​Discussions and Presentations

Intentional Communities 101 - Canon Frome Court Team

An introductory guide to setting up a new community. What challenges are you likely to face and how can you avoid common pitfalls? Faciitated by members of the Canon Frome Court community.

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Seeding Communities Round Table - Hosted by Rebs Tulley, Canon Frome Court

A practical learning session for communities just getting started. Come to learn, share, or both.

 

Intentional Communities as Imaginal Cells - Jonathan How, Diggers and Dreamers

Societal collapse seems ever closer. But if things do go pear-shaped will we be anti-social preppers and survivalists? Or pro-social networkers and creators of the structures of tomorrow? The caterpillar-butterfly metamorphosis may help us understand our role. Rejection by the mainstream is often the reason that sharing lives with like-minded people seems attractive, but perhaps the priority now is connecting better with those in different tribes. Our lifestyles may currently be perceived as irrelevant but if the s**t hits the fan our skills and experience will suddenly be very valuable. So can we develop effective ways in the here-and-now of connecting with those we don’t particularly agree with who live just down the road?

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Ty Brethyn Community Introduction - Roscoe Boyes, Ty Brethyn

Ty Brethyn is a 5-household Housing Co-Op in North Wales, operating with consensus based decision making. Learn about the way they operate, and how new groups may learn from their experience.

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Dandelion: Setting up an Intentional Community - Annee Bury & Sally Mareike, Dandelion

Dandelion Community was seeded by a young mother who wanted to give her children a village, a community of people to support and inspire them and to find a new way to live. Four years later, in September 2023, this dream became a reality, when an intergenerational group of like-hearted people, ranging from 1 to 70 years old, bought a beautiful 14 acre farm and moved in together! We are now in our second year of living together.

 

Within this workshop, you’ll be shown the steps taken in setting up Dandelion, including visioning; decision making through Sociocracy; financial considerations; membership recruitment and onboarding.

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Annee and Sally are founding members and residents of Dandelion community.

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Book Launch: Eco-Communities: Living Well Together - Jenny Pickerill, University of Sheffield

Using stories drawn from this new book, we will hear about exciting eco-communities worldwide who are triggering, shaping, and influencing socio-ecological transformations. We will also explore how such communities creatively tackle challenges like gender and racial inequalities, and collective decision-making. This will be followed by a Q&A and an opportunity to win free copies of the book.

 

Jenny Pickerill is an environmental geographer at Sheffield University. Her work explores alternatives to capitalism that generate environmental and social justice. This has included working with experimental eco-communities, social justice campaigns and self-build eco-housing.

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Can Eco-villages Save the World? - Jan Bang, International Communal Studies Association

A look at the historic and current situation of eco-villages in Europe, including an introduction to the work of ICSA. Jan will introduce community in the context of Pythagoras, the Essenes, the Christian monastic tradition, communities from Reformation in Europe, the Industrial Revolution, and communities in North America. Recent community building suggests solutions orientate towards climate change and the multiple political and economic challenges of today. 

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Jan Martin Bang grew up in England and has lived for 25 years in Kibbutz and Camphill communities in Israel and Norway. He has worked with the Global Ecovillage Network since 1995 and has written seven books about community and environment.

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Introduction to the International Communal Studies Association - Jenny Pickerill & Jan Bang

This session is a brief introduction to the International Communal Studies Association (ICSA)
(estab. 1985) which supports the exchange of information on communal life in communes,
intentional communities, ecovillages, and other collective communities throughout the world. We 
share regular newsletters (about international community activities, workshops and meetings), and hold conferences every 3 years. We would love you to join us!

[Bios of Jenny and Jan are above]​

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Ecological Communities - Panel: Ben McCarthy (Canon Frome Court, National Trust) & Alex Toogood (Tinkers Bubble).

A panel exploring how communities can help address the ecological crisis. What can we do within our communities and how can we reach out locally to widen our impact? 

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​Global Forum - Online Panel - Chaired by Ian Hare and Claudia Sanchez

An online panel to bring in global perspectives on intentional community. 

