Fellowship for Intentional Community
The Fellowship for Intentional Community (FIC) provides publications, referrals, support services, and "sharing opportunities" for a wide range of intentional communities, cohousing groups, ecovillages, community networks, support organizations, and people seeking a home in community.[1][2] The FIC is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization in the United States. [3]
Activities
The FIC publishes Communities magazine, the Communities Directory,[1] Journal of Cooperative Living, FIC Newsletter and the Intentional Communities web site.[4] It also sponsors and presents periodic Community gatherings, including annual gatherings at Twin Oaks and Art of Community events in various locations around the US.[4]
Organizational history
The history of FIC began in 1937 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which still has one of the largest concentration of intentional communities per capita.[2] The group/network of 19 student-run houses in Ann Arbor had formed The International Cooperative Council (ICC), a forerunner of FIC.[2]
The Fellowship for Intentional Communities was founded as Inter-Community Exchange in 1940 by Arthur E. Morgan (1878–1976) for communication and exchange of goods between intentional communities.[5] During World War II, some of these communities served as refuge for pacifists.[5]
Alongside the aforementioned co-sponsorship with Twin Oaks Community, Virginia, some of the members of the "Inter-Community Exchange" were Hidden Springs in New Jersey; Tangy Homesteads in Philadelphia; Tuolumne Co-operative Farms near Modesto, California; Skyview Acres at Pomona, New York; Parisfield near Brighton, Michigan; Kingwood in New Jersey; Quest near Royal Ark, Michigan; Canterbury outside Concord, New Hampshire; May Valley near Seattle; The Valley near Yellow Springs, Ohio; St. Francis Acres/Glen Gardener in New Jersey; Koinonia Partners near Americus, Georgia; and the Bruderhof (Society of Brothers).[5]
In 1952, FIC created the Homer Morris Loan Fund — which has subsequently provided over $200,000 in small loans to intentional community businesses and associated enterprises. When the FIC's activities decreased in the 1960s, the loan fund continued separately as the non-profit Community Educational Service Council, Inc. (CESCI), and the FIC held annual gatherings of communitarians in conjunction with CESCI's board meetings.[citation needed]
In 1954, FIC began holding annual conferences at Yellow Springs, Ohio and Pendle Hill, Pennsylvania.[6]
Then "Inter-Community Exchange" gradually weakened and was dissolved in 1961; a major reason for this was withdrawal of the Bruderhof (largest and most prosperous member).[5]
It was revived under the its current name "Fellowship for Intentional Community"[5] and incorporated as non-profit organization[7] in 1986.
In the mid 1980s, inspired by the earlier FIC and other regional community networks, a number of community activists sensed that the time was ripe to organize a continental communities network. The FIC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable educational organization. Participation has been expanded to include most of North America — the Fellowship now includes a wide range of individuals, well over a hundred intentional communities, and various support organizations.[8]
Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sreenivasan 2008, p. 144.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Gurvis 2006, p. 107.
- ↑ 501(c)(3) status
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Morris 2009, p. 101.
- ↑ Veysey 1978, p. 39.
- ↑ Hahnel 2005, p. 366.
- ↑ http://www.ic.org
See also
References
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- Fellowship for Intentional Community. 2005. Communities Directory. 4th Edition. Rutledge, Missouri, USA. ISBN 0-9718264-2-0
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