Killaloe Earthship The Oasis
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The KILLALOE EARTHSHIP "THE OASIS" is the home of Asoma Music, a finely crafted audio production studio, nestled in a relaxing rural setting, approximately 2 hours west of Ottawa. We are housed in a mammoth tire and concrete structure known as an Earthship. We are powered by the sun and totally ecologically sustainable. We offer Earthship building workshops, Earthship design & building consultations, sacred astro sound workshops, and produce music for healing & meditation and celebrating life. Our oasis of information and relaxation is open for tours by request.
KILLALOE EARTHSHIP "THE OASIS"
, RR # 2 Killaloe Ontario.
Contact person : Lisa Francis 613-757-2000
lisa@asomamusic.com www.asomamusic.com |
King Summit Intentional Community
 King Summit is an intentional community of 4 adults, two children and a kitten, currently based in a spacious estate just North of Toronto. Our intention is to move towards living closer to the land, growing our own food, harvesting solar and wind energy and living in harmony with our environment. We have a strong spiritual focus and seek to attract other like minded people. We seek to create a life that is holistic and where all parts (love, friendship, work, children, spiritual practice, self development and growth, play, celebration and joy...) effortlessly blend together. We seek to create synergy in all we are being and doing.
We seek to create a community based on heartfelt friendship, love and appreciation. New members, volunteers and visitors are welcome. Please visit our website www.kingsummit.ca for more information.
King Summit hosts various workshops and social events. See our events calendar. Consulting services are also offered by Jeff Gold, ECO Ecological Consulting, www.ecologicalconsulting.ca
Gathering at Dragonfly Farm August 22-24, 2008 - Back to the Land
This year, the intentional rural community called Dragonfly Farm marks its 30th anniversary. "Back to the Land 2.0" is a gathering celebrating this historic occasion and expanding on Dragonfly's legacy.
At this gathering we'll be reflecting on the ideals of the back-to-the-land movement of the 70s and 80s, and exploring how to make those ideals relevant and practical today.
Some workshops will build concrete skills in sustainable building, nurturing of local ecology, and co-operative organization. Other workshops will address broader issues, including our relationships with First Nations and Métis people, and the growing resistance to uranium mining. We also aim to contribute practically to building projects at Dragonfly Farm and the nearby Black Fly Sustainable Living Education Co-operative.
This is a public event. We are especially inviting people from the area, members of Dragonfly and other intentional communities, and people who are interested in joining, creating or connecting with such communities.
Overall, we hope that organizing this gathering will build trust and comradeship among diverse people. We are open to more workshop proposals and welcome volunteers in all areas. If you have ideas or resources to share, please don't hesitate to contact us at info@backtotheland20.ca. More information will be posted at www.backtotheland20.ca as things come together (email and website will be online by end of June).
Friday August 22 - Sunday August 24: Discussions and workshops
Monday August 25 through the Labour Day long weekend: Camping and building
Dragonfly Farm (the conference site and Greenhouse)
and Black Fly Sustainable Living Education Co-operative
Lake St. Peter, Ontario
Lots of space for camping. Contact us about accessibility needs.
There is no registration fee. Donations will be accepted.
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2008 Workshops at OUR in BC
Sustainable Living Summer. OUR ECOVILLAGE (Shawnigan Lake), 25 acre model demonstration sustainable village has overflowing participation in OUR Internship programs and the summer is very exciting with a wide range of new teachers, engineers, mediators, etc. BIG news is OUR new onsite TimberFraming school with the guys that like doing the big wood (we are using old blowdowns first growth). Check out OUR website www.ourecovillage.org for information on the following courses.
- The Village Lives
- Policies and Processes for Sustaining INTENTIONAL COMMUNITIES
- Design your own Natural House - Ecological Design for homeowners
- Project Manager for Homeowners
- Curvilinear Foundations for Sustainable Building
- Building as if people mattered: a look at Natural Building as it meets Conventional Construction
- Frame and Infill Wallsystems
- Building Cob and Community
- Natural Plasters for healthy and beautiful homes
- Introduction to Timber Framing
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Clearwater Commons is awaiting a new life
This forming group gave up trying to do cohousing in Fort McMurray…. We still have a non-profit housing society that would support a cohousing group if one came together. www.housingourselves.org is where we can be found these days: H.O.M.E.S. (Housing Ourselves Made Easy Society) is an organization that facilitates the creation of housing communities and housing programs in Alberta, with an emphasis on affordability and sustainability. We also run a guest room program in one house that has 5 bedrooms….4 are rented out to commuters working up there. Our website for this is www.guestroomscanada.ca
Maggie Dutton
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Koinonia reaching out to interns & volunteers
Our community (based in Southwest Georgia, USA) is interested in reaching out to interns, volunteers, retreatants, RV-ers/ snowbirds and those on sabbatical from all across North America.
Check our website at: www.koinoniapartners.org
Kind regards,
Pauline Achola
Board Member - Koinonia Partners, Inc.
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Benny Farm wins two awards
Benny Farm project, in Montréal, province of Quebec, deserved two prestigious international Holcim awards in addition to a $ 3 million grant from the Green Municipal Fund to help accomplish the work of ‘greening’ the 187 renovated and newly constructed units.
“The Green Energy Benny Farm project is now recognized globally as a model of sustainable construction, said Philippe Arto, President and Chief Executive Officer of St. Lawrence Cement. “I believe that this Montreal-grown approach will become a benchmark in urban development and will be an inspiration to creative minds around the world.”
