Community Living Program Mission
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We co-create a home to grow, celebrate, and connect with
each other, ourselves, the earth, magic and mystery.
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Community Living Program Principal Values
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Commitment to personal growth and healing
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A willingness to work through conflicts when they arise
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Commitment to sustainable living practices
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Active engagement and learning from program offerings
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Connecting Across Differences
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Service to the community and the world
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Community Living Program
Intentional Community Living
Our program offers the opportunity for young adults and adults to learn, firsthand, community living skills such as Non-Violent Communication, cooperative decision-making, conflict resolution skills, Holocratic management, responsibility sharing of chores and projects, and more. We hold monthly meetings to discuss community matters and make decisions. Our founders have a combined experience of decades of deep study and lived experience from intentional communities around the country. We have gathered this basket of seeds to share. We hope when participants are ready to leave the program they have the skills and knowledge to create or powerfully contribute to a communal living situation in their next home.
Personal Healing
The ReTribe Community enjoys engaging in transformational practices to support our continued growth. We seek to find health through daily practices that support our body, mind and spirit such as outdoor recreation, healthy diet, meditation, creative art forms, etc. We also work with cathartic healing modalities like breathwork that help us really feel and process things under the surface. We share together in circle and integrate the teaching coming up in our lives. Program participants are offered the opportunity to participate in ReTribe workshops and retreats that are open to the wider community. We have a once a month meeting to offer support and guidance in personal growth and healing as well as space for community connection. Additionally, community members enjoy holding space for practices they find benefit from like Ecstatic dance, Hatha Yoga, group singing, and cold plunging to name a few. Your offerings are welcome!
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Sustainable Living
We do our best to have a positive relationship with the land. We have large gardens and perennial plantings of fruits, nuts, berries and herbs. There is space for community members to experiment and learn as they grow their own gardens and work with the land. There are also opportunities to learn permaculture and garden principles as you connect with projects such as mushroom log inoculation, tree plantings and tending, biochar creation, and more. Our sustainable living ethics extend to all the ways we live our lives. We try to be aware of the things we consume and the impacts that has on the world and to live in a way that creates a healthy happy planet for future generations.
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Personal Creations
We encourage participants to take time to work on personal projects, such as writing, woodworking and crafting, academic study, etc. The quiet but supportive atmosphere of ReTribe Community is the perfect place to focus on your own creations. There is a library full of books, a greenhouse and tools, and an art studio full of supplies to support your endeavors. There is also a great community of people living on the land and nearby who are happy to mentor participants in their studies.
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Cooking
We love to share food in our large commercial kitchen. We share values of healthy, organic, and local ingredients with produce from our gardens and local farms. Every Wednesday night we rotate cook crews to prepare a meal for the whole community. We come together frequently for potlucks and share meals on holidays, birthdays, and just for fun! Past CLP participants built an outdoor kitchen that can be used in the warmer months, and we hope to enhance it with a cob oven soon.
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Outdoor Recreation
Our 80 acres of land, with a pond and stream, is the perfect place to enjoy the natural world. Right out our door are miles and miles of skiing, hiking and biking trails right here on the base of Mt Mansfield. Access to the Long Trail and other public trails is 1 mile up the road. Our land offers beautiful swimming holes and our swimming pond. There are also opportunities to learn wilderness skills such as tracking, basket-making, and friction fire-making.
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Spirituality
Connection to the magic and mystery of creation is something we work to cultivate and celebrate in our lives. We hold fires to connect with the phases of the moon and sun and give thanks to the land. We love to sing together and make music. The teachings of the eight limbs of Ashtanga Yoga have guided us and helped us create our systems. We welcome all different faiths and paths. Anyone in the community is welcome to bring the practices they find beneficial and lead activities such as meditation, ceremony, asana practice, Shabbat dinner, and more.