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Keenan Dakota (Twin Oaks, USA)

Founded in Virginia in 1967, Twin Oaks is one of the longest-running egalitarian communities in the world. At Twin Oaks, all work is considered equal—an hour spent cleaning the kitchen is valued the same as an hour spent managing one of the community’s several businesses. Keenan moved to Twin Oaks in 1983 after losing faith in the capitalist system and raised two of his children there. 

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Sabine Lichtenfels (Tamera, Portugal)

Sabine Lichtenfels is a peace researcher, activist, and writer. Starting in 1978, Sabine has been one of the leaders of a community of activists committed to love without fear and a future without war. In 1995, this work led her to become a co-founder of Tamera, an ecovillage based in Portugal that has grown to around 150 residents.

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Polydord Wasokye (Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya)

Polydord is a refugee from the Democratic Republic of Congo who has lived in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwest Kenya since 2015. Kakuma is one of the largest refugee camps in the world, where over 300,000 residents live in a challenging climate with very few resources to meet their needs. At Kakuma, Polydord is the founder of Life Skills for a Better Future (LSBF), an organisation aiming to empower and educate refugees. LSBF runs several projects, including building gardens and classrooms and creative workshops with children and young people.​

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Community Members: Where to Next?

A panel of representatives from different communities exploring how to how to have a successful community and to plan concrete next steps.

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Creative, Playful & Outdoor Sessions

 

Farm Tours (Daily) - Canon Frome Court Residents

Tours of the Canon Frome Court land, looking at their farming systems and infrastructure. Tours will have a different emphasis each day.

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Natural Paint Making - Eleanor Hoad, Wild & Free Forest School

Make paint using foraged and natural materials. Suitable for children.

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Improv Hour - Alice Gale-Feeny, Braziers Park

Through facilitated exercises we will collectively test what it feels like to improvise together around ideas of freedom, constraint and saying ‘yes’ to the moment. Respecting our boundaries whilst cultivating receptivity to others and to the space, we will take a light touch approach to established ideas in improvisation practice to see what emerges when we use our bodies to improvise in the context of the communities conference. The session is influenced by the work of Danielle Goldman, Anne-Cooper Albright and Nancy Stark-Smith. No prior movement or improvisation experience needed. 

 

Alice is a community resident and grants co-ordinator at Braziers Park in South Oxfordshire. She is also an artist and performer who works solo and in collaboration, making performance in art dance and theatre settings. She trained in art, movement and comedy, and was a former Senior Lecturer in art schools where she taught improvisation and performance.

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Future Cities - In Clay - Holly Riddle

What do you want from your city? A lido? A library? A town crier?

This workshop invites participants to imagine the places they want to live in. Beginning with an introductory session on Friday, this interactive clay installation evolves over the weekend as you build on and rearrange each other’s contributions. It’s a chance to explore what we value in our communities and how we envision them thriving.

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Holly Riddle brings over a decade of experience working across education, galleries, and museums as an artist educator and facilitator. Her workshops aim to bring an egalitarian approach to art making and intergenerational collaboration.

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Children's Activities - Families of Canon Frome Court

The kids of Canon Frome are concocting various entertainments! We'll have circus skills, sun-printing, and dream-catcher-making, amongst other things. Specific times for the various activities will be announced each day.

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Chi Gung - Chris Taylor, Canon Frome Court

The ancient Chinese art of moving meditation - for body, mind and spirit. A 20 minute routine you can take away and practice every morning.

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Workshops

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Through the Door of Conflict - Kirstin Heidler, NVC Matters

Anyone who has tried living with other people knows that conflict is a matter of time, not a matter of “if”. Conflict is scary because it means we have reached the edge of what we already know and are called upon to grow. In this sense conflict is a door through which we can pass.