Read the full press release of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities : http://www.fcm.ca/english/media/press/may112006.html
Visit the exhibition at the museum of Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal : http://www.cca.qc.ca/
For more information on Benny Farm : www.bennyfarm.org
and www.loeuf.com/en/bennyfarm/index.php
For Les Habitations Communautaires NDG’s (HCNDG) Benny Farm Affordable Home Ownership Initiative : www.hcndg.org
For Green Municipal Fund, including details of other approved projects and studies, please visit FCM’s Centre for Sustainable - Community Development website : www.sustainablecommunities.ca
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Wiki - Technology for Building Community
Can you imagine a web page that you can edit at ease and that other people in the community can edit as well, in a collaborative way? That is what the wiki technology offers: an open environment where anyone can contribute to the collective knowledge base.
Unlike bulletin boards and email groups, which allow people to share bits of information, or websites that broadcast information, a MediaWiki is an interactive online tool for organizing and co-authoring information on an ongoing basis.
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit foundation registered in the state of Florida, operates Wikipedia (a free encyclopedia in over 50 languages), and Wiktionary (a free dictionary).
Canadian Communities, like EcoReality, are now using wiki's to allow their members to openly communicate their ideas, prepare for meetings and then write and share the minutes, produce collaborative documents, and build the spirit of community.
Do you wiki? In a few years wiki will probably be as widespread as email, and knowledge sharing will have attained a new dimension.
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Organic Farming Internship
Organic farming internships in southern Ontario provides hands-on training in sustainable agriculture, under CRAFT Ontario (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training). CRAFT farms have a mutual commitment to sharing farming knowledge.
Interns live, work, and train for a full season at a farm of their choice. The goal of CRAFT Ontario is to bring the CRAFT farmers and interns from all farms together once a month for a fieldtrip. Fieldtrips focus on the following topics: composting and nutrient management; cover crops and rotations; implements and machinery; livestock management; biodynamic methods; fruit crops; and farming finances.
The WWOOF program in Canada (Willing Workers On Organic Farms and World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) also provides opportunities. Vacationing in Canada and volunteering on Organic Farms is a great way to broaden education and practical experience. It also serves as a way to inexpensively travel. Over 500 farm hosts introduce WWOOFers to the many interesting aspects of Canadian farms and gardens. WWOOFing is a cultural exchange and a helping exchange.
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Measuring Well-being
On June 3 this year, the key directive from the Canada Well-Being Measurement Act was approved in the House of Commons. The time is ripe for a Canadian Genuine Progress Index (GPI).(See Hansard for June 2, 2003 at the Government of Canada Web site or www.SustainWellBeing.net)
Motion M-385 states: "... that in the opinion of this House, the government should develop and report annually on a set of social, environmental and economic indicators of the health and well-being of people, communities and ecosystems in Canada".
It is a victory for the Act, and as much as can be hoped for from a private member's motion. It is now up to a department of the Government to bring forward legislation. The new generation of well-being measurement would enable decision makers to see how actions taken and the events of time influence the many factors affecting Canadians.
Contact Mike Nickerson sustain@web.ca for more details on this act
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Living in Harmony
 Click on Common Ground, April 2003 issue to read these 3 articles:
Earth's New Season by Guy Dauncey
Living in community by Gerry Kilgannon and Val McIntyre
The Yarrow Eco-Village by Michael Hale
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EcoReality Ecovillage
EcoReality Sustainable Land Use and Education Cooperative is developing an ecovillage in the South Gulf Islands of British Columbia, Canada. This ecovillage will be a model of sustainable development, and will feature public outreach and education as included goals.
We have agreed to acquire a 37 acre property next to a 63 acre "community farmland" site, backed by hundreds of acres of public parkland, all the way to the watershed divide. Habitation under rental agreement begins 1 June 2008, with purchase completion slated for 2 August 2008.
The combined public/private property has cleared, productive farmland (currently in hay), riparian and laucustrine areas, and young forest. The public parkland extends from the highest point on the island (Bruce Peak, at 704 metres), all the way to the ocean at Burgoyne Bay, and up the other side to the second-highest point (Mount Maxwell, at 579 metres).
Every square foot of the 37+63 acre property is irrigated via a 2 acre pond and two year-round streams via an extensive buried irrigation system. The class-2 soils are in growing zone 8-9. We are beginning a Permaculture design process for the combined 100 acre site.
Two houses with a total of nearly 4,200 sqft of living space have nine bedrooms, four bathrooms, and two kitchens between them, as well as ample room for meetings and home-based businesses. Four members will live in these buildings, sharing them with renters or additional members.
A garage/studio/workshop of about 1,200 sqft is currently rented, but will be used as a farm/craft retail space in the future.
We have begun a public education campaign leading to re-zoning that will enable construction of a number of additional dwelling units. Current zoning allows three additional houses and a cottage. We are beginning studies to determine the appropriate number of dwelling units, based on both carrying capacity of the land and agricultural labour needs. This will be a political process, with at least three government bodies and public hearings involved.
Current EcoReality members include an assistant professor of agroecology and two Permaculture instructors, as well as skills in natural building, alternative energy systems, videography, finance, information management, massage, education, and much more.
We are seeking additional members who can contribute approximately half the value of a typical North American suburban house to the project. Prospective members with outstanding skills who can contribute less are encouraged to contact us, as well. One of our core values is freedom from external debt; after we pay off our zero-interest seller financing, we will be open to those of more modest means.
Contact: Jan Steinman, telephone: 250.537.2024, website: www.EcoReality.org
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