Earthaven Ecovillage Visitor Weekend
Live, Work, and Learn at Earthaven
September 3-6, 2021
Earthaven Ecovillage
Near Asheville, NC
Earthaven Ecovillage Experience Weekend is a residential service-learning program that immerses participants in the life of Earthaven Ecovillage. It offers a shorter version of the Experience Week for those with tighter schedules or budgets.
Our ecovillage provides the ideal living laboratory for a whole-life skills curriculum—a place to see regenerative systems in practice, food production in action, and community living on a personal level. Participants connect with the people, businesses, and farms of the Taylor Creek Watershed community for a hands-on, skill-building, life-changing experience.
The Earthaven Ecovillage Visitor Weekend curriculum encourages participants to examine sustainability through social, ecological, economic, and eco-spiritual lenses. The learning journey weaves large-group discussions and classes together with intimate hands-on experiences in the village and farms alongside community members. SOIL instructors, together with the community at large, support participants to build important skills, foster awareness for global issues, empower the self, increase connection, and develop the resources required for daily life.
Earthaven Experience Week was among the most enlightening and extraordinary spiritual experiences of my life to date. ~ Steve (72 years old), 2019 Participant
Curriculum
Classes, discussions and activities will explore the following:
Organic Food Production and Natural Buildings
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Green homes (tiny houses, stud-frame, cob, straw-bale, earthship)
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Small-scale farms and home gardens (permaculture gardens, integrated farms)
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Nourishing, local, sustainably-grown, organic, and wild food
Renewable Energy and Off-Grid Utilities
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Off-grid renewable systems in practice (photovoltaic, micro-hydro, radiant-floor heating, hot water diversions, wood-fired boiler)
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Development of energy alternatives to meet the world’s impending energy crisis
Resilient Community and Regenerative Culture
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Earthaven and other successful ecovillages and land-based endeavors (both rural and urban)
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The three-legged stool of sustainability—the social, environmental, and economic factors necessary for sustainable projects to succeed
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Earthaven legal structure and governance 101
Personal Growth and Empowerments
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Connection to yourself, others, and the natural world
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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.
Program
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.
Friday, September 3
1:00–2:30pm Arrival, Check-in, and Camp Setup
2:30-3:30pm Welcome and Orientation
3:30-6:00pm Tour of Earthaven
6:30–7:30pm Dinner
7:30–9:30pm Opening Circle
Saturday and Sunday, September 4 – 5
8:00-9:00am Breakfast
9:00am–12:00pm Morning Session
12:00–2:00pm Lunch and Independent Time
2:00–5:00pm Afternoon Session
5:00–6:30pm Independent Time
6:30–7:30pm Dinner
7:30–9:30pm Fireside Conversations with Community Members
Monday, September 6
8:00-9:00am Breakfast
9:00am–12:00pm Final Session and Closing Circle
12:00–1:30pm Lunch and Departure
The Group
This program is primarily designed for adults. However, mature young adults under 18 years old are also welcome. Please contact SOIL to discuss the enrollment of passionate individuals under 18.
We welcome families with children to attend and will do our best to support you and your children, however we are not able to offer childcare. As much of the content involves focused, sit-down presentations, attending with a young child will likely mean being less able to participate fully in the course.
Sliding Scale Tuition
Because some people have more financial means than others, we have created a sliding scale fee system to accommodate a range of economic realities. The high-end of the scale reflects the value we believe the program holds, and the low-end offers a more accessible entry point.
By choosing a higher price point, you are helping make the program more accessible to others for whom the low-end may be cost-prohibitive. Please consider your needs and resources to determine what might be a stretch, but not a strain.
Cost
General
Tuition Sliding Scale: $375-475
What’s Included
Tuition includes 3 nights camping, meals, instruction, and all materials. Shared and private indoor lodging as well as transportation are available for an additional cost.
Scholarships
We offer partial scholarships (50% of the middle of the sliding scale) to black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) with financial needs who otherwise would not be able to afford to attend. We understand that BIPOC experience more financial and institutional barriers to participation, and this is one way we are able to create more access. If you identify as BIPOC with financial needs and would like to receive a scholarship, please contact us.
Logistics
Instructors
Earthaven Experience Programs Faculty Diana speaks at conferences, offers consultations, and leads webinars and workshops internationally on starting successful new intentional communities, how existing communities can resolve conflicts and become more healthy and thriving, and sociocracy, a self-governance and decision-making method she finds especially effective for communities. She is also an author and editor focused on these areas, and a Member of Earthaven Ecovillage.Diana Leafe Christian
Since his arrival to EH in 1997, Chris has cleared his own farm field, designed and built passive solar homes using the wood from the trees he has killed (including his own Microhut), held leadership positions in the community, raised turkeys, grown vegetables, co-founded the Forestry Cooperative, designed and installed multiple off-grid energy systems, and a few other things. His newest excitement is dabbling in small-scale biochar production and wood gasification at Gateway Farm.Chris Farmer
Earthaven Experience Programs Faculty Dimitri is a naturalist, natural builder, and naturopathic doctor, one who teaches that wellness comes from cultivating a deep connection to the natural world. His other passions are nature awareness, foraging for food and medicine, gardening, and supporting bonds that engender a tightly-knit community.Dimitrios Magiasis
In-person Programs Director, Faculty Throughout the last two decades, NikiAnne has been immersed in community and in service to a wide range of educational endeavors focused on nature connection, personal empowerment, and community resilience. No matter what she’s teaching, NikiAnne is always on the same mission: to raise awareness of our whole selves – gifts, passions, blind spots, shadows – and help those whole selves find and fill niches in their communities.NikiAnne Feinberg
Assistant Director, Bookkeeper, and Faculty Carmen is dedicated to learning how to be human on this planet at this time. She considers herself a generalist and has owned and operated a pasture-based poultry farm; worked on construction crews building passive solar, off-grid houses; and supported many small businesses with online marketing, administration, and bookkeeping.Carmen Lescher
Registration
Complete the registration form once per participant. It takes 5-10 minutes, and you will complete your enrollment with a credit card authorization.
As your enrollment is processed, you will receive several email messages…
- An automatic confirmation of receiving your registration form
- A payment confirmation from our credit card processor
- Additional program information from our registrar about a week before the program