Our sixth Journey: Tips on founding a community
Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland
“I will create my own community” or “My friends and I want to find land and build our own community.” These thoughts often cross the minds of people exploring community living—especially when existing communities they’ve visited don’t fully align with their vision or expectations.
Starting your own community is an exciting and rewarding endeavor, and we wholeheartedly encourage the emergence of more intentional communities, whether in rural or urban settings. However, it’s important to recognize that, much like business startups, new communities face a high risk of failure in their early stages. To improve your chances of success, there are key aspects to consider and essential knowledge to acquire beforehand.
To support you on this journey, we’ll be sharing insights from experienced community founders within our network, offering their advice on what it takes to build a thriving community. Additionally, we’ll provide valuable resources to help deepen your understanding of this complex yet rewarding process.
As a starting point, we highly recommend exploring the most common reasons why so many intentional communities struggle or fail. Cynthia from CommunityFinders.com has written an excellent blog article on this topic—an absolute must-read!
Advice from our member ecovillages on founding communities
All “Full Member” ecovillages of GEN Europe are part of the 10% of community projects that successfully navigated the challenging early stages. Many have thrived for decades, overcoming obstacles, learning from them, and accumulating valuable experience. As a result, they serve as powerful sources of inspiration and knowledge.
To share some of this wisdom with you, We’ve selected three interview excerpts from our members. You’ll soon be able to find the full-length interviews on our website!
Further ressources on the topic of community founding
The CLIPS guide
CLIPS is GEN Europe’s flagship Community Incubator training program, designed to support emerging community projects. It draws on insights and lessons from well-established ecovillages, distilling them into practical concepts and methods that can benefit any group seeking to build a thriving community.
As CLIPS was developed, it was tested and evaluated by community initiatives across nine European countries, ensuring its effectiveness and adaptability.
In other words, it’s your key to a successful start in your new community life! 😉
Diana Leafe’s book “Creating a life together”
“Diana Leafe Christian’s classic Creating a Life Together has been a source of guidance for generations of community founders. The book covers the practical steps you’ll need to take to make a community happen — from gathering a forming group to setting up legal structures, purchasing property, and more. The book includes case studies from communities that have both flourished and failed.”
