About the Project
Ahimsa Community began as an attempt to form a vegan ecovillage centered around our commitments to sustainability, animal rights, and social justice. It has evolved to become a decentralized community of people using meetings and the web to share information, ideas, and resources. We run a discussion list and newsletter, and collaborate on community organizing and creative projects together.
Future projects could include:
- An ecovillage, housing coop, or other form of intentional community
- A retreat center or activist summer camp (for grown-up activists!)
- A waste veggie-oil processing collective
- A cooperative company creating sustainable vegan toys, games, or books
- A veganic permaculture CSA or you-pick farm
- A local events space
Current projects will be listed here soon! If you are part of the Ahimsa discussion list and have projects that are environmentally sustainable and organized with respect to animal (including human) rights and social justice, and would like your project listed here, please email Ari with details.
Ahimsa is the Sanskrit word for nonviolence, and it is tied closely to veganism. Practicing ahimsa means striving to do the most good and the least harm. It means being compassionate towards all animals, including other humans and, of course, ourselves. And it means protecting and nurturing the earth - there's only one, and we all have to share it.
Project Timeline
- Ongoing Research and self-education, skill-sharing, online organizing and outreach, meetups, potlucks
- June 18, 2009 Founders group rejoins discussion list, with a renewed focus on community organizing; we have 52 members
- May 8, 2009 First meeting of the Housing Magic Committee, at ABC Cafe in Ithaca
- May 3, 2009 Our fourth founders meeting, at Shira and Ari's place in Ithaca
- March 22, 2009 Our third founders meeting, at Frank's place in Lansing
- March 20, 2009 New process for joining founders group is instated
- February 22, 2009 Our second founders meeting, at Shira and Ari's place in Ithaca; decision log is started
- February 7, 2009 Our first founders meeting, at Shira and Ari's place in Ithaca
- January 29, 2009 Core group meets online to discuss our reading and schedule a first founders' meeting
- December 22, 2008 Our core group settles at 7 people (full contact list is at 42+ people) and agrees to read Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities so we'll have a common frame of reference
- December 4, 2008 We begin forming a core group; a total of 33 people, some of them representing couples, groups and families, are subscribed to our contact lists
- September 20, 2008 A presentation and discussion of the project at Club Veg Southern Tier's Smart Monkey Ithaca restaurant outing, with the Ithaca Area Vegan Meetup Group
- August 31, 2008 Shira and Ari move to Ithaca to begin research, organizing, and local outreach
- May 31, 2008 We attend a cohousing workshop at Ecovillage at Ithaca
- May 12, 2008 Discussion list starts; this webpage goes up
- April 10, 2008 The project is mentioned in Forbes magazine, of all places
- March 1, 2008 Shira and Ari post a listing in the Intentional Communities Directory
Get Involved
Join our discussion list to meet us and our supporters and friends. Anyone who's interested in veganism, sustainability, and intentional community is welcome to join! You'll meet folks from other intentional communities and sustainability projects, and you can even promote your own projects. The discussion list has people on it from all over the place who are interested in these issues, so it's a good place for us all to share ideas and find ways to collaborate.
Get Updates
Sign up for our low-traffic newsletter and we'll send you periodic updates so you can stay in the loop.
Contact
Join the discussion list to reach us, and our friends and partners, all at once!
If you're a member of the press or someone else with a general inquiry who doesn't want to join the discussion list, please email Ari.