When those involved are willing to engage in open and non-judgemental communication, there is much reason for hope, but quite often conflict goes hand in hand with a breakdown in communication. Finding ways of expressing that are aimed towards connection and authentically conveying what is alive in us can be extremely challenging. How to do this is usually unclear, because we are not taught how to move through conflict productively and how to navigate the different relationships involved. Often outcomes are dissatisfying because they are out of alignment with our values or our vision. Therefore, a big part of productively moving through conflict has to do with finding and allowing grief, trusting that productive action is more likely to come from there than from anger or urgency.

In this workshop we will practice first and foremost being humans, which means grounding and allowing ourselves to feel what is alive. We will practice:
Grounding through breath and external senses
Moving through emotional responses within our bodies
Expressing yourself and getting clear on the what and how
Listening to understand and connect
Transforming judgements (of others and ourselves)

We will be making use of breathing, meditation, journaling and small group exercises to make the workshop experiential and fitting to your needs.

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Reconnecting Humanity - Karl Lam & Alima Adams, Parsonage Farm​

This workshop looks at why, despite our best intentions, our communities and organisations often end up recreating many of the social problems we are trying to overcome. This 3-hour interactive session includes space for personal sharing, and offers practical tools to help mend broken relationships and build resilience and trust.

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Karl and Alima live in an intentional community. They have been looking at why progressive organisations and social movements often struggle with internal divisions, and how to address those difficulties. They have run this workshop over 200 times, with 2,400 people attending from 47 countries.

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Using Privilege Constructively - Jenny Pickerill, University of Sheffield 

This workshop will use somatic techniques to reflect on how privilege in communities is often hidden. We will explore, through our own intersectionality, how to talk about our privilege, and reflect on ways to use privilege more constructively collectively. All welcome, especially those who identify as white and/or middle class.

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Jenny Pickerill is an environmental geographer at Sheffield University. Her work explores alternatives to capitalism that generate environmental and social justice. This has included
working with experimental eco-communities, social justice campaigns and self-build eco- housing.

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Consensus: Where to Next? - Dave Hodgson, Old Hall Community

A one hour workshop that will examine consensus decision making used by intentional communities. Has the process worked for your community? Has it changed over the years and if so, how? Are there ways to refine it going forward?

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This ‘skill exchange’ workshop aims to benefit existing community members and prospective members alike. This will be a brief presentation followed by small group discussions, feedback and conclusion driven by the participants and facilitated by David Hodgson from Old Hall Community. Old Hall has been using consensus for over fifty years. David's experiential knowledge spans forty years.

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Bridging Generations in Community Living - Savannah Fishel

Join Savannah Fishel for a participatory session exploring how communities can build stronger connections across generations. Through conversation cards, stories from intergenerational housing projects, and a creative group activity, we’ll reflect on what makes communities age-inclusive — and what’s lost when generations are siloed. Expect some insights from abroad and conversation you might not have expected.

 

Visiting Australia and the US on a UK-funded Fellowship, Savannah Fishel has visited 54 models of community-oriented housing, such as ecovillages, tiny home villages, and cohousing. Her blog, thinkitforward.net, explores how we can live together more collaboratively, compassionately, and sustainably. She is interested in the power of intergenerational initiatives to tackle loneliness, bridge divides, and provide an alternative to an increasingly individualistic society. Feel free to connect with her at savfishel1@gmail.com

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Responding to Fascism - Cliff Jordan, Braziers Park

"What are we doing in response to the rise of Fascism?" - A conversation & sharing circle.

Trump, Musk, the Republican Party and millions of supporters are concentrating more power in the hands of the mega-affluent, Corporations, and the Executive branch of the US State. Similar shifts towards authoritarianism are happening across Europe and further afield.  Are some of us looking the other way, wringing our hands or waiting until it is too late?  A circle to share our personal responses and find support.

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Evening Entertainment

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We will be running a bar in the evenings

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Acapella Disco - Angie

Air guitars, operatic theatrics, and bad dancing are encouraged!

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Open Jam Session / Open Mic 

Bring your instruments and join in!

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Ceilidh - Let Them Eat Kale - Birchwood Hall Band

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DJ Set - Stu & Canon Frome Court Folks

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