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Connection
Connect with other like-minded adults and feel the sense of belonging and love that comes with living in community. We gather frequently to share food, have movie nights with our big projector, drum and sing by the campfire, celebrate birthdays and holidays together, and enjoy the beautiful land. We have weekly saunas on Sundays, where we often share gratitude and songs. We also have regular activities led by community members - crafting nights, game nights, music nights, skill shares, and more. Some CLP Participants are staff at Retribe's youth and teen programs. If other participants are interested there are many opportunities to visit or volunteer at programs.
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Mentorship
ReTribe has educational programs running throughout the year that participants are encouraged to engage with. Much of our work is focused on mentoring people through nature connection, imaginative play, community building, and healthy life-ways. The younger generation are the future caretakers of the earth and we work to support their foundations of connection and compassion. There are many opportunities for community members to learn about our work by directly engaging with it. Our style of mentorship is easily a career and something the world needs. It's a great opportunity for people to learn while they are living with us. Our design is to create systems like plants that are regenerative and self-replicating.
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Service
Each program participant is asked to take time each week to contribute to the cleanliness and orderliness of our home. Additionally, we ask each program participant to do 4 hours of service per month by taking on responsibilities and roles that we agree to fulfill (ex. getting the mail, building and repairing things, tending the land and gardens). When we meet our basic needs of good food, shelter, connection, belonging, and learning, our higher-level needs, such as the need for contribution, become salient. ReTribe offers a vibrant channel to give your gifts to others in service and help uplift our world.
Program Commitments
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Community Meeting: One Sunday per month 10am-12pm.
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Emotional Processing/Personal Growth Meeting: One Sunday per month 10am-11am.
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4 hours per month of Service work to the community (ex: helping with building projects, hosting events, lighting the sauna)
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​Approximately 2 hours per week of cleaning/chores (ex: Sweeping the floors, cleaning the sinks)
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Work Parties/Community Open House days: October/June from 1-5pm.
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Monthly program fees ranging from $500 to $1200 per month depending on the size of the room
Many people here work off the property and are still able to fully engage with the community. Some program participants work at ReTribe's educational programs or with the maintenance of the buildings and land. Currently, there is a seasonal, full-time position open for a buildings and land caretaker. If you are interested in work opportunities with ReTribe, send your resume to ReTribeTransformation@gmail.com
We are all on a continual path of healing, breaking apart, and building back. Harmonious community living is a co-creative process where each member balances supporting the growth of others and the community as a whole with their individual transformation. Thus, the CLP is looking for new members who are assured enough in their path to live in a shifting equilibrium between giving and receiving in realms as far-reaching as self-love, food sharing, listening, cleaning, play, or supporting ecology. If you are in need of acute community healing, the Shift Happens retreat and Breathwork workshops may be better suited to your needs than the CLP.
This program has rolling admissions, depending on room availability, and requires an interview process after applying.
We're eager to read your application - please fill one out below.
One of the marvelous things about community is that it enables us to welcome and help people in a way we couldn't as individuals. When we pool our strength and share the work and responsibility, we can welcome many people, even those in deep distress, and perhaps help them find self-confidence and inner healing.
The Barn
The Common House
This 6,908 sq ft barn is set up with a large dining hall, commercial kitchen and bathrooms. ReTribe Community Living participants have their own cupboards and fridge space, but will use the stove, etc. in the commercial kitchen. The top floor of the barn houses community program participants as well as our craft room, library, and Air Bnb.
The Common House has 11 rooms. The rooms are spacious with closet space. Each floor (with 5/6 rooms) has a communal bathroom with 2 toilets, 2 showers, and 3 sinks. The lounge and porch provide a cozy hangout space to connect with your friends.
A sample of the cozy rooms in the common house
Hey there lovely ReTribe people!
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I love getting your email newsletters, I have such fond memories of the winter I spent with you all. Your sacred land lives in my heart. Many blessings for the continued unfoldment of your amazing endeavor!
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Warmly,
Patrice
The Playfield
Play big field games, volleyball, or basketball on the courts.
The Pond
The pond flows into Stevensville Creek and is great for swimming!
The Pond
Stevensville Creek offers many peaceful spots to rest and listen to the bubbling water
Connect • Learn • Heal • Serve • Celebrate
